Kevin Harvick and his teammates have things looking up at Richard Childress Racing. Credit: Autostock

RCR takes Texas-size steps with solid finishes

Circumstances contributed to success despite Bowyer's wreck

FORT WORTH, Texas -- With less than five laps remaining in Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing was looking at an achievement that few in the garage area could remember it attaining.

Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick were hot near the finish, while Clint Bowyer says he may have gotten burned. Credit: Autostock

Samsung/RadioShack 500 Official Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Kasey Kahne Dodge 2. Matt Kenseth Ford 3. Tony Stewart Chevy 4. Denny Hamlin Chevy 5. Kevin Harvick Chevy 6. Jeff Burton Chevy 7. Scott Riggs Dodge 8. Martin Truex Jr. Chevy 9. Mark Martin Ford 10. Bobby Labonte Dodge • Complete results, click here • Official standings, click here Victory LaneKasey Kahne celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 Final lapsKasey Kahne passes Tony Stewart down the stretch Hard hitCarl Edwards' bad luck continues as he wrecks on Lap 257 All-tellingRyan Newman blames Sterling Marlin for his Lap 201 wreck Rookie stripeJ.J. Yeley gets loose and slams the Turn 4 wall Lite tap?Contact with Kurt Busch sends Greg Biffle to the garage Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

At that point, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and rookie of the year candidate Clint Bowyer were all running in the top six positions, and seemed a lock to score Childress' first triple top-10 in two and a half years (August 2003).

But in the last four laps Bowyer, who used a two-tire gambit on the race's final caution with 17 laps remaining to gain top-five track position, had his tires go bad. His No. 07 Chevrolet was nearly undriveable.

It left the rookie, along with Harvick, wishing for one more caution. Burton, the one in the trio with the most Cup experience, simply wanted the day to end.

Burton got his wish and his No. 31 Chevrolet followed Harvick's No. 29 Monte Carlo to the line to finish sixth and fifth, respectively.

"We ran mostly right around 10th all day," Burton said. "The pit crew guys picked up four spots there at the end and got us a sixth [so] I'm real proud of those guys.

"They had a couple of bad stops in the middle portion of the race, and every other stop was great. And then the last stop was phenomenal. That picked us up three or four spots and that's why we finished sixth."

But Burton's dream became Bowyer's nightmare, as the rookie's wickedly loose mount spiraled backward until it got too loose coming off Turn 2 on the race's final lap.

Kyle Busch gave Bowyer the coup de grace and the black 07 speared the inside wall midway down the backstretch, where its day ended in 19th, the first car one lap down.

"It's been a while [since I drove one that loose]," Bowyer said with a laugh. "It was a handful, but it was going to turn out to be a decent day.

"It was a good call [to take two tires] and if we could have caught a caution right there, hell, I think we could have got a top-five out of it."

The most significant aspect of the day for Childress' trio was that Harvick moved up three spots and made it back into the top 10 in the standings -- in ninth -- for the first time since last summer. Bowyer advanced three spots to 13th, and Burton moved up five positions to 16th.

Burton was in the top 10 in the standings after three races before runs of 25th, 34th and 33rd dropped him to 21st in points. It left him cherishing Sunday's run.

"Yeah, we needed it," Burton said. "It was a good solid run with no problems, and that's what we needed. The way we've been snake-bit, I was damn glad to see the race end."

And unfortunately for his youngest teammate, the 334 laps was one too many.

SUPERSTORE •   Get Kevin Harvick's gear •   Get Jeff Burton's gear •   Get Clint Bowyer's gear

"We were behind and we just made a last-ditch effort and put two tires on the left side," Bowyer said. "It was a good call and it would have worked out good. If we could have had one caution between there [and the end] we would have been sitting pretty, but unfortunately we kept getting looser and looser.

"We just got loose over there [off Turn 2 on the last lap]. I got sideways, but Kyle pretty much drove through me, so what goes around comes around."

Bowyer said he couldn't give his fellow Cup newcomer much slack even though they were on the last lap and racing for position. Bowyer started the lap 13th and Busch ended up 15th.

"Yeah, I'm sitting here with a torn-up car," Bowyer said. "You can remember it -- that's what you can do. It just got loose over there and [Busch] elected to drive through me and oh well."

But none of the trio will forget the overall successful day any time soon.

"If you take away the last lap, it was a great day for RCR," Bowyer said. "We were just tight all day. We weren't as good as the other two [Harvick and Burton] but we know we're headed in the right direction and we're going to get this thing."

Harvick has gone on a three-race march, moving from 23rd to ninth in the standings.

Clint Bowyer was cruising to a potential top-10 finish before spinning on the last lap. Credit: Autostock

"I think we just went to work on the [1.5-mile program] and our bodies and setups are really good right now," Harvick said. "We've just got to keep working on the whole package, so we'll get the rest of the pieces in place and everything should keep going good."

Despite having a new engineer on his car -- former Robert Yates Racing head engineer Kevin Buskirk -- Harvick claimed the day was simply a continuation of his team, and the organization's, upswing this season.

"We had a solid run from the start to the finish," Harvick said. "We got off on one run and just had to recover there at the end. It was a good day for us because our Reese's Chevrolet was strong all day and recovered from one bad stint there.

"If we had a caution at the end, it might have been a different story."

The result for Harvick was more in line with what he expected at Atlanta, the last mile-and-a-half venue, where he qualified sixth but finished 39th after being sandwiched in an accident by rookie David Stremme and Kurt Busch.

"This is the same car we had at Atlanta," Harvick said. "It was really strong in Atlanta and it was really strong [Sunday], so I think both runs were really good, it was just that circumstances helped us out.

"This is not the first time we've been good as an organization this year. We've run good all year and we're just starting to get the circumstances to go our way."