NASCAR's Hendrick, Richard Childress team up for Chevrolet engine R&D
Teams have won a combined 39 NASCAR championships with Chevrolet
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing will combine to establish one common Chevrolet engine specification.
Chase Elliott will continue to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. (David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Chevrolet is the only original engine manufacturer in NASCAR with two organizations building and supplying powertrains. Both Ford and Toyota have streamlined engine building to one supplier.
But Hendrick and Childress have noted engine programs that neither wanted to relinquish. After the 2020 season, the two organizations will share research and development.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“While our two championship-winning organizations will collaborate on research and development, our respective engine shop operations will continue to function independently as they currently do,” the organizations said in a joint statement Thursday.
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“We look forward to working together to fully leverage the knowledge and intellectual property of our two successful programs to advance Chevrolet’s engine for NASCAR.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Engines produced by Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, under its ECR Engines banner, have won a combined 39 NASCAR national series championships. The teams have won a combined 369 Cup races in Chevrolet race cars.