Richard Childress Racing expects better days ahead

Jeff Burton speaks with firm conviction as he outlines the level of improvement and the work ethic within Richard Childress Racing as it attempts to regain ground on the competition.

Never one to overstate the facts or react on a purely emotional level, Burton is confident that his team has done its homework when it comes to the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. He recognizes that the work is not over though and that it matters significantly how well each team can adapt to NASCAR's expected transition from the wing to a rear spoiler in the coming months.

Still, he finds optimism and confidence in the performance of the team in the closing races of 2009 and its offseason work.

Certainly the organization is in transition, moving from four to three full-time teams and facing added media attention as Kevin Harvick enters the final year of his contract. But all seem confident that the disappointing 2009 season will not be repeated. After all, it was a year when none of the organization’s drivers were in title contention and when the top points finisher was Clint Bowyer in 15th.

That is, in part, because of the strength the group showed late in 2009.

“At the end of the day, you are what your results say you are,” Burton says. “The reason that our results got better was because we were doing a lot of things better and the reason that you saw all the teams start to run well was because we were doing collectively a much better job of building better race cars, building better setups, so that evidence speaks for itself.”

Perhaps the most crucial element of the improvement is the movement of Scott Miller from the role of Burton's crew chief to director of competition for the organization. Miller is a key asset as RCR works to regain status as one of the elite teams in the sport.

“Moving Scott Miller over there to support these crew chiefs and push them and keep them all on the same page, I think, is going to be a big asset to us,” Bowyer says.

The organization put Burton, Harvick and Bowyer in the field for both the 2007 and 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup before faltering in 2009.

Last season, none of the RCR drivers — a group that also included Casey Mears with a fourth team — made the Chase, but the organization began to rally in the final races.

Bowyer, who joined forces with crew chief Shane Wilson prior to the 2009 season, earned a pair of top-10 finishes and a worst of 12th in the final four races. Harvick, who partnered with crew chief Gil Martin last April, earned three top-10 finishes in the last five races. Burton, who began working with crew chief Todd Berrier in October, closed the year with four consecutive top 10s, including a pair of second-place finishes in the final two races.

Now, the remaining trio enter the season committed to returning to NASCAR’s Chase.

While they obviously don’t discuss specific changes that have been made, each is encouraged by the recent effort. These are seasoned veterans accustomed to the setbacks racing can offer and well aware that every team in the sport has gained ground in the past few months yet they show renewed confidence.

Things feel different this January, in part because this team gained enough ground in terms of performance late last year in order to be able to try new things and test ideas instead of just battling to catch up.

Now, there is renewed enthusiasm about the 2010 effort.

“I am extremely optimistic,” Burton says. “I know this is going to be a hard year, it’s going to be a long year, there’s a lot of good teams, everybody believes they’ve made their program better. I know we’ve made our program better. I don’t believe it, I know it, and I believe that we are in position to be a real threat. I really do.”

Childress agrees.

“Some of the things that we’ve done, we’re definitely better prepared [this season],” he says.

The move of Miller has led to a heightened level of organization and preparation among the trio of teams.

That, they hope, is evident in the on-track results — and a return to championship contention.

“Scott’s a very solid, honest dedicated person,” Harvick says. “We have great crew chiefs. That part is easy to say. The engineering stuff with [the] lack of testing is a big part of what we do now, so you have to have a lot of engineering support, we have some changes that we made in our simulation that we do now. …That’s the biggest change that we made was in our engineering stuff and I think Scott will help progress that along and how it all takes effect is yet to be seen.”

As to Harvick being in the final year of his contract, both he and his teammates say they are not concerned that speculation concerning his future will be a distraction to the team.

“We’ll remain focused on what we need to remain focused on and not let the sideshow take over from what we need to do,” Harvick says.

Miller takes the same focused approach — with everything about the team.

As he looks back, he says that the team might have erred and allowed itself to fall off the pace a little entering 2009. Now, everyone is intent on maintaining momentum and adjusting to changes.

The teams have worked diligently to discover exactly which changes would be best entering 2010. Now they are ready to take on the top contenders once more.

“The reason that we got better is because we worked hard and the way we’re going to continue to improve and continue to close in on Hendrick (Motorsports) and the other teams that are consistently running up front is keep working,” Miller says.