RCR forms technical alliance with Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing – Nascar

RELATED: See the changes for the 2016

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ty Dillon is set to expand his Sprint Cup Series horizons, signing on to the newly-merged Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing team in 2016 for an undetermined number of races.

Richard Childress Racing, owned by Dillon’s grandfather and organizational namesake, and Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing have agreed to form a technical alliance in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, beginning with the 2016 season with drivers Dillon and Michael McDowell.

The partnership includes technology sharing, engineering, research and development provided to Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing as they switch its No. 95 Sprint Cup Series cars to Chevrolet beginning with the 2016 season. Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing will also benefit from utilizing ECR Engines.

Dillon will run select races, including the Daytona 500, for Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing in 2016, while McDowell will be the primary driver for the team.

“This is a big step for our competition program,” said McDowell in a team release. “The technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing is a huge asset to our growing team and we’ll have access to some of the top equipment in the Cup Series. This type of alliance has worked really well for single-car teams such as JTG-Daugherty Racing and Germain Racing in the past and I’m excited about what we’re going to be able to do in 2016.”

For Dillon, a favorite to win his first XFINITY Series championship behind the wheel of RCR’s No. 3 entry, it’s a chance to expand on a brief Cup slate in 2015 in which he picked up a better finish than his starting position in each of his five appearances.

At the very least, it’s a chance to expand his overall racing knowledge as he looks to lock up a title he nearly had last year with an eye on a full-time Cup ride in 2017.

“Every time I get an opportunity to run the Cup Series, I use it to add notes to my notebook for hopefully a full season to come,” Dillon said Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. “I can’t thank the Leavine family and Joe Falk and Circle Sport enough for giving me the opportunity to run some races in the Cup Series this year. I want to do the best I can with them. I want to go out there and take this team and show people what we’re made of … run with it and get some really good finishes. I know I can do it at this level and I’m ready to show people.”

All of Dillon’s seven Cup starts (he made two in 2014) have come with Circle Sport, behind the wheel of the No. 33, so familiarity certainly won’t be an issue. Sharing a ride with a fellow driver, however, may be a different story.

Luckily the 23-year-old knows the value in the extra feedback that McDowell can give and thinks it can be beneficial to his overall driving ability.

“Michael is a great, accomplished racer and he’s been running in the Cup Series for a while now,” Dillon said. “He’s a really, extremely good road racer so hopefully I can lean on him for that a little bit and just grow a relationship that I have with him.”

According to the team, McDowell is expected to run at least 26 of the season’s 36 races, with Dillon’s slate expected to be anywhere from six to 16. Both drivers will be in certain races, starting with the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 21, 1 p.m. ET, FOX).