Weekend That Was: RCR (cont'd)

As to emphasize that it is the racing end of the business that makes all the other crap worthwhile, do you know what Childress did Sunday morning? About six hours after departing the LMS media center, where Childress rejoiced over Harvick's triumph, he and Harvick boarded a jet to fly to Iowa so they could race some more on Sunday.

Racing is where it's at for Childress. Racing is what makes him tick.

Victory in court

Before his cars even took to the track Saturday, Richard Childress was a winner when a federal judge refused NASCAR's stay, allowing Jeff Burton's car to display the AT&T logo in the Nextel All-Star Challenge.

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You get the impression that some of the other stuff just makes him sick.

"It's been a long year. For our teams to still be competitive, we've faced a lot of challenges," said Childress, in reference to the strung-out battles to keep certain sponsors (Harvick's team also faced some earlier sponsorship issues).

The highlight of Childress' weekend obviously was the Harvick victory, but it appeared that the announcement of the RCR-DEI engine department merger was not far behind in his mind's eye.

"We've really put together what I think is going to be a model that you'll see," Childress said. "Already Roush and Yates have got it. Toyota has got a lot of teams, Hendrick has a lot of teams [who share engine technologies]. I was looking at where RCR is going to be in two years, and where DEI is at. I wanted to do everything I could through a joint venture to help make DEI as strong as ever, and to have RCR be right there, too. I know Dale would be proud of what we're doing today."

Any reference Childress makes to the late Dale Earnhardt, who drove for him at RCR even as Earnhardt founded DEI and nurtured it into a viable NASCAR force, should not be taken lightly. Childress remains driven to a degree by the same forces that motivated Earnhardt -- and they mostly involve doing whatever it takes to remain as competitive as possible on the racetrack.

Harvick and crew chief Todd Berrier both freely admitted that they never were fans of the All-Star Challenge in the past, saying they resented the fact that the event seemed only to chew up lots of their cars. They also admitted that the pile of money they earned Saturday night probably would go a long way toward changing their minds about it.

Childress, meanwhile, needed no such mind adjustment.

"This has always been one of my favorite races," Childress said. "I remember when they came up with this thing. ... It brings back Saturday night racing like it used to be. You look around and all the wives and families are here. The emotions of a Saturday night race are there.

"I know Dale loved this race, too. It was always one of his favorites -- because you're either going to win or tear it up usually. ... We've tore up a lot of cars at this place."

They didn't this time, however. On a weekend filled with good news for Richard Childress and his organization, all they did was break everyone else's hearts.

Now maybe the poor guy can get some sleep. (Continued)