While it was obvious the racing during the Sprint All-Star event last Saturday was intense, another thing that was obvious was who was bringing up the rear. For the majority of the evening the three Richard Childress Racing cars of Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick watched as the field of all-stars raced away from them.

Bowyer wound up finishing the highest of the trio in 12th, followed by Harvick in 15th. The night ended early for Burton and his No. 31 team after an engine went sour during the third segment.

The organization’s performance leaves one wondering if RCR was truly struggling as they appeared or if they were learning all they could for this Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Judging by the team’s comments following the event, it seems to be a combination of the two.

"We think we broke something in the motor,” Burton said from the garage. “We came here with real high hopes thinking we could run well, but we just didn't. But we learned a lot and we'll apply it for next week. So I'm disappointed, but we'll come back."

"It was a disappointing night for the Pennzoil team,” Harvick admitted. “We made a lot of adjustments, but we couldn't get it dialed in. We were trying some things to get ready for the (Coke) 600. We've got a lot of work to do next week."

This team has a lot of work to do not only for this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600, but also to get their season turned back in the right direction.

The driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet has been the one bight spot for RCR this year. Coming off a third in Richmond and a twelfth in Darlington, Burton sits sixth in points and has nine straight top-15 finishes heading into this weekend.

Bowyer started the year off strong, remaining in the top-5 in points for six weeks, however over the last five events the driver of the No. 33 has fallen from second to thirteenth in points. In those same five events, Bowyer has finished outside the top-15 each time.

“It’s been real ugly,” Bowyer admits. “Our cars haven’t been bad, we’ve just had terrible luck.  We crashed out early at Talladega with one of the fastest cars I’ve ever had there and I got wrecked at Darlington.  It was just a wrong place at the wrong time, bad luck thing.  We probably gave up 250 points in two races and that’s something that you just can’t afford to do that this level.  We’re going to have to buckle down, get back after it and get that consistency back.  Get the top 10’s rolling again, then we can work on top five’s and go for the wins.  It seemed like at the beginning of the season we found ourselves swinging for the fences, looking for that victory because it seemed so close.  We ended up falling just a little short, so we need to get our eye back on the ball, get the ground balls coming and we’ll be just fine.”

Thus far in 2009, Harvick has struggled mightily. The driver of the No. 29 has six finished of 27th or worse in just eleven events and is currently 21st in the standings, 162 points out of twelfth.

The team’s newest driver, Casey Mears has been a consistent contender for the 20th-spot for much of the year. Mears has only one top-10 (ninth in Richmond) and is 22nd in points. Optimistic at the start of the season, reality has begun to set in for Mears and his team.

Looking at the predicament facing Harvick and Mears, team owner Richard Childress swapped the drivers’ crews before the Richmond race. The affects of these changes have yet to be felt, but 600-miles this weekend will be a good test.

There is no doubt there has been a great deal of hard work going on at the RCR shop these days, and more is to come. With the series racing in front of the hometown crowd this weekend, the RCR boys are looking to show up with the game faces on.

Harvick pointed out, “Coming to Charlotte is always kind of special because you get to have all your guys at the shop, who don’t normally get to come to the race, there and see all their hard work in action.”

Hopefully the four-car team can give their guys something to cheer about at the end of the evening.

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