Kevin Harvick and crew chief Todd Berrier agreed that this season's test has been more productive than others. Credit: Autostock

RCR teams splitting test, working better together

Bowyer, Burton to use first round notes from Harvick, Wimmer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Half of Richard Childress Racing's four-car entry for the 2007 Daytona 500 has tested at Daytona International Speedway, and to say spirits are high after one round of Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder would be a serious understatement.

Team leader Kevin Harvick and RCR newcomer Scott Wimmer tested last week. Teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer are among the 34 teams that were in Daytona's garage Monday morning when testing got a late start, about 10:40 a.m. ET, due to early morning rain.

	Scott Wimmer will run a fourth RCR car on a part-time basis. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers RCR in 2006 Driver Rank W T-5 T-10 K. Harvick 4 5 15 20 J. Burton 7 1 7 20 C. Bowyer 17 0 4 11 Total 28 6 26 51 Note: Scott Wimmer finished 12th in his only race with RCR in 2006.

Within the test's first two hours, Bowyer was sixth on a sheet that held 50 cars, but Harvick and Wimmer were more impressed with what they saw last week.

Harvick ended 2006 on a roll, with the Busch Series championship and fourth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup in his pocket.

After an abysmal 2005 restrictor-plate season that started when Harvick did not even test at Daytona, the current test and the mood it has created are light years beyond what occurred in the last two seasons.

"We had a great test," Harvick said. "We had one car that's really good and we're closer than we have been in the last three or four years, leaving the test here.

"We had one car that wasn't very good, but we're hoping we can go back and diagnose the differences and build a couple more for everybody before we go to Talladega or come back here."

RCR's plate program has improved significantly enough that Burton won the Bud Pole for the 2006 Daytona 500. At the test, the team's effort impressed Wimmer, who joined them at the end of last season.

"It went really well," Wimmer said before leaving the track. "These guys never stop working, and we worked really hard the whole time we were down here and actually got the car quite a bit faster at the end.

"We're not where we need to be yet, but we've got two teammates coming down [this] week and they're going to have a great idea [of a direction to take].

"The 29's [Harvick] fast and that's always good to see. Hopefully they'll have a good direction for [the second test] and we'll get these cars going quicker."

Wimmer said he thought that was a foregone conclusion after just a few months with RCR.

"It's amazing," Wimmer said. "I've been doing a lot of testing in the offseason for them and it's just good to have resources again and teammates. Me and Kevin are working real good together and me and Jeff Burton are working real good together -- and that's what's exciting, when all the drivers can work together and are on the same communication level.

"Everything's looking good, and I'm excited about the year."

Harvick said Wimmer was a good friend, and thus he stayed out of most of the process of getting him into the fold. But once he was, he didn't hesitate to praise him.

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"I believe Scott does a good job," Harvick said. "He's done a lot of the Car of Tomorrow testing for us and he's done a lot of the straight-line testing for us -- and that's just stuff that sometimes when you're racing full time you don't have time to do.

"So he's done a great job in doing all that stuff and I think the benefits will pay off for us when we start really getting into the Car of Tomorrow stuff."

Wimmer said his new team's efficiency was the most eye-opening aspect of the test, for him.

"They constantly were working," Wimmer said. "If we made the car worse, we eventually got it back to where it was, and then ended up making it better.

"I've come down here with some teams that had no factory support and that were single-car operations, and we were as fast as we were off the truck and we never got any better.

"That's not the case for RCR. We got the 33 car [Wimmer's] a lot better and the 29 got a lot better and I'm sure the 07 [Bowyer] and the 31 [Burton] will get a lot better [this] week.

"So it's just great to see that and it's great to have all that support behind us, from GM and all the great sponsors, which is something I've never had in my career."

Even Harvick's stoic crew chief, Todd Berrier, was optimistic before he left Daytona last week.

"So far, so good," Berrier said. "Obviously, we're in the same boat as most people -- a little behind on Car of Tomorrow stuff because of the certification process, and some of the things like that that haven't been real timely.

"But everything's coming together, we're working real hard and our Daytona test went real well, so we're real happy with that. This test was tons better than last year, and I don't think we tested the year before that."

Now he hopes the progress carries over into the season.

"You always come away with more questions than answers, so now, obviously, we'll have a list of 10 pages of different things we have to try the next time we get to do this," Berrier said. "But we've got really good, really fast cars so obviously the agenda now is to get them qualified and make it through the 150 milers and be here to race."