Sprint Cup Series: Has RCR Caught Up To Hendrick Motorsports?

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When the dust settled at Bristol, Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton, back, was the winner and RCR's Kevin Harvick was second. Denny Hamlin and the No. 11? Not in the top-three picture.

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jeff Burton was very direct in January when asked about the gap between the Chevrolet teams of Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

"We're not here to take an ass-whipping," Burton said of RCR. "We're not here to run second. We're not here to talk about how good Hendrick is. That's not why we exist. … It's time to get it done."

Teammate Kevin Harvick was equally pointed.

"We're at least going to be a pain in the ass," he said.

Don't look now, but RCR is a pain.

A big one.

Sunday's 1-2-3 finish by Burton, Harvick and Clint Bowyer at Bristol Motor Speedway at least for the time being made the organization made famous by the late Dale Earnhardt the dominant Chevrolet team.

Maybe even the dominant team period, although Toyota's Joe Gibbs Racing (Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin) may have some say in that based on owners' points and laps led.

Harvick is third in points, 33 behind leader Busch. Burton is in fourth, 37 out. Bowyer is ninth.

Hendrick? Newcomer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is fifth after Sunday's fifth-place showing. Two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is 13th, 201 points out of first. Jeff Gordon is another seven back in 14th. Casey Mears is 33rd, struggling to stay in the top 35.

None has a victory, which is cause for concern for some after Johnson, Gordon, Mears and then-teammate Busch combined for 18 of the 36 wins a year ago.

Burton is more wary than concerned.

"You wake the sleeping giant, they're going to be hard to beat," he said. "There's no getting around that."

It's way too early to read anything into Hendrick's slow start, the slowest since 2003 when the organization failed to get a win until Gordon in the ninth race at Martinsville. Johnson, by the way, finished second in points that season to Matt Kenseth and Gordon was fourth.

Last year was an anomaly. It's doubtful you'll ever see another season where one organization wins eight of the first 11 events as HMS did. It's also doubtful you'll see one manufacturer that dominant. Don't forget Chevrolet won 13 of the first 14 events in 2007 and 26 overall.

Nobody at the Hendrick camp is panicking, although Johnson and Gordon did get out of Bristol in a hurry.

And nobody at RCR is quite as brash as they were a few months ago.

"We can answer that question in late November," Burton said when asked if RCR has supplanted HMS as the top Chevy team.

Owner Richard Childress, who won six titles with Earnhardt, is more concerned with hunting sheep in Mongolia this week than he is the points race.

"That's a good answer," he said of Burton's reply. "You know, they're a top-caliber team, top-caliber drivers. They were strong last year and everybody shoots at who is the best.

"Last year they were the best and we had to put our sights on them."

-- David Newton

Nationwide Series: Happy To Get Race In

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Clint Bowyer was hardly the only winner Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. In a way, all of the teams that participate in the Nationwide Series were winners simply by the fact they got to return home Saturday evening.

There's no telling how the Sharpie Mini 300 would have ended had it gone beyond 171 laps, so drivers such as Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Scott Wimmer can always wonder if they would have gotten to the front with more laps.

The rain that prevented the race from going the distance was disappointing, but it beat the alternative. While the Sprint Cup teams can look forward to a weekend off, the Nationwide Series teams are off to Lebanon, Tenn., for the season's sixth race on Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway.

So the last thing they needed was to spend an extra two days in Bristol. Already this year, teams have gone from Daytona to Fontana, Calif., to Las Vegas to Atlanta and then Bristol. Two extra days in Fontana were an inconvenience, but many of the teams had planned to stay on the West Coast the entire time even before the rain.

Two extra days in Bristol would have been a bigger inconvenience, but now the full-time teams can focus solely on Nashville. And some of the teams struggling to establish themselves may be able to use the time to begin improving their equipment. If so, it would bolster the entire series, as it doesn't look good when the same six or seven teams are in the garage within 30 or 40 laps virtually every week.

The top teams, though, are thinking about the championship and there will likely be a new name atop the points standings following Nashville. Harvick's not entered this weekend, so one of the four Cup drivers running for the Nationwide championship will likely take the top spot.

Bowyer is the de facto leader at the moment, despite trailing Harvick by 49 points. He doesn't have any breathing room, though, as Carl Edwards is just one point behind. David Ragan is 31 points behind Bowyer, with David Reutimann just 34 points behind Bowyer.

Mike Bliss is tops among the Nationwide-only drivers and he's 75 points behind Bowyer after a fifth-place finish at Bristol.

For the likes of Bliss, Mike Wallace, Brad Keselowski and Jason Leffler, Nashville represents a chance to try to establish themselves not only as the top Nationwide-only teams, but as teams that can truly contend for the championship.

Only six Sprint Cup drivers are entered, as Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin join Bowyer, Edwards, Ragan and Reutimann. These are the weeks when the Nationwide-only drivers need to make hay while many of the Cup drivers are on vacation.

-- Mark Ashenfelter