Rick Hendrick kept saying that we’ll hear about it after the season sometime. I didn’t realize that he meant we’ll hear about crew shuffles almost immediately after the final race where Jimmie Johnson wins his fifth straight championship in a row. But under the roof of Hendrick Motorsports, trouble was simmering to a point of brewing.
Jeff Gordon finished 9th in the standings with 17 top-10′s. Mark Martin, 13th… with 11 top-10′s and Dale Earnhardt Jr came in 21st with only 8 top-10′s.
Rick Hendrick made some changes at “The Inn.”
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Crew chief Lance McGrew couldn’t tame the beast and was moved to the No. 5 of Mark Martin.
- Jeff Gordon: Almost but not quite, but with a decent show for the year, Steve Letarte moves into the box-top of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s No. 88 car.
- Mark Martin: Alan Gustafson moves over to helm Jeff Gordon’s team.
But wait, that’s not all.
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The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Quandary
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What is Hendrick Motorsports supposed to do with Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Right now, as Jenna Fryer put it, the No. 88 team is 1-for-95. HMS has poured everything they have into the team and yet the team does not work. The other teams under the HMS roof are working just fine, being in 2nd, 5th, 13th and the No. 88 team sits in 17th.
I hate saying this but after 2 crew chiefs, Lance McGrew being the latest, and new team members for this year on the No. 88 squad, there is only one common denominator.
Jenna Fryer thinks that through masterful, chess like moves in placing staff members, she thinks Alan Gustafson would be the right person for this job.
Dale Jr. is in his 3rd of a 5-year contract. Is Dale too star-struck by his own fame that the humble receptors that would hear a crew-chief aren’t working any more? Are his businesses really that distracting? I honestly can’t imagine that, though when Kyle Petty spent a year not being general manager of his own team he performed a lot better. (Don’t ask… I can’t specifically remember the year, but I remember doing the stats for it.)
I don’t know if they’re doing it, but maybe the house of Hendrick needs to determine who Dale drives more like, and set him up with those setups to see what takes.
I’ve also carefully watched Dale on-track. Sometimes it seems like he’s very stubborn about the line he drives, even when others do a bit better in other lines. I get having faith in a process, but maybe that process requires change in the cockpit.
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