There are four teams at Hendrick Motorsports, and to get you up to speed, this is how all of them faired at Watkins Glen this past Monday afternoon. It wasn’t pretty…..
Jeff Gordon.
Gordon qualified, strangely, all the way back in 31st place. I can understand wanting to lay down a conservative lap time, but his was a bit too conservative, to say the least. And on race day, he paid for it.
Caught up in the lap 62 'Big One', you can argue whether Gordon or Sam Hornish Jr. got the worst of the crash, but the biggest loser might as well be Jeff’s ego, and his back. While he walked away without as much as a limp, Gordon, as well as Jeff Burton, who was also involved in the crash, complained about back pain the very next day.
Gordon has been very vocal about not wanting another procedure for his ailing back, but how many more violent accidents can he take? The wreck likely put an end to Jeff Burton’s chase hopes, and stopped any momentum that Gordon had going up to this point. With just four races remaining until the Chase begins, Gordon only has one win this season, and would start the Chase mid-pack with 5010 points, 30 less than the would be points leader, teammate Mark Martin.
Heading into Michigan, a win is much needed, but after The Glen, Gordon may just want to prepare for Bristol instead.
Jimmie Johnson.
For the second week in a row, Jimmie could not muster a Top 10 finish. He finished 12th, one spot up from his 13th at Pocono, but this time around he didn’t need a million Lucky Dog free passes to finish there.
It took Johnson four years after he won his first Restrictor Plate pole, (2002 Daytona 500) before he won his first Plate race. (2006 Daytona 500) At Watkins Glen, Jimmie won his first career Road Course pole, but is still winless on a road course. Johnson has improved his road course skills, but Tony Stewart has just proven to be too much for the competition right now.
While Jimmie is a lock for the Chase, he still has a chance to be the points leader when the Chase begins, Hendrick drivers Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have each won at Michigan in the past season or two, and got great fuel mileage to do so, something that wasn’t on Jimmie’s side this past June. He ran out coming to the white flag, and finished 22nd. He’ll hope for much better this time around.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I honestly can’t see how his season can get any worse than it is. Yet at the same time I admire Junior for the upbeat attitude that he continues to carry, week to week. Last season, a bad pit decision by Tony Eury Jr. to keep Dale Jr. out on the track rather than pit cost the team not only a chance to win with a dominant car that had led many laps, it cost them a Top 20, and trigger the beginning of the end as they fell from second in the points, to ending the season twelfth, dead last in the Chase.
Despite a switch at crew chief, the downward spiral continues for the #88 team, with errors still being made by driver and crew chief. A brake failure that lead to a huge head on crash was the latest cause of disappointment for Junior this time around at Watkins Glen and taking Reed Sorenson out with him didn’t make him feel any better either.
Yes, Lance McGrew and Dale Jr. are still trying to work out the kinks in their partnership and develop a bond that is a rare find between drivers and crew chiefs. Alan Gustafson comes to mind here. Why? Because he’s seen it all. In his years as a crew chief for the #5, he’s coached a teenager (Kyle Busch), a 30 year old (Casey Mears) and now “old wrinkly”, 50 year old Mark Martin. Despite working with those three different styles and personalities, he has won multiple races with two of the three.
That success won’t be easy to come by for McGrew, at least not this season with the way things have gone for the #88 bunch. It’s still too early to question if Dale Jr. doesn’t have what it takes to win in Sprint Cup anymore, or even the Nationwide Series for that matter, but Michigan is the track where Earnhardt Jr. earned his last Cup and Nationwide win. History could be on his side, so could be fuel mileage. All he needs to do now is just set himself up for the finish, don’t beat yourself, and who knows, Junior can win this race the same way he won the 2008 LifeLock 400.
Mark Martin.
The last part of the 'Hendrick Struggles At The Glen', finished 22nd, better than Gordon and Junior, but still enough to keep the wily veteran in a “we're still in 13th mode”, despite the fact that they haven’t been outside the Chase since Daytona. Martin complained that they couldn’t find speed in the car all weekend long, and it obviously showed in the final result.
Martin finished on the lead lap, but behind the likes of Scott Speed and Paul Menard. At Daytona, an early crash relegated Martin to a 38th place finish, taking him from 11th to 13th in the standings. A similar result in any of the next four races will likely take Mark out of the hunt, for good.
If both Mark Martin and Kyle Busch miss the Chase, It will without a doubt re-spark the talk that there’s something wrong with the Chase if seven wins (between the two) don’t make it in, but four drivers without victories make it. (Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman)
The only solution for that situation? Just keep winning.
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