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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Alan Gustafson, the crew chief of the No. 5 GoDaddy Chevrolet, driven by Mark Martin for Hendrick Motorsports joined the media on a teleconference call where we had our way with picking his brains on various subjects.
The chat bounce around a bit and here are a few bits on different subjects:
When asked about how he approaches setting up a car for the 26th Annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he said that normally when you set a car up, it has to be free (loose) at the beginning of a long run. But for the All-Star race with the short runs, he looks to set up the car to be tighter at the front end of the run!
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This is part 2 of a 2 part series from a media teleconference interview that Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson participated in with the media… huh, that’s redundant. Media teleconference, with the media. Eh… It’s Friday!
PART 2 of 2 (See part 1 of the Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson intervew)
Q: In terms of sort of intensity of sitting atop the pit box, where does that race rank?
CHAD KNAUS: Right now not as intense as Homestead this weekend is going to be.
The one thing that I think you have to have in this industry is a short term memory. I can’t exactly tell you how that all played out that weekend. I know the stress level was high and intensity was high. The 97 car sat on the pole, the 24 car qualified well, we qualified well.
Q; Ray Evernham said that in order to be a really great crew chief you’ve got to have the willingness to kind of give up the other portions of your life while you’re doing it. Do you find that’s true, in order to be really dedicated to the team, that you have to let some other things go?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, it’s definitely a balance, and those are decisions that you’ve got to make. … Somebody is going to dedicate their life 24/7, 365, to their trade and their sport and their craft and they’re going to continuously get better.
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This if the first of a 2 part series
On Tuesday Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson were gracious enough to participate in a media teleconference to chat about a few things.
Hmm, what could be on everyone’s minds this week? Let’s find out! The following are excerpts from the teleconference.
How Alan Gustafson Views How 2009 Went
It’s been a real successful season for us. You know, getting Mark on board was obviously a huge step in the right direction, and being able to win five races and contend down to the wire for the championship and have a shot at Homestead has been good. It’s been a great season, and the guys have accomplished a lot and really looking forward to going to Homestead. It’s a really fun track to race on.
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