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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Hendrick Wants Earnhardt’s Problems Fixed
Rick Hendrick is counting on his crew chiefs to resurrect the No. 88 program...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 03, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Left) and Rick Hendrick (Right) are seeking success for the No. 88 team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: Getty Images)

In most respects, the 2009 season has been an embarrassment of riches for Hendrick Motorsports. Now, team owner Rick Hendrick is focusing the company’s considerable resources on fixing the one part of it that’s merely been embarrassing.

Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon are 1-2-3 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points right now, and barring a collapse of epic proportions, Johnson will set a NASCAR record with his fourth consecutive Cup championship. It will be Hendrick’s ninth Cup title as a car owner in the last 15 years, and the second time in a row he’s won four straight.

Yet for all the success, the crushing disappointment of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s season weighs heavily on Hendrick’s shoulders. While Hendrick’s top three drivers have combined for 10 poles, 12 victories, 42 top-five and 64 top-10 finish, Earnhardt is pole-less and winless, with just two top-five and five top-10 finishes. He is now ranked 23 in the Cup points standings. And that doesn’t set well with Hendrick.

Earnhardt, after all, is NASCAR’s most popular driver, and when he struggles, Hendrick and his minions hear about it from the millions of diehard Earnhardt loyalists, to the sponsors who fork over tens of millions of dollars to festoon the No. 88 Chevrolet with their logos.

“It’s hard to come out here and have the three cars sitting up front and then a car that’s struggling,” Hendrick said prior to Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, where Earnhardt finished 11th, his first time inside the top 20 in eight races. “And you see the kind of problems that they’re having and we’re not supposed to have those kinds of problems.”

But the team is not standing still.

Last Friday, Hendrick removed the word “interim” from the title of Earnhardt’s crew chief, Lance McGrew, who has been calling the shots for Earnhardt since the first Dover race in the spring.

Behind the scenes, McGrew and Alan Gustafson, Mark Martin’s crew chief, have been working hard on a turnaround strategy for the team. The way Hendrick is structured, the cars of Gordon and Johnson run out of one building on the Hendrick campus in Concord, N.C., while another building houses the Martin and Earnhardt teams.

“The way that deal needs to work, is it needs to have the two crew chiefs working to build one team that’s going to run two cars,” said Hendrick. “And that’s what they’re committed to do.
We know where some of the weak links are, and we’ve already started to address them. … I’m convinced after talking to Alan and Lance and mapping out some strategies, we’re going to be able to make the whole deal a lot better, so I’m excited about it.”


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Tom Jensen

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