For the RCR 'three,' it's a case of so far, so good

After all four of its drivers failed to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year, Richard Childress Racing cut back to three teams, and -- voilà -- Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer have started the 2010 season with a vengeance. Now RCR poses a threat to Jimmie Johnson's drive for a fifth consecutive championship.

Here's a breakdown of the RCR drivers six races into the 2010 season.

Harvick

KEVIN HARVICK

So far ... Harvick sat atop the Sprint Cup standings until brake problems two weeks ago at Martinsville relegated his top-five car to a 35th-place finish. Harvick is fourth in the standings with four top-10s, including second-place finishes at Fontana and Las Vegas. He had nine top-10 finishes all of last year.

So good ... "You can't point at one thing because it was everything but the engines," Harvick says. "We pretty much started over, and I guess the only thing you can attribute [it to] is just the hard work. That's really what it boils down to. Everybody had to basically build new fleets of cars for all three teams to start over with."

Burton

JEFF BURTON

So far ... Building on a promising finish to the 2009 season, when he was runner-up in the final two races, Burton is fifth in the standings. His best finish is third at Fontana. He has yet to finish outside the top 20.

So good ... "When you don't have grip in the race car, it really limits what you can and can't do, how aggressive you can be, where you can put your car," Burton says. "The big difference for us is the amount of grip that the cars make. At the end of last year, we really, really ran well, and a lot of that was because we made this incremental change with the way we were building our cars."

Bowyer

CLINT BOWYER

So far ... Bowyer is ninth in the standings with four top-10s. His best finish is fourth in the Daytona 500.

So good ... "Going back to three teams ... it was almost a blessing as far as Jeff, Kevin and I go, because we were able to take four teams, combine the best of the best and get down to three teams," Bowyer says. "I feel like, selfishly, it was a good move for us race car drivers."