RCR teams hope to end Hendrick's COT dominance

In five Car of Tomorrow races so far this season, one thing has become abundantly clear -- Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are clearly the top two teams when it comes to the COT.

But don't count out a third Chevrolet team just yet.

By the Numbers

Jeff Burton won last year's fall race at Dover, but overall, performances at the track haven't been strong for Chevrolet. There isn't one Chevy driver who has an average finish of 10th or better at the Monster Mile.

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Hendrick and Gibbs may steal all the headlines, and rightfully so, but Richard Childress Racing is quietly putting together a dominant season. All three of Childress' drivers -- Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer -- are in the top 10 in points and for now are comfortably in Chase contention.

Dover marks the sixth COT race of the season, and when the green flag flies in the Autism Speaks 400 presented by Visa on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX), the group at RCR hopes to show the rest of the sport that the team is dialed in on this COT.

"I think we've got the consistency thing figured out, I just want to be a little bit better," second-year star Bowyer said, and he's right about RCR's consistency.

All three drivers have finished in the top 10 in three of the five COT races. In fact, the average finish of the Childress bunch in COT races this season is 14.1. Throw out Harvick's 41st at Martinsville due to the safety foam catching fire and Burton's 43rd at Richmond due to an engine failure and the team has an average finish of 9.8.

"We've gotten some top-10s, now we need to start cracking the top five," Bowyer said. "We need to be at a point where we can race for a win.

"That's what we're out here to do, win races. You can't do it running ninth and 10th. We've got to get a little bit better and I think we can do that."

Bowyer has been the most consistent of the RCR bunch with four finishes in the top 11 and an average finish in COT races of 11.8. Add to that an eighth-place finish in last year's fall race at Dover and Bowyer thinks the time is now for the newly turned 28-year-old to grab his first Cup victory.

"The first time I went to Dover, we were terrible and I felt like I couldn't get out of my own way and then when we went back, we had the fastest car and almost won the race," Bowyer said. "Last year, I finally got a Busch win there. It's one of those tracks where I've always run pretty well. Fortunately, it seems like Dover is one racetrack that feels like I figured out pretty early in my career so it's a track I always look forward to." (Continued)