Childress hopes mileage creates big score at Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- If practice makes perfect Richard Childress Racing might be able to one-up this season's previous road course success in the Nextel Cup Series in Sunday's Centurion Boats at The Glen.

If they do that at Watkins Glen International, it would mean a 1-2-3 sweep for the organization that played a two-pit-stop, fuel-miserly strategy in June at Infineon Raceway, where Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer finished in a row behind first-time Cup winner Juan Montoya.

Strategy aside, the race in Sonoma marked the latest upsurge in RCR's road-course efforts, which include Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet team being the defending champion of Sunday's race.

"Winning at Watkins Glen was a major accomplishment in my career," Harvick said. "We'd been able to win on all the different types of racetracks as we've gone through the years, but the road-course thing, we always had this little cloud over us -- so to finally do that was pretty satisfying, almost a sense of relief because you get so frustrated at places you know you're capable of winning and haven't been able to.

"However, this year it's going to be a new challenge since we are going to race the COT car. We ran well at Sonoma and had a pretty good test at VIR so I think we have a pretty good chance to repeat at Watkins Glen."

Harvick, for one, praised his former RCR teammate Robby Gordon -- who scored RCR's other road course victory here, in 2003 -- for the organization's upswing on road courses.

Gordon, who'll have Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose as a teammate this weekend, is another on the list of favorites that includes Montoya, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and dark horse road-course aces Ron Fellows and Boris Said.

"It's one of those deals where our road-racing stuff has been good since Robby came to RCR," Harvick said. "When Robby came [in 2002], we really started putting a lot of emphasis -- whereas before we didn't put any emphasis on our road-race stuff, we just built some cars and maybe went and shook them down.

"Once Robby came, we put emphasis from every nut and bolt that went on the car to spindles to bodies to fuel mileage to everything that goes in the car. From that day that Robby came, we've put emphasis in the road-race program like that every year; so it's something that I enjoy and have been fortunate to be somewhat successful at and hopefully we can continue that as we go forward."

If that was then and this is now, Jeff Burton, who finished third at Infineon, insisted Harvick's the current leader of RCR's road-course efforts. They tested together earlier this year and again, at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, at the end of July.

"Kevin is our leader on the road-course thing and really has made us as competitive as we are," Burton said. "That's as much to do with our performance as anything, is Kevin pushing them to get better fuel mileage, to build better cars -- to do all that and he's talented enough to take advantage of those things; and that's been a huge, huge effort for our road-course program.

"We've worked pretty hard on our road-course program and Kevin has been the leader on that thing -- he's really helped me and Clint, both. We spent a couple of days testing [in June] and Kevin picked me up a good six-, seven-tenths [of a second], and that's a big help to us."

RCR plans to use the same three cars at Watkins Glen that filled the top five at Sonoma. In 36 career starts at the Glen, the organization has two wins, eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes with seven different drivers at the high-speed, 11-turn central New York circuit.

At Infineon, Childress had cars that were good enough to run out front, but in the end, it was work on fuel mileage that earned them their results, as RCR's three teams stretched their fuel mileage and finished the Toyota/Save Mart 350 with a total of less than two gallons of fuel between the three cars.

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According to Harvick's crew chief, Todd Berrier, his No. 29 Chevrolet had two-tenths of a gallon of gas remaining post-race. Burton's crew chief, Scott Miller, said his No. 31 Impala took 18 gallons to fill a tank that holds just under 19 and Bowyer's crew chief, Gil Martin, said his No. 07 Chevy lacked a half gallon of being full.

At Sonoma, through "short shifting" and staying in higher gears than he ordinarily would have, Harvick was able to save more than a lap's worth of fuel; and that paid off in a second-place finish.

"You always want to win," Harvick said. "But in the big picture, that is what we had to do."

And the same day, as they celebrated their solid point day, they were already planning more road-course mileage testing.

As far as Harvick's concerned, the handling characteristics of the Car of Tomorrow weren't too much to deal with at Infineon, though Watkins Glen's number of high-speed corners might make that an even more interesting proposition.

"The cars just don't make as much side bite and they kind of slide all the way through the corners -- really, they are actually pretty fun to drive to be honest with you," Harvick said in Sonoma. "You can't just barrel them off in the corners and let off the brake and the thing turns. You have to somewhat finesse the thing around, all the way around the racetrack to keep it from sliding off the track and sliding the front tires.

"It's harder to drive, harder to get the setup where you need to have it and it's just hard to make grip going forward."

Burton said Watkins Glen might provide more action, and more passing, because of the characteristics of the car, and the layout of the track.

"I think you can pass more with this car than you could the old car just because it's so easy to slide the inside tire, and if you don't get in there just right you slide up in the corner and the guys behind you are getting a good shot in there," Burton said. "I think there are more passing zones at The Glen. You have the front straightaway, the back straightaway and then you have the straightaway after the long chicane; so, I think there are three real passing zones and more opportunity for passing at The Glen than at Sonoma.

"The best way I know how to describe it is Sonoma is like the Martinsville of road courses and Watkins Glen is more like a Charlotte or Chicago. It's a much bigger, wider, faster racetrack than Sonoma, which is very tight with a lot of elevation changes.

"The Glen has some elevation changes, too, but it's in a fast part of the racetrack. I think The Glen is a little less technical, it's faster and it offers a few more passing zones. It's just a bigger, wider, faster racetrack."

Bowyer's fourth at Sonoma is his best finish of the year, as he continues to hold onto 10th in the Nextel Cup standings, one spot behind Harvick and six behind Burton.

He's both looking forward to Watkins Glen and somewhat dreading its uncertainty. Bowyer has a career string of seven consecutive road races in which he's completed every lap. Also of note, Bowyer has been running at the finish of all 21 Cup races this season, making him, Harvick and Denny Hamlin the only three drivers in the top 10 in points to have no DNFs this season.

"I don't think they'll be calling me Jacques Villeneuve anytime soon but nonetheless, a fourth-place finish at Infineon was a good effort and a testament to how good my team is," Bowyer said. "They brought a fairly inexperienced road racer and finished fourth with him.

"Watkins Glen is going to be a struggle. That's a race that is definitely weighing on me [because] that's a track where I've struggled in the past. I'm not necessarily a big fan of Watkins Glen but you have to go to places like that with a goal in mind and just try and get better.

"I think Infineon is more technical than Watkins Glen [since] it's tighter and very line sensitive. Watkins Glen is just really, really fast and wide-open and out of control. Usually, that would fit my driving style -- that's usually the way I like to be [but] for whatever reason, I struggle getting around Watkins Glen but I still managed to finish 14th in the Jack Daniel's Chevrolet last year.

"The good thing is I have an experienced crew chief with Gil Martin who can make some pit-road strategy calls and get us in position for a decent finish. If we can get out of Watkins Glen with a top-15, I'll be happy with that."