Chandler Smith and Carson Brown’s RCR tandem a long time coming

The Chandler Smith and Carson Brown tandem in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series at Richard Childress Racing was three years in the making.

Danny Lawrence, who oversees division operations for RCR, says the recruitment of Brown has been something he and Chief Operating Officer Mike Dillon have contemplated for quite a long time.

Advertisement

“This is going to surprise you,” Lawrence told Motorsport.com, “but Mike called me one day and said ‘there’s a kid in my neighborhood that’s in Late Models, and he’s racing everything, and he’s pretty good.’ That’s where this whole thing started.

“Mike met Brad, his father, and they got to be friends. We had them come out to the shop and they were just a really impressive family.”

Put a pin in that thought for a moment.

Advertisement

At the same time, Smith had just left Childress-affiliated Kaulig Racing and was finalizing an agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing when RCR inquired about his availability. Obviously, the tragic death of Kyle Busch may have accelerated Austin Hill moving up in 2027 but Smith was going to return to Welcome eventually.

Chandler Smith, Front Row Motorsports Ford

“A lot of people don’t know this but RCR reached out to me to drive the 2 car in 2024,” Smith told Motorsport.com. “It was one of those deals like, ‘man, I do not want to turn this down’ but at the same time, I was so far down the road with Toyota and JGR, that even though it was a better deal on paper, multi-year contract with all the sponsorship, it just wouldn’t have felt right to change everything last second.”

Advertisement

Richard Childress Racing was set with Hill and Jesse Love over the next three years but the two sides stayed in touch and there was a degree of inevitability once Hill retained the No. 33 for next season.

To that point, Lawrence said RCR has several drivers that are on their list for future seasons should anything necessitate another quick pivot like what happened this summer.

For Brown specifically, RCR has long been impressed by the rare combination of maturity, race craft, professionalism and work ethic. It’s one thing to win races across multiple disciplines, but it’s another for Brown to have done it while driving himself around the country in a motorhome and maintaining his own schedule.

Advertisement

Read Also:

Introducing Carson Brown, NASCAR’s next top prospect

As detailed in a previous Motorsport.com feature, everyone who has worked with Brown has sung his praises — which is why Richard Childress Racing signed him to a development deal in the first place.

If they didn’t, someone else would.

“We started this program model with Tyler Reddick and Randall Burnett in 2019 and they won the championship and moved up to Cup together,” Lawrence said. “Andy Street started in our O’Reilly Series program. It’s more than about winning races and championships. It’s about building our foundation and future.”

Advertisement

It wasn’t a fait accompli that Brown would drive either the No. 2 or the No. 21 next season, but RCR was committed to having him in the second-tier division to accelerate that development as soon as he turned 18. Pairing him with Smith’s experience and pedigree was impossible to resist.

“Anytime that we have someone that we thought was really, really good, and didn’t have a seat, we would work with our alliance partners and spread the love out a bit,” Lawrence said. “It just so happened that Jesse was ready to go and Austin, unfortunately, he was going to take over for Kyle, and there you have it.

“But we would like to pair a younger talented driver with someone that has experience and it made all the sense in the world to put Chandler and Carson together.”

Advertisement

And they have immediately bonded when they visited Welcome for a photo shoot and announcement responsibilities.

“It was funny because when we met, Chandler told me ‘I have always been the young buck’ and I view him like the veteran,” Brown said. “But that means he can relate to where I’m at in my career and I think we are going to work really well together. It was nice meeting him.

“We speak the same lingo and I’m excited to build on that.”

Advertisement

Austin Hill, No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet; Carson Kvapil, No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet

Smith and Brown both came up in the same Super Late Model circles. Smith primarily raced for Wilson Motorsports and Brown has raced for Anthony Campi Racing. These two teams are the 1a and 1b in that discipline right now.

So in many ways, these are identical upbringings.

“I’ve talked to people that have raced with him, and started to watch him race once I knew we would be teammates, and he just seems like a really good kid, honestly,” Smith said. “He does. He’s just a good guy.

Advertisement

“But teammates are so critical at this level, especially for restrictor plate racing, and then team meetings and pulling in the same direction. I’ve really tried to be a good teammate with Layne (Riggs) because he never had a teammate before until me and I just recognize how poorly a season can go when you and your teammates aren’t on the same page.

“I don’t get the impression that he’s going to be hard to convince about how that works and how we need to work together.”

For Smith, he’s viewing this as an immediate championship-level opportunity. For Brown, it’s wait and see as he continues to learn a discipline in which he’s only made a single start at New Hampshire.

Advertisement

“I’m going in there with my eyes closed and not knowing fully what to expect,” Brown said. “I just want to learn this new challenge. I want to learn the aerodynamics, how the tracks change and all the little things I need to do to develop and learn. But I have all the resources I need. I just need to go out there and execute my job.”

For those same reasons, Smith intends to pursue a championship.

“That’s the main reason we’re all here,” Smith said. “I think that’s one of the reasons they believed in me going back to my time at Kaulig. What I did for them and in the Cup cars, it got Richard’s attention, and I have always worked really well with Danny Lawrence.

Advertisement

“They have always treated me really well, open notebook, and I know what it would be like to drive for them, even when I wasn’t driving for them. We have all the resources to go out there and do exactly that if it’s in the Lord’s will.”

Watch: Race Rewind: Preece wins his way into The Chase at Daytona

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.