Childress teams better, but still chasing Hendrick's

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Five races into the 2010 Sprint Cup season and Richard Childress Racing has enjoyed a major turnaround.

But is it enough?

Entering Sunday’s Goody’s 500 at Martinsville Speedway, all three RCR drivers – Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer – are in the top 12 in the series standings. Last season, none of them qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup or won a points-paying race.

The organization has no wins in 2010 so far.

“Well, you start out the season to win races and the second goal is to be a part of that Chase so that you have a chance to win the championship. You can’t win the championship without being in that Chase," said Bowyer, who is 12th in points with one top-five and three top-10 finishes. "And you have to be in it.”

“If you run in the top-five long enough, you are going to get yourself a win. Probably multiple wins," he said.

"We have got to get a little bit better. We have closed the gap quite a bit from last year and we are really excited about the rest of the season.”

Wins or not, there are benefits to being high in the points, which Harvick discovered this weekend.

When qualifying was rained out Friday, Harvick – the current points leader – was awarded the pole for the Cup race.

Matt Kenseth, one point behind Harvick, will start second and Jimmie Johnson third.

“It’s been a decent start to the year, for sure,” said Harvick, who has second-place finishes this season at Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas.

“Obviously, we’ve had a couple of chances to win and haven’t gotten that done.

“I think (there’s) a lot of weekends a year that the points-leader gets to benefit from rain, and I’m glad that for us it was this weekend.”

Burton, who is seventh in points with one top-five and two top-10s showings, says RCR has the ability to win races this season. What his team needs most right now, he said, is better execution.

“We’ve run well and had fast race cars at every race, and I don’t necessarily have the finishes to show for it. I’m disappointed with that,” he said.

“We’ve got to do a better job of executing. If we do that we’ll win our races. I don’t want to sit up here and say that we’re good enough to be winning because if we were, we would have been winning.

“You are what your record says you are, and our record says that we haven’t been good enough to win yet. I’m disappointed with that, but my focus has been on why we haven’t been winning.”

While the RCR drivers take up three of the top 12 positions in points – including the top spot – Johnson, who has won the last four series championships – has victories in three of the first five races.

“They haven’t won three out of the first five races by being lucky,” Harvick said of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team. “They win them because they have all their stuff together and when they get a lucky break, they capitalize on it and make things happen.

“They are the ones that have everything going right now and where you base yourself on where you stand as far as being competitive and doing the details right – they do all that right.

“We definitely don’t let it frustrate us. You just use it as motivation.”