No matter the wheelmen, RCR's lineup tough at RIR

Forgive Richard Childress if he has a little deja vu this weekend. It's bound to happen.

2005 fall race: Kevin Harvick leads 149 laps and outruns Paul Menard to the flag in a green-white-checkered finish.

2006 spring race: Kevin Harvick leads 49 laps and wins at Richmond, the third of nine victories and third in four weeks.

2006 fall race: Kevin Harvick leads 154 laps, wins his sixth race of the season and takes another step in securing the points championship.

2007 spring race: Jeff Burton dominates with 136 laps led only to fall prey to teammate Clint Bowyer, who led 29 laps and won for the second time in three races.

By the Numbers

RCR cars have dominated at Richmond as of late. Not far behind them are some Fords.

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To say RCR cars do well at the three-quarter-mile Richmond International Raceway would be simply stating the obvious. Three of those victories came with the same driver, although Harvick is piloting his own KHI No. 33 this weekend (he drove KHI's No. 77 in the spring).

In fact, two-thirds of RCR's lineup is shuffled for Friday night's Emerson Radio 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

"I've never raced at Richmond so this will be another learning curve for me," said Tim McCreadie, who's made three starts this season in RCR's No. 21 at Milwaukee, Gateway and ORP. "Richmond is similar to other tracks I've raced on earlier this season so I'm hoping I can build on my 12th-place finish at ORP."

In McCreadie's other races, he was 14th at Gateway and 28th in his Busch Series debut at Milwaukee.

Scott Wimmer steps into the No. 29 Chevrolet for his 18th race of the season, his 12th in that ride which currently sits atop the owner standings thanks to performances this year by Wimmer and Jeff Burton. And although it's considered a home race for Burton, he's sitting this one out.

"We are just focused on winning races and running up front and the points will be reflected with strong finishes," Wimmer said of the owner standings.

Running up front is nothing new to Wimmer at the short tracks. He finished 10th in the spring race driving RCR's No. 21 car, spot-on with his 10.4 average finish in nine starts at Richmond.

"Most of us, in the Busch Series, grew up on short tracks," he said. "Richmond makes for really tight racing. We can run side-by-side all night and I think it's one of the most competitive tracks we go to."

Bowyer agreed.

"Richmond is a lot of fun, and it's one of those races that I always look forward to," he said.

Maybe that's because he won there in May. Maybe that's because he's never started worse than 10th there. Maybe that's because his average finish is 13.0 -- which includes a 37th-place finish last fall -- in five starts. And on Friday he returns with the same car that got showered in beer earlier this season at Richmond.

"Hopefully, we can back that up," Bowyer said.

For his teammates, the feeling's mutual.

"RCR's track record in the Busch Series," McCreadie said, "proves that we can get the job done."

Keselowski climbs back in
After a major crash at California last week that sent him to the hospital, Brad Keselowski is ready to fire the engines again.

"It was a hard hit, but I'm OK," he said. "I guess it's just a testament to the safety devices we use in this sport."

The bad wreck was followed by good news. Keselowski signed with JR Motorsports to finish the season in the No. 88 Chevrolet.

"We've had some great runs together so far and I plan to continue that in the last few races we've got left to run," Keselowski said.

Happy anniversary, Marcos
Marcos Ambrose will be making his 50th start in NASCAR on Friday night. That includes 27 Busch Series races and 22 in the Craftsman Truck Series.

But don't expect a cake and candles.

"It's a nice little milestone to reach 50 NASCAR races but my focus is on moving forward and getting results," Ambrose said. "I'll save celebrations until a race win."