At his racing complex in Welcome on Thursday, Richard Childress hosted a fan day as part of the celebration of his 40 years fielding cars in NASCAR’s top division.

On Saturday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway before the Greenbacks 500, Childress spoke of the peaks and valleys in his career.

He made the comments during a press conference that was scheduled to let Childress discuss his Mt. Mitchell of this season, the selection of his best driver ever, Dale Earnhardt, for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Just as in the 40 years operating his race team, Childress was unable to escape some of the valleys, this time talking about a deep trench of a season, on the track and off.

On the track, Childress’ cars have gone from among the frontrunners to mediocre. His three holdover drivers went from making the Chase for the Championship the past two seasons to coming up short this year. Heading into Saturday, the Childress driver lineup of Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears had produced just eight top-five finishes this season. Bowyer held the best spot in the point standings at 15th.

Off the track, Childress continues to deal with speculation about Harvick’s status with the team and continues to shift personnel in an effort to approach the level of fellow Chevrolet stalwart Hendrick Motorsports, which has three of the top five drivers in the standings and 11 wins this season.

Childress noted that he went through tough times with Earnhardt, bouncing back from a bad 1985 to win championships in 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991, then came back from a one-win season in 1992 to take championships in 1993 and 1994.

“There were times when he would say that he needed to go somewhere else because he wasn’t getting the job done as a driver,” Childress said. “I had to tell him that he was as good as he ever was, that I just wasn’t giving him the cars he needed. In 1985, we had a horrible year. We’re sitting on my porch in Winston-Salem and I told him that he needed to go somewhere else because we had blown something like 11 engines. And he told me that we started together and we were going to finish it together.”

Childress and Earnhardt combined for six championships and 67 victories and were targeting another championship in 2001 before Earnhardt was killed in the Daytona 500.

Since then, Childress has 20 victories while fielding at least three teams for all but 2001. There was a valley of just one win in 2004 and 2005 and then a bounceback in 2006 led by Harvick’s five wins. Over the past three winters, the Childress drivers have talked about being the equal of the Hendrick drivers. They did make the Chase and combined for three wins in each of the past two seasons.

But this season, Hendrick has sprinted away.

“There have been peaks and valleys, but that’s just life,” Childress said. “We can see the crest up there. We’ve just got to get back up there.”

Childress blames the fickleness of working with the Car of Tomorrow, now being used for the third season. He admits that Hendrick has made strides with it, while RCR continues to struggle.

“There is such a fine line with this new car,” Childress said. “Other than three or four or five teams, you can be off and on. When you get off, it’s hard to get back on.”

Harvick, winless since the 2007 Daytona 500, has been off so long that he is giving indications he may not return to Childress when his contract expires at the end of the 2010 season. During the summer, speculation ran rampant that Harvick would be gone at the end of the year, prompting Childress to issue statements that Harvick will be back next season.

“He and (sponsor) Shell will be with us in 2010,” Childress said. “Then we’ll see how things play out in the future. Whatever happens, happens.”

“No one is happy when you are not running well,” Childress said. “I’m not happy. You’ve just got to control the situation the best that you can.”

The teams have been so far off that Childress ordered a management shakeup that included reducing the responsibilities of his son-in-law, Mike Dillon, at the top of the competition department. Childress put Burton’s crew chief in charge of overseeing the preparation of the race cars and reduced Dillon’s role to primarily budget and financial oversight. More changes may come this week, Childress said.

“We’re using these last races to get prepared for 2010,” Childress said. “We know we have to get better.”

Burton and Bowyer are under contract through 2011, according to Childress. Mears’ status is up in the air after one year with RCR, thanks to the decision of Jack Daniels not to return as sponsor.

“We are meeting with companies,” Childress said of Mears’ car. “We want to run it. We can’t turn it into a start-and-park. We’ve got a sponsor for a few races, but if you want to be competitive you can’t do that. We’re weighing our options. Casey has shown improvement the last few races. I’d have liked to have seen him in our cars a year ago when we had our cars running (well). I don’t know what happened to us but we fell off the wagon. We’ll get back on it, I’ll promise you.”

Childress remains optimistic. He’s always found a way to climb out of the valleys.

gsmith@hpe.com | 888-3519