Even before this season, Furniture Row Racing had a close relationship with Richard Childress Racing. After all, Furniture Row gets its engines and chassis from RCR.
The partnership was strengthened recently when Mark McArdle, managing director of competition at Furniture Row, took on a dual role as director of racing operations at RCR. With Furniture Row based in Denver, Colo., and RCR in Welcome, N.C., McArdle has a long commute.
The new opportunity for McArdle resulted from a standing offer by Furniture Row owner Barney Visser and general manager Joe Garone and hit critical mass when RCR hired Eric Warren as director of competition late in 2012. McArdle and Warren worked together at Evernham Motorsports.
“Joe and Barney offered up my services to RCR if they could use me in any way to help that situation that they have there,” McArdle told the NASCAR Wire Service. “Eric Warren and I had worked together for eight years at Evernham’s. When he heard about that offer, he took us up on it and has asked me to operate as director of racing operations.
“The Cup teams, the Nationwide teams and the truck teams all report up through me. I report to Eric.”
With three Cup teams at RCR and one at Furniture Row, McArdle is spending more time in North Carolina as the organizations develop the Gen-6 car.
“Right now, because of the intensity of the changeover process at RCR, we’re doing kind of a two thirds/one third,” McArdle said. “Two thirds of any given calendar month is being spent here in North Carolina, and about one third in Denver at this point.
“We hope that, as things become more stabilized and settled, that that will become more 50-50. Eventually the hope is to be able to train someone at RCR to step into that role.”
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