Teams must step up as NASCAR heads east

NASCAR returns to its Dixie roots with a four-race swing through Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and Charlotte. For the next month, the tour is close to home for the majority of Sprint Cup organizations. This stretch provides the perfect opportunity for teams to revamp programs that have revealed weaknesses after the first eight races of the season. With only 18 races before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins, time is running out for postseason prospects to retool their squads for the 10-race championship run. Saturday night at Phoenix, Jeff Gordon's pit road mishap and subsequent penalty knocked the No. 24 out of contention. The point leader's 25th-place finish went a long way in equalizing the point standings. After Texas, the 10th-place driver was 303 points out of first. Now, Greg Biffle, the 14th-place driver in the standings is 312 points behind Gordon. Certainly, the top five drivers — Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin — would appear to be locked into the Chase. But there's a distinct difference between the teams that simply qualify for the postseason and the true contenders for the Cup. With at least three cars (Nos. 24, 48 and sister-organization Stewart-Haas Racing's No. 14) locked into the top 12, and the potential for a fourth team if Mark Martin continues this hot streak after winning at Phoenix, Hendrick Motorsports is by far the cream of the NASCAR crop. After winning a fifth-straight Phoenix race and four of the last six romps at Talladega — despite that track's proclivity for disaster — HMS will continue its championship form. Joe Gibbs Racing is a notch or two behind the Hendrick juggernaut simply because their two premier drivers — Hamlin and Kyle Busch, who are fifth and seventh, respectively, in the point standings — do not have the history of winning titles. Hendrick has nailed the championship formula and show no signs of waning.

But what about the rest?

Now back to the drawing board for NASCAR's other two powerhouses. Given Roush Fenway Racing's strength last season, it came as no surprise that Carl Edwards was selected as the early favorite to win the 2009 Sprint Cup. He is currently winless but eighth in the point standings — the highest of the five Roush Fenway racers. Matt Kenseth, who was off to remarkable start to the season after sweeping the first two races, has scored just one top five since February and is barely hanging on to the last spot in the Chase Zone. Biffle was the only Ford among the top-five on Saturday night, but his third top-five of the season elevated the No. 16 car to within 16-points of 12th. RFR's issues have ranged from mechanical to pit crew personnel. Roush received valves from an Italian supplier "that broke" so he changed suppliers. Action was taken prior to Phoenix in attempt to improve the No. 99's pit crew, but owner Jack Roush feels the actual pit crew training must be addressed. "We've had some pit stop training issues — I won't say people issues — but it's obvious that the training we've had on some of the crews did not meet the challenges we've had on the racetrack," Roush said. "And we've had a couple engine problems. "You go through a year when a team or maybe an organization has very, very little trouble where the pit stops will all work the way you want them to and the engineering is as good as it needs to be but our support from Ford has been just wonderful. "All you have to do is have some bad luck on the race track or break some parts and you're in disarray. We're going to be fine. We have great cars. We have great sponsors. We have great drivers and it's early enough in the year that we can recover. But it's been an aggravation because we didn't see it coming." The last two seasons, all three Richard Childress Racing teams were represented in the Chase. Clint Bowyer jumped out to a stellar start this season and is currently sixth in the standings, but all three cars and newcomer Casey Mears appear to be off just a tick this year. The RCR cars can definitely go the distance and failures are few. But as far as contending for wins, the spark has not been there this season. Perhaps the starkest stat is Kevin Harvick's streak of 79 races without a victory. After a miserable Phoenix finish of 30th, Harvick fell to 16th in points. Jeff Burton is currently 11th in points, 289 markers behind Gordon. The veteran RCR racer says he would "stack our team up against anybody". But Burton boasts just one top five finish this season and without consistently running in the top five it's nearly impossible to win. The ever-pragmatic and analytical competitor can readily identify the company's issues. "I feel really, really good about the way our cars go down the straights, I think we make a lot of power," Burton said. "What we have struggled with for the last 10 years is deep speed. If you go back and look at most of the races that we've won, they've been long-run races, they've been races that had adverse conditions, slick tracks and those kind of things. The 48, the 24, the 99, the 18, they just go grab it and can make faster lap time. That's because of what they can do in the corners. They can drive their cars harder. We struggle on restarts. Our cars don't make the grip that other people's make." The RCR haven't had the overwhelming success with the new car on flatter tracks compared to HMS, JGR and RFR. So what will it take for the Childress racers to get over the current hump? "We're not terrible, but we're not great — we're good, we're really good and in some really good company, but we're not winning," Burton said. "For us to achieve all the goals that we want to achieve, we've got to find a way to win races no matter what the conditions are, no matter what. We haven't done that as well as some other teams. "That's where our effort is — all of our effort is in trying to make our cars so we can drive them off the corner. What we complain about as drivers is that we want to be able to drive them harder and when we ask more of our car then our car doesn't respond to us. That's where the effort is. I will tell you that I believe that we will get there, but we haven't gotten there." There's no doubt that these teams will use the next few weeks wisely. These four companies are the sports perennial contenders and will continue to be. Teams have a tendency to struggle on occasion but the top organizations rise under pressure.