Reality check

All things equal, Hendrick teams flourishing

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- The perception of Hendrick Motorsports used to be that superstar Jeff Gordon got all the best parts and pieces and everyone else got the leftovers.

Car owner Rick Hendrick tried for years to disprove that, but few believed him.

Now he's got proof: A different Hendrick car has won three of the past four races and his fourth Winston Cup car won a pole.

For the first time in a long time, it looks as if Hendrick's teams are almost equal from top to bottom.

"We try and preach the chemistry, that if we work together and try to learn from each other, we'll be better off," Hendrick said. "Based on the level of competition, this is the best that all four have been."

Gordon scored his first win of the year April 13 in Martinsville, Va. Two races later, Terry Labonte won the pole in Richmond and teammate Joe Nemechek won the race.

Jimmie Johnson then capped the run Saturday by passing Gordon to take the lead and go on to win The Winston, NASCAR's $1 million all-star race.

Headed into the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, all four Hendrick cars are considered legitimate contenders.

"As an outsider looking in, I don't know how I felt about who got what," said Nemechek, who celebrates his first anniversary at Hendrick this weekend. "Now being here, I know what resources are made available and we should all have an opportunity to win every week.

"All the teams are equal, everybody talks, and the communication between the teams is really good."

The teams are able to work together despite being separated at Hendrick's sprawling Charlotte racing complex. Gordon and Johnson's teams are housed in one shop atop a hill that overlooks the two separate buildings Nemechek and Labonte are in.

Gordon has always believed the car owner wanted all his teams to work together. But now that he has equity in the organization, he's positive the data, ideas and technology flows down the hill to everyone else.

"Rick has always made it clear he wants us to share all of our information," Gordon said. "And I think it's happening because right now, everybody from top to bottom is on the same page. Everybody gets along, everybody respects each other and everybody operates with an open-door policy."

There were whispers things weren't always that way, dating back to 1996 when Gordon and Labonte battled for the Winston Cup championship. They finished 1-2 in the standings, but the spirit of cooperation among teammates wasn't there for the crew chiefs.

Gordon doesn't think the secrecy of those years was intentional; rather, it was a difference of styles.

"The 24 car was fairly new and was open to trying new things," Gordon said. "And I think [Labonte's team members] just had their own way of doing things.

"Now, times have changed, and everyone has to be open to everything to be successful in this sport."

Johnson, in only his second season at Hendrick Motorsports, says he has noticed an improvement in teamwork since last year.

Hendrick has always given all the teams the same access to resources, then left it up to each crew chief to apply them. So if the crew chiefs all differed in how they set the cars up, it was possible the Hendrick cars started each race running completely different setups.

But Johnson said Hendrick has been careful with his recent hires, only adding people who could fit in with the crews already in place.

"I think you saw that with [Nemechek's] crew when Peter Sospenzo was hired last year as the crew chief," Johnson said. "They brought in someone who could work with the guys who were already assembled, someone with a similar personality to the people we already have in place.

"It just makes it a lot easier to stay within the spirit of team work."

But there's still times when it's every driver for himself, proven in April at Talladega when all four Hendrick cars were running up front in the waning laps of the race.

But rather than hook up and push each other to the front, the four spread out all over the track.

As a result, Johnson, who had the strongest car, had no teamwork to help him win the race.

"Talladega is just a very different place," Gordon said. "It's easy to work together when you are running 1-2, but in traffic, it's hard to get four guys together at a place like that and all of you have the same approach."

Regardless, Hendrick's operation is as close to being even as it's ever been and will probably trickle down to his Busch Series teams, where heralded teenagers Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch are being groomed as Hendrick's future stars.

Vickers, 19, has already proven to be a threat in every race and Busch, 18, has won both ARCA races Hendrick entered him in and will make his Busch debut Saturday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"This is an incredible organization all the way down the line," Busch said. "We have tremendous equipment and resources and for a young guy like myself, having those four Winston Cup drivers to turn to for help and advice is incredible."

 

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