Childress drivers focus on getting better
For Richard Childress Racing, the 2007 season was a checkered campaign -- simply because the checkered flags were too few and far between.
Kevin Harvick got things off to a wonderful start for RCR in the Daytona 500 with his victory by a hairbreadth over Mark Martin. Kevin Harvick also won the non-points Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May, but that was his last victory of the year, albeit one of the sport's most lucrative.
Jeff Burton won the first of two thrilling races at Texas with a last-lap pass of Matt Kenseth in April, but that was the only time all season Jeff Burton took a checkered flag in the Cup series.
Clint Bowyer waited until the first race of the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup to visit victory lane for the first time in his career. That was also his last victory of the season.
All told, the Childress Chevrolets won three of 36 points races. The Hendrick Chevys won 18 of 36.
All three of owner Richard Childress' teams qualified for the Chase, a formidable accomplishment in itself, and Bowyer was the surprise of the final 10 races, finishing third behind the dominant Hendrick Motorsports teams of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
But, if truth be told, everyone behind Jeff Gordon was an also-ran. By the end of the Chase, Bowyer was 346 points behind Johnson, Jeff Burton was 492 back in eighth place and Kevin Harvick was 524 behind in 10th.
Bowyer, at least, maintained contact with Jeff Gordon and Johnson for the first seven Chase races. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton never challenged the Hendrick teams.
From Kevin Harvick's point of view, it will take small improvements across the board to transform the Childress teams from Chase qualifiers to championship contenders.
"I don't think it's one particular thing," Kevin Harvick said. "I think you just have to elevate the level of performance on everything, whether it's myself or pit stops or engines or whatever the case may be. We just have to make everything a little bit better.
"I don't think it's like it was a couple of years ago, where we just had to stop and start over. We proved we can race in the top 10 week in and week out. Now we just have to take that next step."
For Jeff Burton, taking that next step means one thing: finding the speed to be competitive with the Hendrick teams. That's a refrain Jeff Burton was singing for much of the season.
"We just need a little more speed," he said. "I think we do a pretty good job with reliability issues. I think we do a good job with strategy. I think we do a good job with the overall way our teams work. We've got to find a way to lead more laps and win more races.
"We've just got to find some speed. That's from everywhere, that's from having better engines, that's from having better handling cars, that's the drivers doing a better job. It's asking a little more out of everybody."
The Childress teams already have started giving a little extra. Jeff Burton and Bowyer were part of a group of Cup drivers that tested at Nashville between the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the Nextel Cup awards banquet in New York.
To Jeff Burton, that sort of work ethic is absolutely necessary.
"We ran Nashville," Jeff Burton said. "Some other teams did, too. No, there's not going to be (an offseason). We've just got to find a way to be better, and the only way to do that is to work. It's not time to be playing golf. It's not time to be going to the Caribbean. It's time to be thinking about how to make better lap times.
"You only have a short time to do this, and if you don't understand that you have a short time to do it, you'll be doing it for a short time, you know what I mean? So you better make hay while you can -- it's just time to get better."
See more at www.sportingnews.com
