Tommy Baldwin Confesses He Had “Zero Idea” About RWR Chevy Switch Despite Being Competition Director

Ex-NASCAR team owner Tommy Baldwin has shared his thoughts on RWR’s sudden switch to Chevy with a new RCR affiliation.

Tommy Baldwin Confesses He Had “Zero Idea” About RWR Chevy Switch Despite Being Competition Director

Tommy Baldwin (via nascar.com)

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Rick Ware Racing one of the most significant moves of the off-season, while the whole NASCAR community was focused on the charter lawsuit. They announced a move from the Ford garage to Chevy’s for the 2026 season. This also mark the end of the partnership with RFK Racing, as they start a new journey with Richard Childress Racing.

The decision took everyone by shock, including the Tommy Baldwin Jr., the Competition Director RWR. In his latest appearance in the Door Bumper Clear podcast the former Cup series race team owner revealed that he was in Pennsylvania, on the way to Pensacola when RWR president called him and broke the news a day before the announcement was made.

I had no idea. Zero idea. I woke up at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and I said, ‘hell with it,’ I was gonna drive to Pensacola. I said, ‘To hell with it, I’m gonna get in my dually and I’m gonna drive to Long Island instead… and then I’ll fly to Pensacola.’ So, I get up, 3 a.m., I get in the dually, I’m driving, I’m in Pennsylvania and the president of Rick Ware Racing calls me. That’s when I found out, last Wednesday.

Tommy Baldwin said via Door Bumper Clear podcast.

He had to fast track his Long Island plans, as he quickly flew back to the team’s race shop at Charlotte to get the details of the deal done. The veteran had to reorganize the team, in compliance with the needs of their new partner RCR and ECR. It’s a move that might help the team to produce a better performance than the P36 they finished at in the championship table, with Cody Ware driving the No:51 car.

Everybody knew the next day. I got to Long Island, worked in the shop about 7, 8 o’clock. Went to the hotel, went to bed, got back up early, flew back to Charlotte and started the process with RCR and ECR.

Tommy Baldwin added.

Tommy Baldwin has been burning the midnight oil since the announcement

Since the announcement was made, the RWR crew has been working extra hard to make the transition smoother. They were aggressive with the plans for the switch and admitted that it’s a massive reset for everyone involved when teams switch alliances.  

Tommy Baldwin
Tommy Baldwin (Credits: @TBR-Racing/Twitter)

I know all about it now. It’s been pretty nonstop since I found out. We went and met with everybody, and then I formulated a plan. We attacked the plan the last two days. All of our parts and pieces are up at RCR right now going through all the process of what needs to be done. Everything gets started over when you switch alliances.

Tommy Baldwin said.

Rick Ware Racing engineers and crew chiefs has been having multiple meetings with their RCR counterparts to finish switch. They are waiting for some body parts of the cars to come in, to start the development of the 2025 challenger.

Everything has to get remeasured — checks put into their simulation, all the parts and pieces, so we’ve dropped of all our parts, and the process is being started tomorrow. Got the crew chief with all the engineers and all the other crew chiefs, all the daily meetings are set up for what happens at this point forward. Just waiting on some body parts and get the process started.

Tommy Baldwin added.

The comments from the prominent racing figure reveals RWR has big hopes regrading the future of the team and how the new alliance will help them get back to being competitive again. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the team in 2026 with the OEM change.

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