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JENSEN: Hendrick Domination Continues
Hendrick Motorsports has won six of the last 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup races…
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 30, 2012   Indianapolis, IN
Team owner Rick Hendrick (Left) and Jimmie Johnson,(Right) celebrate after Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
It wasn’t that long ago — early May to be exact — when the biggest storyline in NASCAR was, what’s wrong with Hendrick Motorsports?

Heading into the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington, the four-car Hendrick team had been winless in 16 consecutive races, an eternity by Hendrick standards. Team owner Rick Hendrick was stuck on 199 career race victories and it didn’t seem like 200 was ever going to come.

In his pre-race media availability at Darlington, Matt Kenseth was asked what he thought was wrong at Hendrick. “Yeah, I really feel bad for those guys,” Kenseth deadpanned, laughing. “They’ve only won five out of the last six championships. Those guys are really on a tough run. I hope they get it straightened out.”

As it turned out, Hendrick quickly got things going in the right direction.

Johnson won at Darlington, then followed up with a victory in the Sprint All-Star race.

The following week, Kasey Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte.

Then, Johnson won at Dover.

After a Joey Logano victory at Pocono, Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a four-year winless streak with a triumph at Michigan.

Hendrick then went winless for three weeks, although all four Hendrick drivers finished in the top six at Kentucky.

At New Hampshire, Kahne won, with the other three finishing in the top seven.

And in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Johnson crushed the field, with Earnhardt fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth.

For those of you keeping score at home, Hendrick Motorsports opened the season 0 for 10 and now has won six of the last 10 races. Earnhardt leads the points and Johnson is tied with Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski for most race victories with three.

While Stewart conclusively proved last year that a driver can come out of nowhere to win in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, right now it looks as though the Hendrick armada is going to be awfully tough to beat.

Want a sobering statistic?

So far this season, Johnson has led 912 laps. The No. 2 man in that category is Greg Biffle at 566. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon are the only other drivers to lead as many as 400 laps.

Team owner Hendrick, who has now won eight of 19 Brickyard 400s, said Sunday he has a lot of faith in his team.

“The equipment is so equal today, but you've got to look at the talent Jimmie has and the talent Chad (Knaus, crew chief) has and the pit crew and everything else, the feedback, the communications. I've never seen a guy that could drive a car as out of control and make it look in control as Jimmie can,” said Hendrick. “These two are phenomenal together, and I'm just glad I don't have to race against them.”

Knaus echoed Hendrick’s sentiment. Asked how he’s remained at Hendrick so long when the crew chief position traditionally has so much turnover, Knaus said he didn’t want to ever have to race against Hendrick.

“I'll be honest with you, if you're asking me directly, I know what we've got at Hendrick Motorsports, and I can tell you right now, I can't go anywhere else and beat what we've got at Hendrick Motorsports because I know what everybody else has,” Knaus said. “We've got the best owner … we've got the best equipment, and I think that we react quicker, faster, better than everybody else. We've got the best drivers.”

That much was evident on Sunday, when Johnson won his record-tying fourth Brickyard 400 in dominating fashion, leading 99 of 160 laps and setting the race record for margin of victory.

So just 10 races after everyone was wondering when Hendrick would win again, the question is now, can anyone stop them from winning another title this year?

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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