Childress weathering Harvick's hard times

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The routine will be familiar to car owner Richard Childress: He'll climb atop his pit box and look toward the back of the field for his three cars when the green flag falls on the Sirius Satellite Radio 400.

It's been a miserable season by Childress' standards, and not even strong finishes today at Michigan International Speedway can fix it.

Jeff Green is his highest driver in the Winston Cup standings at a disappointing 24th, and Robby Gordon sits 27th. Kevin Harvick, a phenom in 2001 who became Rookie of the Year and was considered a championship contender at the start of this season, is a mortifying 35th.

"It eats your heart out, just kills you," Childress said Saturday. "You know that all the resources are there and you've put everything you have into it, and then it boils down to chemistry. Once the chemistry is gone, there's no button you can push to get it back."

So Childress has done the only thing he can, shaking up two of his teams by swapping the crews of Harvick and Gordon last week.

Childress is hopeful things will begin to straighten out Sunday, when Harvick starts 19th in a brand new Chevrolet with a setup similar to ones the team used last year when he won two races and finished ninth in the Winston Cup standings.

Make no mistake, Harvick is the star of this organization.

A brash and brazen 26-year-old driver, he became the present and future of Childress' empire following Dale Earnhardt's death in last year's Daytona 500. The plan was to bring him along slowly -- he wasn't even supposed to run a full Cup schedule until this season -- but everything was fast-tracked when Earnhardt died.

Elsewhere

NEVADA DEATH:Race car driver Patrick Michael Jemison, 42, of Incline Village, and passenger Virginia Lynn Davis, 43, of Show Low, Ariz., were killed in a crash during a time-trial competition for the Audi Car Club Hill Climb Race near Virginia City,Nev. A preliminary investigation shows the driver went into a curve too fast and lost control of his Dodge Viper.

ARCA:Polesitter Chad Blount won the ARCA Flagstar 200, moving from sixth place over the final five laps at Michigan International Speedway for the first win of his career. Blount, a rookie, had to battle a three-wide pack of cars when racing went back to green on lap 95 following a lengthy caution.

24 HOURS OF LEMANS:Audi appeared on course for a third consecutive title at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with an all-British MG team providing only a slight challenge. Audi's teams, seeking their third consecutive victory, appeared to be battling among themselves for another. The German automaker's teams held the first three positions nearly seven hours into the race, after former Formula One driver Johnny Herbert powered Audi Sport North America ahead of the pack.

-- From wire reports