FONTANA, Calif. — With NASCAR’s Gen-6 race car making its debut this year, and with five distinctly different race tracks opening the schedule, it should be no surprise that race teams are still trying to discover ideal setups for their cars.
In the case of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, a win in the Daytona 500 and a third-place standing in the points provide more latitude for experimentation than most other drivers enjoy. That’s not to say though, that working with radically different setups isn’t endemic to the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization.
“We’re still on the fence right now, and we have things going on with the front suspension on the car where we’ve been racing one way, we’re considering another way, and we’ll change it in and out during practice,” Johnson said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. “Even the rear spring rates and such — just trying to get that under control with what the attitude of the car wants to be.
“We don’t have a deep notebook yet. At Bristol (last Sunday), I would say, even though it’s a small track, would be probably the best example of all four (Hendrick Motorsports) teams going in different directions.”
Johnson ran well at Bristol before he blew a right front tire and smacked the outside wall late in the race. Teammate Kasey Kahne, running a significantly different setup, won at Bristol for the first time.
“I felt like Kasey and I were pretty competitive throughout the race — and he certainly won — but our front ends on our race cars couldn’t have been more different,” Johnson said. “They were polar opposites, but we were both very fast and competitive all day long.
“With this new car, there are still quite a few things to sort out, and so, yeah, one of our four cars at least will race with a big unknown just because… why not? It’s that time of the year to explore and experiment.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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