I wouldn't be surprised if, after the 2002 Winston Cup season ended, veteran team owner Richard Childress paused, looked around and said to himself, "How did I get here?"

No, Childress isn't suffering from amnesia. But for a man used to winning championships and fielding the best of the best, given the way his three Cup teams finished in the final standings this past season, he probably would just as well forget how his three-team operation went from potential contenders at the beginning of '02 to eventual also-rans by season's end.

After all, the team's top star, Kevin Harvick, who astounded the racing community with the effective way he stepped in to fill the late Dale Earnhardt's shoes in 2001, ultimately winning the Rookie of the Year Award for finishing in ninth-place, suffered through a horrible sophomore season, winning just one race and finishing 21st, worst of the three RCR drivers.

Journeyman driver Robby Gordon, given the best opportunity of his racing career when he joined RCR in 2002, replacing the released Mike Skinner, did not disappoint, finishing a career-best 20th, although ending up only with just one top-five finish all season.

And then there was the biggest surprise in the RCR camp, veteran Cup roustabout Jeff Green, who became the team's flagship bearer by season's end, finishing the highest of the team's trio of drivers in 17th place.

It was an atypical year that followed a tragic season the year before, when the legendary Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500. While Harvick's rookie campaign helped to quell some of the pain, RCR was nevertheless a team still mired in turmoil and grief.

Even with the release of Skinner late in the 2001 campaign, followed by the hiring of Gordon and the addition of Green, the RCR organization became one that drifted through this past season like a boat in search of a port, certainly one that was in unfamiliar territory of being also-rans rather than contenders.

Consider the numbers: One win (by Harvick), 10 top-five finishes and 19 top-10 showings. Earnhardt used to do better than that by HIMSELF in a single season.

But all is not lost. It's practically a given in Winston Cup racing that when an entire organization struggles or totally tanks in one season, it comes roaring back with a vengeance the following year.

	Kevin Harvick and RCR suffered through a tough 2002 season.

The most recent example of that was Roush Racing. After all four of its drivers -- Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth -- struggled to varying degrees in 2001, all four drivers bounced back to become the most resilient and dominating team in Cup competition in 2002, with Martin and Busch finishing No. 2 and 3 behind champion Tony Stewart in the standings, while Kenseth was eighth and Burton 12th.

That's why a similar resurgence could in the cards for all three RCR teams in 2003. Given the high-dollar funding, the high-profile sponsors and having some of the top equipment in all of Cup racing, you can't expect the Childress organization to stay down for much longer.

In fact, don't be surprised, given the ambitious off-season program the team is currently undertaking -- and with preseason testing starting at Daytona next week -- if Harvick, Gordon and Green come out of the box at Daytona and finish 1-2-3 or close to it.

The reasons are simple: Harvick has something to prove to the doubters who felt 2001 was a fluke year. He became testy at times during 2002, but such a reaction is natural, given the frustration he felt and the struggles he endured.

Gordon, meanwhile, after never completing even one full season with any of his previous Cup teams, is now going into his second full campaign at RCR and has shown promise of moving up significantly in terms of finishes, maturity and experience. He's not as reckless as he was in the past, and realizes that if he blows what will likely be the best opportunity of his career with RCR, his Cup tenure will likely be all but over ... that is, unless he wants to finish his career by going back to driving for the same kind of second- and third-tier teams that he used to before Childress gave him the chance of a lifetime.

And then there's Green, who surprised many observers in Cup, but not himself. He said several times during the 2002 season that all he ever needed was a full chance with a top-drawer team, and he'd let his talent and experience do the rest. And he fully lived up to his word when all was said and done, with the promise of even greater accomplishments ahead of him in 2003. If there's any driver who could be considered among the top dark horses to crack the top-10 in 2002, my money would be bet on Green.

Unless something comes out of left field to hold all three teams in the RCR camp down for another season, expect to see Green, Gordon and Harvick become the top comeback stories of 2003, much like their counterparts at Roush Racing were in 2002.

And if not? Then it won't be Childress asking how he and his teams got to such a mediocre place, it will be everyone else woefully posing queries such as "Whatever Happened to RCR?" or "Where Are They Now?"

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.