With the departure at the end of the season of Jack Daniels, sponsor of Childress' #07 Chevrolet - driven by Casey Mears.

Childress is trying to fill the void. At stake is his ability to field four cars in 2010.

“Right now we're meeting with companies,” Childress said. “We've had several meetings. As you know, the economic times are tough right now for sponsorship, but we do have interest in it. We're wanting to run it. We can't turn it into a (start-and-park). I don't want to do that.

“We've got some sponsorship for a few races next year, but to be competitive, that isn't the way to do it. We're kind of weighing our options to see what we want to do. Casey has really shown a lot of improvement these last several races. He's run up front, in the top ten, and had some good runs with it.

“I would like to have seen him in our cars a year ago, when we had our cars really going. We don't know what happened yet. All of a sudden, we fell off the wagon, but we'll get back on it, I promise you.”

With the addition of Mears in 2009, Childress expanded from three cars to four.

In each of the previous two seasons, all three of his drivers — Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer — qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. This season, no RCR driver made the cut.

by Reid Spencer/Sporting News