Weekend That Was: RCR

Asked about his ridiculously hectic weekend, a weary Richard Childress looked up from the microphone placed in front of him in the Lowe's Motor Speedway media center and grinned ever so slightly.

"First of all, I haven't slept a whole lot. I can tell you that," he said.

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No kidding. No one in NASCAR endured a more demanding weekend than Childress.

In fact, you might have to think real long and real hard to come up with a candidate in the history of auto racing who has ever had a more exhausting yet exhilarating weekend than the one just logged by Childress.

On Friday, the announcement came that his company, Richard Childress Racing, would be teaming up with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to combine engine building departments -- effective immediately. Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies hopes to be supplying all six of their Nextel Cup teams with engines by the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in early July.

Later on Friday, word arrived that one of the key sponsors of one of Childress' three race teams, AT&T, had earned an important victory in federal court in its battle with NASCAR to put its logo on the No. 31 car driven by Jeff Burton. The next day Sprint Nextel, sponsor of the Nextel Cup Series, joined the fray by seeking an emergency appeal that would have prevented Burton's car from carrying the AT&T logo in Saturday night's Nextel All-Star Challenge.

As with an appeal earlier in the day from NASCAR, that also was denied by a federal judge in Atlanta -- and Burton's crew members hurriedly changed into new uniforms and prepared Burton's car so that all prominently displayed AT&T logos that no doubt left NASCAR and Sprint Nextel powers-that-be fuming and mumbling about more appeals.

But enough about all that. Truth is, the eyes of most race fans rapidly begin to glaze over at the first mention of all these mergers and lawsuits (especially the lawsuits) -- and they're starting to get that way when it comes to the endless discussions about where Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive next year.

What really matters is the racing itself, so it seemed fitting that Childress' busy weekend was capped by another of his drivers, Kevin Harvick in the No. 29 Chevrolet, winning the All-Star Challenge and the $1 million prize that came with it. Harvick held off arguably the hottest driver in the Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson, in fairly dramatic fashion to do so (watch video).

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.

Junior approves

Dale Earnhardt Jr. applauded the announcement that DEI and RCR were combining their engine departments. The irony, of course, is that only eight days prior to the DEI-RCR announcement, Junior made one of his own and said he would be leaving DEI when his contract runs out at the end of this season. Among the first to say they would be interested in talking with him about driving for them was Childress at RCR.

Combining horses

Eight days after Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would no longer drive for DEI when his contract expires after this season, Richard Childress Racing and DEI announced they were combining their Chevrolet engine departments.

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• Coverage: Junior leaving DEI

"I think that's a great move," Earnhardt said of the merger. "I was telling Richie Gilmore [at DEI] last year at this time that the Chevy teams ought to consolidate down to one engine program. Depending on the teams you brought in, that would cut the costs tremendously.

"That's probably going to cut 25 to 30 percent off the engine-shop expense on each side -- hopefully, if they do it correctly -- and I think it's an awesome idea because the sport is getting so dang costly now. They should be able to get an advantage from it. As far as performance-wise, both of them have got a little bit to offer each other, I'm sure."

Well, Harvick's RCR-built Chevy engine seemed to work pretty efficiently on Saturday night. And if all goes well, Junior will find out by early July how much better the combined DEI-RCR engine product is -- as he will finish out this season driving the No. 8 for DEI before moving on to his new team.

Still trucking

Steve Hmiel, technical director of DEI, made it a point to dispel the notion that the company founded by Junior's father and now headed by Junior's stepmother and Dale's widow, Teresa Earnhardt, is headed for a bleak future just because the favorite son has said he's leaving.

"There's a company there that has fed people's families and bought them cars and given them a real nice place to work for a long time," Hmiel said. "That thing made it through February of 2001 [when the elder Earnhardt died in a last-lap wreck at the Daytona 500] and it's going to make it through all of the rest of the Februarys that Teresa wants to make it through. And Teresa wants it to go on forever as Dale Sr. did.

"It was a shock that Dale Jr. would walk away. That's his decision. But I'm telling you there is a company there that lives and breathes and takes care of people and insures people and pays people every other Friday. That has never changed through our darkest hour.

"It makes me feel bad that somebody would think another company could do a better job for Dale Jr. than we could. But our job is to make it a viable company, a place where drivers want to drive and people want to work at."

Quotable

Asked about brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch wrecking each other out (watch video) of Saturday's All-Star Challenge, driver Ryan Newman replied: "That's what happens in a race like this. It doesn't matter if they're brothers or sisters or whatever. It's racin.'"

Star performance

Sixteen-year-old Joey Logano beat 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge champion Kevin Harvick at Iowa Speedway to win his third Grand National Division race in four career starts.

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Pit stops

• Harvick said after his victory in the All-Star Challenge that he was concerned about going out and competing in Sunday's Grand National Busch East/West race at Iowa Speedway on so little sleep and with no previous experience at that track.

But he almost pulled off another victory, finishing second to 16-year-old Joey Logano, who drove a Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet. Despite running on seven cylinders much of the race, Harvick teamed with Logano to put on a classic duel that included them exchanging the lead 15 times before an Iowa Speedway record crowd estimated a little short of 25,000.

• A highly underrated good time at LMS is the Craftsman Truck Series race that was held Friday night. It was impressive, too, that Ron Hornaday was able to hold off a field that included Harvick, Mark Martin and other Cup regulars to win the Quaker Steak and Lube 200.

• It's interesting that merchandise sales for Earnhardt Jr. reportedly have picked up since he announced he's leaving DEI at the end of the year. Wouldn't it be more interesting -- now that Childress and Teresa Earnhardt are so keen on working together in other areas -- if Childress eventually signed Junior and talked Teresa into swapping ownership of Junior's No. 8 for the No. 3 driven by the elder Earnhardt and currently owned by RCR? Just a thought.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.