Race Weekend Central

Gil Martin Released by Richard Childress Racing

Gil Martin, the XFINITY Series manager for Richard Childress Racing, was released by the team on Tuesday.

Martin had been with RCR since 2001 and spent most of that time as a crew chief before advancing up the ranks.

The Tennessee native won 16 times in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, including the first career wins for Robby Gordon and Clint Bowyer. Thirteen of Martin’s wins came with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel and his highest finish in the MENCS standings as a crew chief was third, which occurred three times (twice with Harvick, once with Bowyer).

Martin sporadically served as a crew chief for RCR’s XFINITY Series program, with his lone full season coming in 2005, with Bowyer winning two races and finishing second in the points standings.

RCR’s XFINITY Series program has yet to win so far in 2017 and only one of the three full time drivers would make the playoffs if the season ended now. Rookie Daniel Hemric sits seventh in points, while Brendan Gaughan and Brandon Jones are outside the top 12 in the standings.

The No. 2 team driven by Austin Dillon and Paul Menard is the only one of the team’s five entries to have multiple top-five finishes in 2017.

Technical Director Michael Coughlan, who had been with the team since November 2013, was also released from RCR.

About the author

Michael Massie is a writer for Frontstretch. Massie, a Richmond, Va. native, has been a NASCAR superfan since childhood, when he frequented races at Richmond International Raceway. Massie is a lover of short track racing and travels around to the ones in his region. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies.

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russ

Michael Coughlan, a most familiar name. Famous or maybe infamous, for his role in “spygate ” while he was with McLaren.

ddsbstrb

I think he might have been at “Racertainment” over on Chartwell Drive, former home of POS-Racing/Motormouth Motorsports (MWR).

I don’t think he lasted too long over there, until, he either moved back to McLaren or to another NASCAR operation. He might have been there before the Rob Kaufman-money dropped by to save the operation for a few years and until NAPA bailed out.

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