2010 Team Reviews: RCR Showcases Great Improvement

If there was an award for the biggest season-to-season turnaround by an entire team, the folks at Welcome, N.C.'s Richard Childress Racing would have walked away with an uncontested victory.

In a word, their change in competitiveness from 2009 to 2010 was astonishing.

In fact, RCR placed all three of its drivers in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup -- quite a change after those same three wheelmen missed the championship fight completely in 2009.

Yes, 2009 was a drag for the proud organization, with Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick all missing victory lane. That all changed -- and changed quickly in 2010 -- when Harvick assumed the points lead after just ten races.

He didn't relinquish it until the Chase standings were shuffled and the drivers seeded in September.

Had the RCR bunch managed to string together a more-dominating late performance by Harvick or even avoided the Chase-ravaging penalty levied against Clint Bowyer after winning at New Hampshire, the team as a whole may have moved higher up the NASCAR team ladder.

But those final ten races -- the ones that have elevated Jimmie Johnson into the highest echelons of motorsport -- dropped RCR down some, despite Harvick's late opportunities in the season finale to unseat Johnson.

3rd - Kevin Harvick [3 wins, 16 Top 5s, 26 Top 10s, 1 DNF, 8.7 avg finish]

Arguably, Harvick had his single best year ever as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver in 2010. Harvick led the points for the final 16 weeks of the 'regular season' and without the Chase points standings his consistency would have amounted to quite a championship lead in the points standings and a title blowout down the stretch.

Harvick's three wins (Talladega, Daytona & Michigan) were just the beginning of his stellar season. Just twice in the season's first half did Harvick finish worse than 13th. leading in half of those races.

As was the case with Jeff Gordon's 2007 season, Harvick's large points lead crumbled with the start of the Chase. Also like Gordon, Harvick never really had a terrible finish in the final ten-race stretch.

Just once -- when he finished 15th at Dover -- did he not find the top 10.

Save for a late speeding penalty at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the finale, Harvick kept himself in the fight every step of the way, only to be outgunned by the one guy who no can topple -- Johnson.

10th - Clint Bowyer [2 wins, 9 Top 5s, 18 Top 10s, 3 DNFs, 14.4 avg finish]

If there was ever a "statement win" in NASCAR, the checkered flag that Clint Bowyer took in the first race of Chase at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was as close as they come.

After sneaking in to the Chase in the 11th of 12 spots, Bowyer suddenly was a real, tangible factor in the 2010 edition of the Chase -- trailing Denny Hamlin by 30 points in second place. But then, it was Judgment Day.

Bowyer's car proved to be outside of NASCAR's chassis specifications and the sanctioning body dropped the gauntlet with a penalty -- 150 of NASCAR's most precious, valuable driver points. In an instant, Bowyer was back to step one.

The penalty also proved a bit descriptive of Bowyer's overall season. Six times, Bowyer strung together two or more consecutive top -10 finishes, only to finish 15th or worse in the next race. Just once, in a four-race stretch from Bristol to Loudon, did Bowyer string together more than three consecutive top 10s.

But the two wins -- Loudon and later in the Chase at Talladega -- will still serve as a highlight for Bowyer, and most likely will propel the No. 33 to greener pastures in 2011.

12th - Jeff Burton [0 wins, 6 Top 5s, 15 Top 10s, 2 DNFs, 15.1 avg finish]

With two full seasons now under his belt without a win, Jeff Burton's 2010 campaign was the least-appealing turnaround story in the RCR camp. After all, Burton qualified for the Chase only to sputter his way to a dead-last finish in the championship battle.

Burton, however, can easily credit two crashes in the Chase -- one at Talladega and one with Jeff Gordon at Texas that produced a small fight -- with his late-season tailspin.

Otherwise, Burton worked through a largely successful year.

His finishing position jumped nearly three spots from 2009 while he led more than 400 more laps this season than the previous. Combined with a jump from 25 lead lap finishes in 2009 to 30 in 2010, it's easy to see Burton's improvements despite the glaring zero in the win column.

Don't be fooled -- Burton wasn't satisfied with his late-season stumble and he certainly wouldn't mind finding a few more checkered flags in his future. But Burton also wasn't completely out of the fight in 2010, and with continued improvement like RCR felt in 2010 into next season, the No. 31's progress should continue.

RCR's Best of 2010: Kevin Harvick's consistency and return to victory lane.

RCR's Worst of 2010: Team issues that led to massive penalties from NASCAR against Clint Bowyer -- even after being warned.

RCR: What to Watch in 2011: Clint Bowyer has also shown flashes of brilliance in the Sprint Cup Series without ever fully icing the cake. Can he -- or his teammates in Harvick and Burton -- finally topple Johnson from the top?