Richard Childress Racing adds driver

Casey Mears will be in the Richard Childress Racing family next year and Clint Bowyer will have a new car.
Mears will be driving the No. 07 Chevrolet for RCR, the car Bowyer currently drives. Bowyer will move into the No. 33 car for the team.
"We're always looking for ways to improve RCR and feel strongly that this driver lineup will improve our company as a whole with our move to four teams next year," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of RCR. "These changes will continue to raise the bar and we have every intention of getting all four teams into the Chase in 2009 with the ultimate goal of one of our teams winning the championship. RCR is very fortunate to have partners like Jack Daniels, Shell-Pennzoil and AT&T, in addition to new sponsors Cheerios, Hamburger Helper and Caterpillar, that work with us and support our making the competition decisions necessary to provide them with the best on-track performance possible."
The No. 07 team will still be backed by Jack Daniels. The No. 33 car will have Cheerios and Hamburger Helper on as its primary sponsors.
Mears, the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears, is racing the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He won the Coca-Cola 600 for Hendrick in 2007 and has been racing at the Cup level for seven years.
"This is a great opportunity and I'm honored to become part of both the Jack Daniel's family and the RCR family," said Mears. "Richard Childress and everyone at Jack Daniel's have put a lot of faith in me to continue the winning tradition that's been established by the No. 07 Jack Daniels team over the last couple of years and I look forward to the chance to live up to those expectations."
Bowyer is leading the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings and has two Cup wins in his career with RCR.
"I'm proud to be joining the General Mills family," said Bowyer. "Cheerios and Hamburger Helper are brands my family and I grew up with. General Mills is a great sponsor and has been in NASCAR for many years. I look forward to driving the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet Impala SS to victory lane.
"At the same time, I have to thank Jack Daniels for taking a chance on a rookie Cup Series driver and giving my career a great platform to build on. My focus now is to get into the Chase and again compete for the championship."
The Sporting News is reporting that Mears has signed a three-year deal with RCR. Since he is driving the No. 07 car, he will inherit the owners points for the car next season. That means Mears is guaranteed a starting spot in the first five races of the year next season if Bowyer put the No. 07 car in the top 35 in owners points, which is all but certain.
Bowyer gets put in the difficult position of racing for a new team, and not having a guaranteed starting spot in races. He will have to race his way into the first five races of the year and have his car in the top 35 in the owners standings before the sixth race.
Given Bowyer's track record over the past two years in Cup, that shouldn't be a problem. Still, he'll be racing without a safety net to start the season.