Childress teams dominate qualifying

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Take that, DEI.

The battle for restrictor-plate supremacy took another turn Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway as the Richard Childress Racing cars driven by Steve Park and Kevin Harvick swept the front row in qualifying for Saturday night's Pepsi 400.

That, at least for one day, was better than recent restrictor-plate kings Dale Earnhardt Inc. DEI cars took the third row, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting fifth and Michael Waltrip sixth.

"Having an RCR front row is something we expect to do," Park said, "and we try hard to do."

Park's pole was the second straight for the No. 30 Chevrolet at Daytona, as Jeff Green put the car on the pole for the Daytona 500. And it was the third straight pole for RCR at Daytona, as Harvick qualified fastest for this race last year.

But the banter between RCR and DEI was kept to a minimum Thursday night. There wasn't much smack talking. Instead, it was more self-promotion. And why not?

	Steve Park scored his first Bud Pole since joining RCR in May. Credit: Autostock

"I'm glad for Steve," Harvick said. "It's great for the whole organization. ... What can you say? We're first and second. You can't really ask for anything more than that.

"Richard, all the guys in the motor shop and the fab shop work really hard on our restrictor-plate stuff. It pays off for us."

Childress certainly had a big smile on his face. Instead of worrying about Harvick and Robby Gordon feuding about the gentleman's agreement, Childress was worrying about which hat to wear in the post-qualifying celebration.

"I'm just really proud of everybody at RCR," Childress said. "The fab shop has done a great job and the engine shop has done a lot of extra work.

"Steve Park and Kevin Harvick have done a great job, and I'm sure Robby Gordon will be up there with them racing hard on Saturday night, and it will be an exciting night."

Perhaps that'll be the night to arrest the recent DEI success. Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip have won eight of the last 10 plate races, and Waltrip is going for his third straight victory here.

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But RCR wants to put a stop to that.

"That's our intention," Harvick said. "But they've got all the trophies. We felt that we've been close to them and had the opportunities to contend to win races, but we haven't won. That's the bottom line, that's what it all comes down to, is who takes home the trophy and the check.

"Not that we haven't run good or haven't been in contention to win races, but they got it done. That's the way you've got to look at it. We feel we can contend with them. We've just got to figure out how to run up front at the end of the race."

One of those ways might be teamwork. Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. seem to find each other during restrictor-plate races, and they work their way -- together -- to the front.

	Kevin Harvick will lineup next to Park Saturday. Credit: Autostock

But Park, who joined RCR six races ago after swapping rides with Jeff Green, said the teamwork at Childress is better than at DEI.

"The keys to running good in Winston Cup today is having a multi-car team that works together as one team," Park said. "We have that at RCR. That was something that maybe we lacked at DEI, working together as one unit and making all three cars capable of winning a race.

"I used to have questions in my mind. We'd come to a speedway, and the 8 and the 15 run so good, and I couldn't understand why the 1 car didn't. I guess they couldn't understand, so they made a driver change. I'm real happy they did."

The mix of drivers at RCR has been volatile, at least lately. But all seems well.

"The thing about it is, when you get guys like Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon, they want to win, every weekend," Childress said. "That's the reason that they drive for me.

RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING  •  Team Page  •  Robby Gordon  •  Kevin Harvick  •  Steve Park

"I don't want somebody out there that you have to push, and push. Steve Park will do a good job, too. These guys are just dedicated to winning, and that's why they're driving for me."

RCR hasn't exactly been a front-running team the last year-and-a-half, but things are looking up. Harvick is ninth in the points, and Gordon is 13th after winning at Sonoma.

And now this.

"We've struggled a lot just rebuilding everything at RCR," Childress said. "We've been rebuilding everything over the last couple of years and with people like Kevin Harvick there that have supported us, all of our sponsors and the race fans -- we're going to get there and we're getting closer and closer all the time.

"This is the closest we've been, yet, and we're going to be back in Victory Lane before too long."