Based on personalities, changes at Hendrick could work

(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)

Posted: Thursday,November 25th, 2010

Was that Rick Hendrick or Richard Childress on Wednesday morning’s media conference call?

It was a prominent NASCAR Sprint Cup car owner, that’s certain. It was a car owner who okayed a late-season pit-crew change—in the middle of a race.

It was a car owner who had just announced a wholesale realignment of drivers and crew chiefs, one involving three of his four Cup teams.

It was a car owner who said his cars aren’t where they need to be, but whose teams had shown improvement toward the end of the season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet speaks with crew chief Lance McGrew (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Sound familiar? It was Richard Childress at the end of 2009. Right now, however, it really is Rick Hendrick.

Forget that Hendrick just won a fifth straight championship with driver Jimmie Johnson. The other three teams at HMS simply weren’t up to snuff this year. It was no cakewalk for Johnson, either. He won the title this year with what was, throughout the Chase, the third-fastest car.

Changes were warranted, and on Tuesday afternoon, Hendrick pulled the trigger.

For the record, it was more of a driver change than a crew-chief change. Jeff Gordon leaves the 24/48 shop (so named for the car numbers of Gordon and Johnson, respectively) to work with Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Mark Martin the past two seasons.

Martin gets Lance McGrew, who took over as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in June 2009. Earnhardt finished 25th and 21st in the Cup standings in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Steve Letarte, Gordon’s crew chief since the September 2005 race at New Hampshire, takes over Earnhardt’s cars.

“It’s probably one of the most radical moves I’ve made in my years in racing, to do this many at one time,” Hendrick said.

Shop personnel will stay put. Letarte remains in the 24/48 shop, which becomes the 48/88 with the addition of Earnhardt’s No. 88. Gordon’s cars will come from the newly christened 5/24 shop, which he will share with Martin’s No. 5 Chevrolet. The championship pairing of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus remains intact.

Hendrick said the moves were designed to make all four teams better.

“Knowing that the motors, the chassis and the bodies are all the same, then it’s got to be the combination of chemistry inside the teams,” Hendrick said.

Typically, moves like this tend to favor one combination over another, but in this case, the changes may serve Hendrick’s stated purpose.

Pairing Gordon with the cerebral Gustafson should help Gordon, who admitted before the season started that the communication and quality of feedback between him and Letarte needed improvement.

Symbolically, moving Gordon out of the 24/48 shop moves him out of the giant shadow of Johnson and Knaus. Gordon is a four-time champion, but he hasn’t won a title since Johnson arrived on the scene in 2002. The move also facilitates the hiring of Ray Evernham, Gordon’s crew chief for three of his championships, as a part-time consultant, which Hendrick concedes is a possibility.

Evernham likely would establish his base in the 5/24 shop. With Knaus and Johnson holding five championships, the old 24/48 shop might not be big enough to house the eight crew-chief titles. And who could blame Gordon for tiring of playing second fiddle in a two-fiddle orchestra?

Letarte is the most outgoing and indefatigably positive of the Hendrick crew chiefs. In that respect, he might be perfect for Earnhardt, who needs a cheerleader as much as he needs a tech-savvy guru on the pit box.

Hendrick intimated Wednesday that Earnhardt has suffered a crisis of confidence. Letarte may be just the guy to bolster Earnhardt’s belief in himself.

Earnhardt endorsed the move Wednesday.

“Rick Hendrick is someone I trust wholeheartedly, and any decision he makes inside or outside his organization is something I support. He is a 10-time champion owner, and that speaks directly to his ability to lead,” Earnhardt said in a statement on his website. “I am committed to give Steve Letarte and the new team 100 percent of my effort. I spoke with Steve [Tuesday] night, and his enthusiasm really pumped me up to the point I wish we were going to the track this weekend.

“I really enjoyed working with Lance (McGrew), and I want to thank him and everyone on that team for their hard work.”

The knee-jerk reaction is to say that Martin, who will complete his contract with Hendrick in 2011 and step aside in favor of Kasey Kahne, got the short end of the exchange, but to tar McGrew based solely on his association with Earnhardt is a mistake. McGrew won the Nationwide Series championship with Brian Vickers in 2003 and worked with Vickers on the Cup side in 2005-2006.

Yes, Martin is never reluctant heap praise on Gustafson, but McGrew isn’t a hand-me-down, either. And with Gordon and Martin in the same shop, both drivers will continue to benefit from Gustafson’s expertise.

The bottom line is that this could work.

The subtext is that, from the standpoints of Earnhardt and Letarte, it had better.

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