BUSCH: RCR clinches owners' championship

As the points championship battle in NASCAR's Busch series remains one of the closest fought in the history of the sport, team owner Richard Childress claimed his eighth owners' championship as the Kevin Harvick locked the title for the legendary owner.

"This was a goal we set at the beginning of the season for our Busch program at RCR, said Childress. To win the Owners Championship with two different drivers. Butch Hylton and the entire Payday team worked very hard week in and week out to achieve this goal with Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter.

Harvick and Sauter combined to dominate the field of competition. Through thirty-five races, the two have combined to score three wins, nine poles, and twenty-two top ten finishes.

Led by Crew chief Butch Hilton, Hilton sees the achievement as a true team effort.

"This is such an awesome accomplishment for the guys that work on this car and work back at the shop, noted Hilton. Every week we've come out and have been competitive and run up front. We've got a great owner, drivers and crew, and we all had one goal at the beginning of the season, to win the Owners Championship. All the elements came together for us this year.

2000 series champion Kevin Harvick celebrated the team, and discussed the importance of the award.

"This is what we built this team to do, said Harvick. " We got more top tens; more top fives, won three races, more poles, and the engine builder awards. They can dodge us, and say we don't want to take anything away from the drivers championship, but were gonna take most of the metal home with us"

Since 1972 Richard Childress Racing has fielded teams in NASCAR's top divisions.

The 2003 Busch Owners Championship adds to the organizations six Winston Cup Championships, 2000 Busch Championship, and 1995 Craftsman Truck Series championship.

RCR was the first team in NASCAR History to achieve championship statue in all three top divisions.

-Thomas Chemris, guest writer