RICHMOND, Va. -- Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway was just another evening in paradise for Richard Childress Racing and its three-man driver lineup, as this season's strongest Sprint Cup organization -- at least through 10 races -- continued to thrive.

Kevin Harvick, the company's strongest man here over the past five years, re-established himself as the Sprint Cup championship leader with his eighth Richmond top-10 finish in his past nine starts. His No. 29 Chevrolet finished third behind Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon in the Crown Royal 400.

"All right -- only 25 [races] to go," Harvick said, before getting serious. "It was a solid night for us. We were right in the middle of the top five all night, which is where you got to be to have a chance. We had a chance there at the end -- [Busch] could run the outside where none of the rest of us could. He could carry that momentum. But it was a solid night and we'll take it.

"I think for us, you know -- it's 10 races. The last 10 [Chase] is 10 races as well. You look at that and you say, 'We can lead the points after 10 races.' But I think in order to get better, we got to get a little better on pit road, be more consistent. When we make mistakes, we make big mistakes. We can't do that.

"We just got to keep pushing ahead. You can't just sit on your hands. I don't think we're doing that. I think we're constantly -- the R&D department is doing what they need to do to make things better. We got to keep pushing forward. The cars we race in the first 10, hopefully they're no good for the last 10 -- that you have progressed that far, and you're ready to go."

All-in-all, Harvick's night epitomized RCR's strength, as he was only out of the top 10 at one checkpoint in the 400-lap race -- when he was listed 13th at lap 180.

While at times -- despite race winner Busch's overall dominance -- it looked like any one of Childress' three cars could have challenged for the win, in the end only Harvick and fourth-place finisher Jeff Burton's No. 31 Chevy had a shot as two cautions in the final 20 laps affected the outcome.

Burton's crew chief, Todd Berrier, had his own spin on the end game as he stood near the inspection area Saturday night. (Continued)