BRISTOL, Tenn. -- When the Sprint Cup Series visited Bristol Motor Speedway last spring, Richard Childress Racing ultimately ruled.

Drivers Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer finished 1-2-3 in what was the fifth race of a young 2008 season. Surely this was a harbinger of great things to come for a resurgent RCR, or at least so it seemed at the time.

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"We haven't put ourselves in position to win more. We haven't led enough laps. We haven't knocked off enough top-fives. We haven't done any of those things as well as we need to.

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JEFF BURTON

That has turned out not to be the case this season. The three cars fielded by RCR have combined to win just one more race in the five months since the Sprint Cup Series last visited Bristol. They returned there Friday to participate in qualifying and practice for Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at the half-mile track, hopeful that they can possibly rediscover the winning form the organization displayed earlier.

"We've got to get our attitude right, get set on kill, and go after 'em," said Bowyer, who owns RCR's only other victory this season, having won at Richmond on May 3.

After finishing third in the first race at Bristol this season, Bowyer sat ninth in points and used it as a springboard to eventually climb to as high as fourth. But coming into this second race of the season at the track, he's fallen into a tie for 13th with David Ragan and is in danger of failing to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Only three races remain before the cutoff for the Chase, which will include only the top 12 drivers in the standings. They then will battle it out for the championship over the season's final 10 races.

"You just got to make the best of this. We dug ourselves in this hole. I'm tired of being in it. Nobody likes it," Bowyer said. "Nobody is more proud of runnin' good than I am, and by no means have we lived up to our expectations and our potential. I know that, and I've been miserable.

"But I've got an opportunity in the next three races to make this Chase, and I've got to get my attitude right and make it happen. Being bummed out and being negative and pessimistic is not going to make it happen. I showed up here ready to go, and ready to fight."

Burton has much the same mentality. After winning the first Bristol race, he surged to fourth in points and eventually climbed all the way to first, holding the top spot in the standings for four consecutive weeks and remaining in the top two for 12 weeks in a row. (Continued)