HEMBREE: Shed No Tears For The 48 Bunch

Sprint Cup

HEMBREE: Shed No Tears For The 48 Bunch

Despite penalties and possible suspensions, Hendrick Motorsports should continue to shine…

Mike Hembree | Posted March 02, 2012 Avondale, AZ

Jimmie Johnson (Left) and Chad Knaus (Right) have seen their share of scrapes with NASCAR over rules infractions. (Photo: Getty Images)

Whether the C posts on Jimmie Johnson’s Daytona 500 race car were illegal under NASCAR’s rules remains a question that won’t be fully dealt with until the appeals process runs its course.

As of the moment, it’s a “he said, she said” kind of situation, with team owner Rick Hendrick and crew chief Chad Knaus saying the same configuration had been approved at earlier races and NASCAR saying that, even if true, that doesn’t matter.

Of course, NASCAR carries the bigger voice – and bigger hammer – in this matter.

Not at issue here, however, is this: Even if Knaus winds up with a forced vacation of sorts, the impact at Hendrick Motorsports will be small.

The Hendrick team is like the best professional football, baseball and basketball franchises. It has a lot of bodies, to be sure (about 500 employees), but, more importantly, it has depth.

Take a key lineman away from the New York Giants, and another guy with bulk and power fills in. The top baseball teams typically have murderers-row type lineups that depend on strong backups.

At Hendrick, there are backups for backups for backups.

“Whatever ends up happening post-appeal, I have a lot of confidence in Hendrick Motorsports and the depth we have in our organization,” Johnson said Friday. “We will respond to whatever we need to then.”

Hendrick has experience in these matters, Knaus being among the most penalized team personnel in NASCAR history. In 2006, he was booted for four races and was replaced as crew chief during that run by Darian Grubb (now Denny Hamlin’s crew chief). Johnson won two races – including the Daytona 500 – of the four with Grubb in charge.

It’s also worth pointing out that, even with a suspension, Knaus will continue to work his magic at the Hendrick shop, so the Johnson cars delivered to each track will be among the best on the grid (and, by the way, perhaps the most closely scrutinized).

The extreme downside for the 48 team in all this is the point penalty. Even if you’re not a Sprint Cup driver, you currently have more points than Johnson, who, having earned only two at Daytona and having lost 25 to the penalty, sits at negative 23.

So, it will be a long climb back to point respectability for Johnson. In almost every case, it’s the point deductions that hurt the most in these situations.

As Johnson pointed out Friday, however, the 48 group, even if it struggles to regain point prominence, has the fallback of shooting for race victories to make the Chase.

And, by the way, Johnson has won four times – more than any other driver in NASCAR history – at Phoenix.

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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