Richard Childress riding momentum, past experience into 2010

The 2009 season ended much differently for Richard Childress Racing than it started.

After struggling mightily for much of last year's campaign, RCR righted the ship in a big way by finishing the campaign as one of the hottest teams in NASCAR.

Kevin Harvick: 'The best year we ever had was a contract year (2006).' (US Presswire)

So you can understand why the winter went by slowly for team owner Childress.

"The whole company feels good coming off the season," said owner Childress. "None of us wanted to end the season with the momentum we had going. That's the way it is when you get things going. It's equal for everybody starting over."

Despite not having one of his cars in Victory Lane for the first time since 2004, Childress looks back at 2009 as a successful year if simply for being able to figure out what was wrong.

The quartet of Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears stumbled out of the gate and couldn't get righted with all four missing the Chase.

But by midyear there were signs of competitive flash coming from the team, which Childress points to as a positive heading into 2010.

"It took that long for it to start showing up," Childress said. "We didn't have a typical RCR year. We didn't have a car in the Chase or running up front. This year, I feel really good with the opportunity with the changes that we made."

Those changes include the downsizing of the team from four to three cars with Mears losing a ride at RCR when financial woes forced sponsor Jack Daniels to the sidelines.

But many feel the streamlined effort will be beneficial to RCR's continued success and help the team add on to the encouraging performance of last season's second half.

"Nonetheless, a day late and a dollar short, but we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel at the end of the season," Bowyer said. "We were seeing those changes become a positive on the race track. With five races to go, you were seeing RCR cars running up front as a whole. It wasn't just one. It was all of them running good. That gives me a lot of optimism going into the season and thinking that we've got something for them this year."

However, the RCR stable will have to guard against being overly confident and relying too much on the momentum it carried into the offseason. Veteran Burton has seen that happen to teams before and warns that in the current ultra-competitive world of NASCAR there can never be a letdown.

"What we've got to do is protect against thinking it's going to be that easy, because it's not," said Burton. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us. I feel like we're so much more prepared going into this year, compared to where we were last year. A lot of things have happened at RCR that I feel really good about."

And the best way to continue moving forward?

"You keep at it," Bowyer said. "Don't let up on anything you do and stay focused and keep everybody else focused. I feel like you can stay on track that way. When you start losing focus and take your eye off the ball, you're going to swing and miss."

There will be another challenge facing RCR this year with Harvick and his impending departure. The 2007 Daytona 500 winner expressed his interest in pursuing other opportunities last year and rumors swirled of an early exit from the No. 29 entry.

Childress swiftly denied those reports citing Harvick's contract with the team, which runs through the 2010 season.

But while Harvick is back for the coming campaign, where he lands in 2011 is still up in the air.

Harvick has made it clear that remaining with Childress is most certainly an option and that he won't set any parameters on negotiating a potential contract extension.

"I'm not going to push that side of it," Harvick said. "They'll all talk and do their things behind the scenes. I just want to be the driver. I don't want to get in a big political war with anybody."

In fact his contract ending could be viewed as another positive for RCR as an increased performance behind the wheel in 2010 would raise Harvick's stock.

That wouldn't be the first time it's played out that way.

"I've been there before," Harvick said. "The best year we ever had was a contract year: 2006 was a contract year, and we won five or six races and had a chance to win the championship. We won the Nationwide championship. That was the last contract year, so that one went pretty good."

Childress will hope history repeats itself and his team returns to its former glory.