NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
CUP: Under The Hood - It’s All About The Team
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon each has five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship titles...
SPEED Staff  |  Posted September 08, 2010   Charlotte, NC
“Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State” is a series of behind-the-scenes articles about Hendrick Motorsports.
Editor’s note: “Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State” is a series of behind-the-scenes looks at what Hendrick Motrosports does to remain at the front of the hyper-competitive world of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. This week, Hendricks leadership talks teamwork.

On Sept. 19, the Chase for the Sprint Cup will begin at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. For Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, the Chase means a shot at a fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Since 1995, Hendrick drivers have captured nine of the 15 Sprint Cup titles contested in that period, and a large measure of success is because of teamwork. All four drivers and teams at Hendrick have full and equal access to the equipment and information as the others. Every crew chief opens his notebook to the other. And it will be that way again in this year’s Chase.

Team owner Rick Hendrick, a pioneer of the multi-car team concept, began encouraging cooperation as far back as 1986 when Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond drove for him. After a few starts, in the late 1990s he drew a line in the sand and insisted that all his people work together — if they couldn’t cooperate, they’d have to race elsewhere.

“The important thing is in the organization for everyone to believe that if we work together and share information and make each other better, at the end of the day one's gonna out‑perform somehow the other three,” says Hendrick.

“You just have to believe in that and Rick really makes it clear that that’s his expectation of everyone,” says Doug Duchardt, Hendrick’s vice president of development. “So you don’t change what you’ve been doing all year when you get to the Chase and you’re racing each other. If you a crew chief, and you’re leading a discussion, it’s just as open and frank as it was before the Chase.”

And even though their cars won’t be in the Chase this time around, Hendrick drivers Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt and their teams still have vital team duties, too, trying to learn as much as they can for the 2011 season, information that will be shared among all four cars.

“This is a good opportunity for us to be aggressive about pushing our cars, our team, our pit crew, every phase of this team to the max without fear of going over,” says Alan Gustafson, crew chief of Martin’s No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. “Not being in the Chase, we can take those chances. If we do that and do it successfully then we know we'll be in good shape for 2011. That's my goal.”

There is no quit in any of the teams. Not know or at any point in the season.

“We're going to push really hard,” says Gustafson. “Be incredibly aggressive. Face our demons. We're not burying our head in the sand. It's all on our shoulders, mine especially. I'll take the weight. I'm going to look at where we went wrong and aggressively pursue correcting those problems.”

That’s the expectation that comes from working with a championship organization like Hendrick Motorsports.

“When you have a sport like this one — it reminds me a lot of college football — there is a lot of money involved, there is a lot of sponsors involved, it is a very high-pressure situation,” says Steve Letarte crew chief of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet driven by Jeff Gordon.

And so, with the Chase on the horizon, there are two goals for Hendrick Motorsports at the moment: Win a fifth championship for either or Gordon or Johnson, and get ready to mount another title assault in 2011, when the bar will be raised yet again.

“We know we've got to get better,” says Hendrick. “And I'm really happy with my whole group and the way they work together.”

“We aren’t where we want to be yet, but we’ve been in this position before in years past and gone into the Chase looking for a little bit of speed and we’ve found it, so I’m not too concerned with where we are,” said Johnson. “I think it’s going to be exciting. You’ve got Jeff [Gordon] who has been real consistent, you’ve got Roush cars coming back, you’ve got all three RCR cars showing a lot of speed, and Gibbs cars—we expect them to start the Chase and be strong and be right there. I think it’s going to be a very interesting Chase.”

Read more... “Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State”
speed_staff's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SPEED Staff

SPEED.com

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.