It's been a long time since
Richard Childress Racing (RCR) has won a Cup title. Fourteen years, in fact, it was when Dale Earnhardt won his 7th and final
championship. After a progressive decline in performance from RCR, as well as the death of his best friend in February 2001,
Richard Childress' team has risen to be on the cusp of becoming one of NASCAR's elite teams.
February 18, 2001 was a day no one in NASCAR will ever forget, no matter how much they want to. Besides
losing a champion driver, Childress lost a business partner, and a friend. In the following days, many questioned whether
or not Childress would continue his job as team owner in NASCAR's then Winston Cup Series.
Instead of walking away
from the sport that had evolved around him, he stuck with the same team Earnhardt drove for, just changed the paint and number
on the cars. He gave a young up-and-coming Nationwide (then Busch) Series driver a start, but also put him in a very high
pressure situation.
Kevin Harvick made his Winston
Cup debut on February 26, 2001 driving a white No. 29 Chevrolet. It was
a quiet debut, as Harvick finished 14th. Two weeks later, fans would watch a race that even Hollywood
couldn't write a better script for, as Harvick had to hold off the driver who ended Earnhardt's reign, Jeff Gordon.
In an amazingly-close finish,
Harvick edged Gordon by 0.006 of a second. He went on to win Rookie of the Year honors, and even though he competed in one
less race than his competitors, Harvick still finished 9th in the points that year.
Childress' second team,
driven by Mike Skinner, didn't fare so well. After coming close to scoring a first win, Skinner didn't deliver, and would
be replaced towards the end of the season by Robby Gordon, who won the season-ending race at New Hampshire, driving the
No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet.
In October 2001, it was
announced that Childress would be losing Lowe's as a sponsor, as they were leaving to be the primary sponsor of Hendrick Motorsports'
new team, with rookie contender Jimmie Johnson. Gordon was kept on board of the No. 31 car, with new sponsor Cingular Wireless
for the 2002 season.
The 2002 season also marked
the first year for RCR's third team, the No. 30 AOL Chevy driven by Jeff Green. The team was an also-ran for most of the year,
other than a couple of fluke top 5's and 10's.
Gordon's team did the same,
and Harvick failed to deliver the same success he had in his freshman year.
Green began the 2003 season
on the pole for the Daytona 500. But after a race-ending crash at Richmond in
May, where he showed his displeasure with Harvick, Green was released, and Steve Park took over the No. 30 through season's
end.
Gordon swept both road course
races at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International, and Harvick won the Brickyard 400, the Cup Series' second-biggest
race, next to the season-opening Daytona 500.
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However, the wins weren't
met with consistent finishes, and two of RCR's three teams were struggling. Harvick was the only bright spot, finishing fifth
in points at season's end.
For RCR, 2004 was probably
their worst season, as none of their drivers won a race. It was also a season that saw more driver changes. Park wasn't retained
after '03, giving Busch regular Johnny Sauter a promotion, albeit a brief one, as Sauter was released in June 2004 of his
driving duties of the No. 30 car. Dave Blaney took over for eight races throughout the second half of the season.
Gordon's finishes didn't
improve, and he would leave after the season to embark on starting his own race team. Harvick failed to win a race, nor did
he even make the inaugural Chase for the Championship. No RCR car did, which was seen as a shock.
In August, though, Roush
Racing driver Jeff Burton parted ways with the team that gave him his break in Cup competition. His time as a free agent was
short-lived, as Childress picked him up to drive the No. 30 car.
As if the lack of performance
wasn't enough to let Childress down, he found out late in the season that AOL would be leaving as sponsor of the No. 30 car
at seasons end.
That, as well as NASCAR's
new policy which let hard liquor companies sponsor teams, helped pave the way for Jack Daniels to go to RCR and sponsor the
No. 30 team, which changed their number to 07 for the 2005 season, with Blaney as the driver.
Burton would move to the
No. 31 Chevrolet, following Gordon's departure. Harvick, despite not making the Chase or winning a race, kept his position
through all this team/driver/sponsor/number changing.
The 2005 season would begin
the rise of Richard Childress Racing, as Harvick returned to victory lane in March at Bristol.
Burton would show signs of a comeback driver as well. But Blaney's finishes weren't
where Childress wanted, and he was released at the end of the year. Still, no RCR teams in the Chase, but the 2005 season
marked the first since 2000 where Childress' drivers in the beginning of the year were the same at the end of the year, and
they ran in every race.
For the third time in the
decade, Richard Childress promoted one of his Busch Series drivers to a Cup ride, this time with Kansas
native Clint Bowyer. He ran for rookie honors in 2006.
The progression back to
the top was showing. Burton finally broke a long winless streak for himself at
Dover in September, but it was Harvick who stole the show, winning five races
and finishing fourth in the Chase. Burton also made the Chase, finishing 7th.
The 2006 season showed that
RCR was making strides in their unannounced "comeback" from its decline that started five years before. In 2007, it was apparent
that RCR was back.
All three drivers -- Harvick,
Burton,
and Bowyer, won a race. Harvick's was the most exciting, barely beating Mark Martin to the line in the Daytona 500 that saw
Bowyer finish the race upside-down and on fire.
Along with all drivers winning,
all of Childress' drivers made the Chase, as Bowyer, the ultimate underdog of the twelve Chasers, gave Hendrick teammates
Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson a scare halfway through the Chase. Bowyer would finish third in points, Burton
8th, Harvick 10th.
So far in 2008, Burton
has RCR's only win, but I guarantee you it won't be the last. He leads points, with Harvick second, and Bowyer 12th. After
six races, and still having three teams in the top 12 in points, one can imagine that Richard Childress Racing is inching
closer to achieving a goal not met since 1994 -- a Cup Championship.
2006 StockCar Review.
