A little different for Hendrick

By Christian Potts
The Norman Transcript

February 28, 2008 12:34 am

— If two races are any indication, Rick Hendrick’s domination in the Car of Tomorrow is on the decline.
A year ago, Hendrick cars won nine of 16 races in the car the series has gone to full-time this season. Those races were run on short tracks or super-speedways. This year, the series will use the COT on every track, with this weekend the first time it will run on a 1.5-mile oval.
“We’ve said all along we’ve recognized a lot of teams have been right there,” said defending series champion Jimmie Johnson. “We did win a lot of events, led a lot of laps last year at Hendrick. But there were a lot of teams right there on our heels. It’s a little early I think to place judgment in either direction.”
True enough. Two races don’t make a season. But with Ryan Newman’s Dodge winning at Daytona and the Roush Ford of Carl Edwards capturing California, the first blows in this year’s battle for Sprint Cup supremacy have gone against Hendrick.
Part of last year’s results were due to how strong Hendrick was in general, with Johnson winning the title and Gordon finishing second. Former team member Kyle Busch was fifth, and Casey Mears also had his first win in 2007.
While 2008 hasn’t started quite that strong, don’t cry for Hendrick yet. Johnson and Gordon finished 2-3 behind Edwards at California, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked good almost all week at Daytona in his debut with his new team.
The whole team hopes to repeat the COT success it enjoyed on short tracks last year.
“We hope what we had last year still works and that we have good-driving cars like we had last year,” Johnson said. “But the intermediate tracks, it’s all new for every team. So it’s really a race right now in between the teams to find the right setup to establish the dominance or some type of advantage early in the season.”
Johnson talked about different aspects of the new car, from things the workers in the garage have to worry about to adjustments the driver has to make during competition. Much of it is technical, and every little bit that can shave hundredths of seconds off a driver’s lap time is critical.
“I think it’s a great challenge and I think it’s a great opportunity for whoever figures it all out first,” Johnson said. “Whatever driver understands those sensations first, the teams that can adjust to that is going to come out and really get off to a good start.”

Double duty
It’s not unusual for a Sprint Cup driver to fare well in the Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series. The previous two champions, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick, raced to their titles while also putting up strong seasons on the big series.
Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch is pulling a little different double so far. A win and a runnerup finish in the first two Craftsman Truck Series events see Busch leading the points on that series as well. He’ll run in front of his hometown fans at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.

Last year
Johnson won the last time out at Las Vegas for his third straight win at the track.
A victory in this week’s race (3:30 p.m. Sunday, FOX-25, Cox Channel 12) would help the defending Cup champion make a big jump from his early eighth position in the standings.
Christian Potts
366-3531
cpotts@normantranscript.com