2008 Woodie Awards
Pete's Inside Corner - HMS still rules Cup pack
Peter Fournier
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Sports
With Daytona 500 qualifying and the last "Budweiser Shootout" already in the books this NASCAR Sprint Cup season, it seems Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) left off where they were last season: ahead of the pack and pulling away.
Hendrick's newest addition, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won the Bud Shootout Saturday night, and defending/back-to-back champion Jimmie Johnson won the pole for the Daytona 500. This is after last year's domination by Hendrick, with the team winning 18 of the season's 36 races and having two drivers (Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson) in the NEXTEL Cup standings.
Now albeit I'm a Jeff Gordon/HMS fan, but even I hate a three-headed monster out on the track every race for car owner Rick Hendrick. It makes the team look like the New York Yankees, New England Patriots, and San Antonio Spurs of NASCAR: the team everybody wants squashed and blown into an oblivion because most of them bought their ways to greatness (or in the Patriots case, cheated). But I would say that Hendrick and Gordon didn't buy their ways to winning from the start.
Gordon was a young boy when his family moved from Vallejo, CA to Pittsboro, IN to expand Gordon's racing career. Jeff became a USAC Midget and Silver Crown champion in his latter-teen years before making the move to stock cars.
Hendrick started a single-car team from scratch in the mid-1980's. It wasn't until he spotted a young man racing wildly around the race track at a Busch series event that his team was truly born.
That day, Hendrick saw Jeff Gordon keep his car in-check enough to win the race, which led the car owner to sign both Gordon and then-crew chief Ray Evernham to contracts. It would turnout to be one of the best decisions Hendrick's made in his life.
HMS' great driver-crew chief duo won three Winston Cup Championships and two Daytona 500s before they split during the 2000 season, with Evernham leaving to start his own team with Dodge.
The point is that the HMS stable has gone big the real way: scouting talent and having lots of patience with it. They didn't release Jeff after not failing to finish a race his rookie year, or trying his hardest to be first at the end of the day while making enemies in the process.
Now fast-forward to the Sprint Cup series today. Gordon and Johnson are essentially hated by the NASCAR fan base for winning almost every award possible while new HMS driver Dale Jr. is loved because, well he's "daddy's boy," and one of the few things HMS has "bought."
So it will be a funny irony for Jr. fans to see him winning races this year. In one voice, they will never stop cheering for Dale Sr.'s son, but will mutter under their breath for that HMS team to die, not realizing Jr. is on the team. And unlike his time with Dale Earnhardt Inc., he shows no signs of jumping ship.
In the end it's a success story for Rick Hendrick. Years of patience have paid off, and now the benefits of having, arguably, the three biggest names in NASCAR on the same team will be reaping in. Oh yeah, aren't Gordon and Jr. No. 1 and 2 in merchandise sales?
Hendrick's newest addition, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won the Bud Shootout Saturday night, and defending/back-to-back champion Jimmie Johnson won the pole for the Daytona 500. This is after last year's domination by Hendrick, with the team winning 18 of the season's 36 races and having two drivers (Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson) in the NEXTEL Cup standings.
Now albeit I'm a Jeff Gordon/HMS fan, but even I hate a three-headed monster out on the track every race for car owner Rick Hendrick. It makes the team look like the New York Yankees, New England Patriots, and San Antonio Spurs of NASCAR: the team everybody wants squashed and blown into an oblivion because most of them bought their ways to greatness (or in the Patriots case, cheated). But I would say that Hendrick and Gordon didn't buy their ways to winning from the start.
Gordon was a young boy when his family moved from Vallejo, CA to Pittsboro, IN to expand Gordon's racing career. Jeff became a USAC Midget and Silver Crown champion in his latter-teen years before making the move to stock cars.
Hendrick started a single-car team from scratch in the mid-1980's. It wasn't until he spotted a young man racing wildly around the race track at a Busch series event that his team was truly born.
That day, Hendrick saw Jeff Gordon keep his car in-check enough to win the race, which led the car owner to sign both Gordon and then-crew chief Ray Evernham to contracts. It would turnout to be one of the best decisions Hendrick's made in his life.
HMS' great driver-crew chief duo won three Winston Cup Championships and two Daytona 500s before they split during the 2000 season, with Evernham leaving to start his own team with Dodge.
The point is that the HMS stable has gone big the real way: scouting talent and having lots of patience with it. They didn't release Jeff after not failing to finish a race his rookie year, or trying his hardest to be first at the end of the day while making enemies in the process.
Now fast-forward to the Sprint Cup series today. Gordon and Johnson are essentially hated by the NASCAR fan base for winning almost every award possible while new HMS driver Dale Jr. is loved because, well he's "daddy's boy," and one of the few things HMS has "bought."
So it will be a funny irony for Jr. fans to see him winning races this year. In one voice, they will never stop cheering for Dale Sr.'s son, but will mutter under their breath for that HMS team to die, not realizing Jr. is on the team. And unlike his time with Dale Earnhardt Inc., he shows no signs of jumping ship.
In the end it's a success story for Rick Hendrick. Years of patience have paid off, and now the benefits of having, arguably, the three biggest names in NASCAR on the same team will be reaping in. Oh yeah, aren't Gordon and Jr. No. 1 and 2 in merchandise sales?
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