RCR appears to be back on track as teammates buy in (cont'd)

In that case, the stats don't lie. And maybe the biggest benefactor, to this point, has been Harvick -- who made sure to credit engineering director Kent Day and other elements of RCR for the resurgence -- but agreed clarifying the path through which Childress has to make decision was huge.

"I don't think it's just Scott -- but Scott in specific takes a lot of stress off of Richard of having to listen to opinions from each different person," Harvick said. "Scott gathers all those opinions and makes his best recommendation to Richard, so it's a much different structure and process than the way it used to work."

"That's what we had hoped [Childress] would do, because he has so many things to do within the company," Miller said. "We just wanted to get some of those things off his plate because it's one of those deals where if you're trying to do everything, it's hard to do anything really good.

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"What we're trying to do at RCR is isolate job responsibilities and make sure people are doing the right things and what they're supposed to be focused on, rather than doing a million things -- no different for him, or me or the crew chiefs."

Miller, with his clear-headed engineer's background and a lot of experience as both a team engineer and a crew chief, is maximizing that.

"Scott, he can relate to me, he can relate to the crew chiefs [and] he can decipher all the BS before it goes to Richard," Harvick said. "We don't have to go down a road because it was thought to be a good idea on that day. Then you have Kent Day who has done a good job with the engineering group, placing the right people in the right spots to make our simulation and seven posts useful tools that we have and we can actually use them and know what they're doing."

Berrier and Burton -- who paused at Richmond to reflect on their first 15 races together -- perhaps embody the overall scene at RCR, where success appears to be propagating itself this season.

"Working with Jeff has been one of the highlights of my career," said Berrier, who won the Daytona 500 and a then-Busch Series championship with Harvick. "I've enjoyed it. [Burton] works really hard at what he does and he's just a complete team player. He tries as hard as anybody I've ever seen.

"I think we're fast enough and we've got all the things it takes [to win] -- it's just being smart enough to make all the right decisions. I think when you get to do it week-in and week-out and when you're running in contention to win week-in and week-out you can probably make smarter decisions."

Burton said that's what his crew chief's makeup is all about.

"The thing I like about working with Todd the most is his effort -- he accepts no compromise, he accepts nothing but the very best," Burton said. "If there is a question, he goes and answers it; if there is a debate about what is better, he goes and finds the answer -- he leaves no stone unturned. He doesn't look at the clock to decide whether something is right or wrong, his effort is incredible.

"He's extremely smart. From a crew chief standpoint [he can do it all]. Those kinds of people tend to not accept help from around them very well because they would rather do it themselves. Todd has really embraced sort of the new way of doing business by using engineering, using all the design groups, using the fabricators and using the people that can make him smarter.

"That's been really cool to see because that's a transition for Todd not having to do it all by himself. His willingness to accept that: His work ethic, his desire, his dedication -- all those things have just really been impressive to me."

And as much as Miller's impressed, he's enjoying himself, too.

"I like this a lot," Miller said of his current role. "I think it's just like anything else, there's a little bit of a transition period trying to get used to the things that you're not doing; there's certain things about being a crew chief that you miss doing -- but in a nutshell it's the next logical step in the career and it's something I've really embraced and really tried to run with.

"Richard's seeing some things going a little bit better and gaining some confidence, and he's leaning on me more and more for some of those things, and I hope I'm up to the challenge.

"It really is all about the fine-tuning. I think we've really had a good infrastructure at RCR over the years. Right now I feel my biggest task is making sure we're using all of the company's resources in a way that's most efficient and makes our cars run better, every weekend. I'm not sure we've done that in the past."

And as the season unfolds, it almost seems unquestionable that RCR will continue to embrace Miller's mode right back. Chasing the Chase from within will do that.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

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