HEMBREE: A Tale Of Two Chevrolets

Sprint Cup

HEMBREE: A Tale Of Two Chevrolets

While Hendrick Motorsports rolls en masse toward the Chase, RCR continues to struggle…

Mike Hembree | Posted August 11, 2012 Watkins Glen, NY

The cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Left) and Jimmie Johnson (Right) are built in the same shop on the Hendrick Motorsports campus. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

In the heat of this summer, while other teams seem content to wilt and/or wait, Hendrick Motorsports is recharging for a run at another Sprint Cup championship.

Although there is much racing to do, the question of the moment seems to be not whether Hendrick will win another title but rather which one of his drivers will do the deed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads the points and appears to be as confident as he’s been since the glory days at DEI. Jimmie Johnson is, well, Jimmie Johnson. Kasey Kahne holds a very shiny wild card with two victories. And Jeff Gordon’s luck seems finally to have turned.

As matters currently stand, all four would be in the Chase, filling fully one-third of the field.

Hendrick’s status at this point of the season really sparkles when compared to that of another prominent Chevrolet team that should be hanging around the top rungs of the sport but is not. That would be Richard Childress Racing.

Although RCR is hammering the opposition in the Nationwide Series, the team’s contraction from four to three Sprint Cup teams this season and personnel changes in the offseason have not produced success.

Hendrick enters Sunday’s Finger Lakes 355 at Watkins Glen with seven seasonal victories and all four drivers in the top 13 in points. RCR’s next race win this season will be its first. Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Paul Menard are winless, despite the fact that RCR produced six victories last season.

A more depressing note for the Welcome, N.C.-based team is its failure to run consistently at the front and be in position to grab a win when the circumstances allow. In the grand scheme of the Cup points system, it isn’t necessary to win races to succeed, but RCR drivers have struggled to stay in the top 10 at race finishes. While Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. have 15 top-10 runs, Harvick trails with nine, and Burton and Menard have only four each. Harvick, the team’s lead driver, has only three top fives.

Harvick is solidly in the Chase lineup, as he currently rides ninth in points. Menard (16th) and Burton (20th) are Chase longshots, at best.

Meanwhile, Clint Bowyer, who left RCR after last season to move to Michael Waltrip Racing, a transfer some termed risky, is an almost certain Chase participant with a solid standing in 10th. And he has a win at – of all places – a road course.

For RCR, there is a bunch of catching up to do in a limited amount of time.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

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