Richard Childress Racing has made additional moves in hopes of bolstering its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series program.

Andy Petree has been named the vice president of competition, a full-time role. Petree had previously been announced as joining the organization in an advisory role. The championship-winning crew chief has a storied history with RCR, dating back to his days working with Dale Earnhardt in the early 1990s.

Additionally, Dr. Eric Warren, who has been in a competition leadership position at RCR since 2012, is now the chief technology officer. He will oversee the organization’s engineering department and new technology strategy. Warren will report to Petree. Both moves are effective immediately.

“These organization moves will strengthen our competition department tremendously,” said team owner Richard Childress “We felt that Andy did an excellent job in the past month during his review of our competition area. Bringing him on as a vice president of competition is a valuable addition to our leadership team.

“I’ve known Andy for a long time and we’re thrilled to have him work alongside our team, including Eric in his new role as chief technology officer. This move will allow Eric to use his years of experience and many technical talents to focus on engineering and the application of emerging technologies.”

RCR qualified two cars for the NASCAR Playoffs in 2017 with Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon. Newman’s victory at Phoenix in March broke a four-year winless drought for the team. Dillon followed it up with a win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his first in the Cup Series.

Neither driver advanced out of the Round of 16 and RCR has not finished in the top five in points since 2014 with Newman. Dale Earnhardt’s seventh championship in 1994 was the last time RCR won NASCAR’s premier series championship.