After a year that saw each of its three drivers finish in the top 10, Richard Childress Racing decided to field a fourth car in the 2009 season. Casey Mears was added on as a driver to accompany the championship-contending line-up of Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Burton. The move came to be one of its costliest mistakes at the time.
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Though there was some initial friction within the team considering Mears was being given the #7 car that Bowyer used to pilot, all four drivers and the organization set out into 2009 with something to prove. At the end of the 36-race season, chaos was the only thing left in the wake.
None of the four drivers finished higher than 15th in the standings and RCR ended up with zero wins for the first time since the 2004 season.
After the disastrous outing, Childress reverted his line-up to three cars and reshuffled his crews for the 2010 season. However, any optimism that he still had ran risk as talks of star driver Harvick wanting out of the organization at the end of the 2010 season marred the air.
But the clouds were soon cleared with the driver reaffirming his commitment. And, that’s where RCR’s journey of redemption began.
How Kevin Harvick led RCR from the depths back to the top
In 2009, Kevin Harvick finished 19th in the driver standings with no wins, five top-5s, and nine top-10s. His friction with Richard Childress too was making the possibilities of a split very real after 2010. Shell/Penzoil’s decision to move away from being the primary sponsor of Harvick’s ride made things even worse for the 2010 season’s onset.
However, Harvick went against all these odds right from the beginning. He posted 5 top-10 finishes in the maiden 8 races and got his first win at Talladega. He renewed his contract with the team in May and bolstered the confidence that ran within the garages. He won again in Daytona and Michigan, which helped him dominate the regular season. Though he failed to achieve the goal of the Cup Series title, he finished 3rd in the standings.
A random post, but I was always amazed by the incredible turnaround Richard Childress Racing had in 2010.
2009 was a brutal season for the team and 2010 they were weekly contenders.
Here’s some numbers side-by-side pic.twitter.com/sqkCqFDoHb
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) January 29, 2024
Harvick was the best driver for RCR in 2010 (3 wins, 16 top fives, 26 top 10s). He led the driver standings in 20 of the first 26 races before the points were reset for the Chase. Bowyer finished at 10th and Burton at 12th.
Childress would expand his team to a four-car operation once again for the 2011 season with Paul Menard coming in.
