(By Sarah Farlee Associate Editor, CupScene.com)
Posted: Thursday,November 26th, 2009
Rick Hendrick has full Thanksgiving plate this year, but one thing he’ll be feasting on after the holiday – getting Dale Earnhardt, Jr. competitive again.
Hendrick Motorsports has a banner 25th Anniversary year. An eighth championship – four consecutive, sweeping the top three point’s positions, 13 wins, 48 top-five finishes, 76 top-10 finishes and 12 poles.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. only accounted for two top-five finishes and just five top-10 finishes. Earnhardt only led 146 laps in 2009 Sprint Cup competition, no doubt the worst statistics in his 10 year career.
(Getty Iamges)
“Well, you know, you see this happen,” said Rick Hendrick of performance decline in drivers. “I’ve seen it happen with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie had a slump back around last year about the time we were in Vegas. You just go through these.”
“We know we can make the team better,” said Hendrick. “It’s frustrating, and it’s, you know, the driver begins to think that no matter what he does, that something’s going to happen, because we just had – we’ve had failures. We’ve had wrecks. We’ve just had a – if it could happen, it happened to that team.”
The team endured some major changes. In June current crew chief Lance McGrew took over the struggling team, replacing Tony Eury, Jr., Earnhardt’s cousin who followed him to Hendrick Motorsports from Dale Earnhardt, Inc. As the Chase for the Sprint Cup started – minus Earnhardt, who finished the season 25th in the standings – the team looked to be improving. McGrew built cars began making debuts and Earnhardt earned a second starting spot at Kansas, but the finishes just weren’t there.
“It’s been really frustrating because about the start of the chase, the team was running better,” said Hendrick. “It was probably the best car in Loudon, and it got swept up in a wreck.”
“And we’ve had all the motors and all the transmissions and gears done in the same place. We had transmission failure, and we had a motor failure,” Hendrick added. “The other guys didn’t experience that the chase.”
Hendrick’s ‘other guys’ finished one, two and three in final Sprint Cup point’s standings, the first time in NASCAR history one owner has swept the top three spots. Hendrick says that even though Earnhardt had good runs, bad luck bit the most popular driver.
“So when he’s running good, something happened,” said Hendrick, who adds the team needs to get better all the way around and that when the driver sees improvement – confidence will undoubtedly return.
“We’re all over it,” said Hendrick of team improvements. “And we’ve been all over it.”
Hendrick says his focus is on the fourth team at HMS, and it’s something he wants to start right away.
“My priority – my primary focus here starting this week, starting Monday, really,” Hendrick said.
(By Sarah Farlee, CupScene.com Senior Staff Writer)
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