Richard Childress paced through one of his team haulers, masterfully handling several different tasks at once. He monitored his drivers from his headset, kept a close eye on the competition via a nearby scoring monitor and doled out assignments as his crew members passed by.
It's that hands-on approach that has Childress' team back on top with two solid chances to win the Nextel Cup title.
``The funny thing is, when I came to Richard Childress Racing, they said Richard wasn't very involved in the team _ that's what everybody told me,'' Jeff Burton said. ``But I've never seen anybody work so hard. He is there every minute. He is there too much.
``He puts a lot of effort into it and he deserves to have his teams run well.''
It took Childress five years to get back to the top after the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt put his team in a downward spiral the owner couldn't stop.
Childress had opened 2001 on a high, confident Earnhardt would win an eighth championship that season. And he'd just announced plans to expand his two-car team into three, with hotshot Kevin Harvick joining the fold as the potential heir apparent to Earnhardt.
But Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the season opener set in motion a chain of events that pushed his team from the top of the sport to as close to the bottom as Childress had ever been. Although Harvick, who was quickly moved into Earnhardt's ride in the days after the accident, salvaged a ninth-place finish in the final standings that year, it was one of the few bright spots.
``We were prepared to win a championship in 2001, and then we lost Dale and things just started getting away from us,'' Childress said. ``Kevin helped a lot by getting us through the transition, but as we got through 2002 and 2003, we really just sort of got behind and came pretty darned close to rock bottom.
``A lot of it was my fault because I wasn't energetic, I dreaded going to the race track. It just got to a point where I looked around and said, `I've got to fix this thing, I've got to get this thing turned around.'''
As NASCAR heads to New Hampshire this weekend for the start of the 10-race Chase for the championship, it seems Childress finally has finished his rebuilding project. He's got two of his three drivers in the field, with Harvick in third and Burton in eighth.
Childress doesn't think one of his drivers has a better chance than the other to win the Nextel Cup, but loves his chances of bringing home a title.
``Two out of 10 _ I'll take those odds,'' he said. ``Kevin or Jeff can win this thing, both of those teams are right there in the mix. We want to win the championship and walk on that stage in New York (at the banquet). I've done it six times before, and there's nothing like it.
``Now I've got two out of 10 chances to walk it again, and I want to do it.''
Harvick, though, is probably the favorite of the RCR teams. He's got three wins this season, while Burton remains winless but consistent. But after five seasons driving the flagship car with little support, Harvick welcomes help from his teammate over this final 10-race stretch.
``I think it's definitely good for the company, and I think that's the most important thing _ it's great for RCR to have both of our cars in there,'' Harvick said. ``I feel like both of us have run well enough to be in the Chase this year and earned that.
``We're going to give it everything we have. I know we've got a pretty good plan going in as far as cars and engines and things like that as far as what we're going to race. We'll just let it all hang out and see where it all winds up.''
The RCR duo will have stiff competition from other multi-car teams. Hendrick Motorsports has a trio of drivers in the Chase, with Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, and Roush Racing has two in points leader Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin.
And none of them can count out the single-car efforts expected out of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin or Kasey Kahne.
Kahne is a five-time winner this season, and rookie Hamlin will have two-time champion Tony Stewart to lean on as Joe Gibbs Racing tries to keep the crown in house despite Stewart's exclusion from the Chase field.
But Childress isn't worried.
``We're as good as anybody out there right now, and we've still got improvements we can make and areas we can shore up,'' Childress said. ``If we get it all figured out, we'll be hard to beat.''
