Hendrick Team Confident Of Changes Hendrick Motorsports switched crew chiefs on
three of its four teams for 2011... Tom Jensen Posted January 30, 2011 Charlotte, NC(Left to Right) Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, team owner Rick Hendrick, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. , shown during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour at Hendrick Motorsports on January 26, 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)
When Jimmie Johnson won his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship last November, it somewhat obscured the fact that the rest of his teammates at Hendrick Motorsports suffered through disappointing 2010 seasons.Maybe the rest of the world saw another Johnson championship, but internally, the team knew that their performance was off.Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, three drivers who collectively have 140 Sprint Cup victories, went winless in 2010, and team owner Rick Hendrick recognized that he needed to do something and do it quickly.And so, 48 hours after Johnson’s record victory, Hendrick dropped a bombshell: Gordon would be pulled out of the shop he and Johnson had shared since 2002, with Earnhardt moving in and teaming up there with crew chief Steve Letarte, who had been Gordon’s pit boss since late in the 2005 season.Gordon moved over into the other team’s shop, picking up Alan Gustafson as his crew chief and sharing the building with Mark Martin and his new crew chief, Lance McGrew, who formerly worked with Earnhardt. It was a bold step, but one Hendrick thought was necessary. From a technology standpoint, the team was not as quick to adapt to the changeover from rear wing to spoiler as some of the other teams were, and he felt the organization had perhaps grown a little complacent as well. Having made the change, though, Hendrick said he’s pleased by the new energy his team is demonstrating. “It’s awesome to start the New Year,” said Hendrick. “I don’t think as an organization we were as strong as the competition. We were thinking about it during the year and selecting the lineup. We didn’t want to go outside the walls. All of our employees show and do their best. I think we will have a good year and that we will all work together, and I will be happy. I have a lot of confidence in the organization.”The combinations are intriguing: According to Hendrick, Letarte has the best interpersonal skills among the crew chiefs, something Earnhardt should respond well to. By the same token, Gustafson is a talented and sophisticated engineer, which ought to benefit the experienced Gordon. And although they would never say so publicly, Martin and McGrew probably feel like they have something to prove after last year, when McGrew was pilloried for Earnhardt’s woes and Martin was wrongly rumored to be on his way out in 2011 to make room for Kasey Kahne, who will join the team in 2012. Today, no one knows how the combinations will fare once the season begins. But the team members believe the changes will be good.Gordon, the most senior of the four drivers, said Hendrick did what he had to do. “A lot of changes, but I think a lot of positive changes,” said Gordon. “I think sometimes things need to be shaken up a bit, and I think that was Rick’s goal with this move, the internal move.”Gordon feels his old crew chief and Earnhardt could be a potent force. “They’re going to mesh up very well together,” Gordon said of Earnhardt and Letarte. “Steve has a lot of personality. He’s a real people person. He knows how to read people. He knows how to motivate people.
“Every one of our crew chiefs has their certain strengths. ... It’s pretty well known that Dale is pretty quiet and I think, kind of like opposites attracting, I think they’re going to be really good for one another.”Earnhardt, too, is bullish.“I’m thankful to have the opportunity in this sport that I have,” he said. This is the best of my career. I’m looking forward to just getting started. We had a good Daytona test in January. We have seen all the teams practice well. A lot of the work goes on in the shop, and you don’t see it, so I think we have a good opportunity. I think the more we are around the race car, the better we can be for the season. We have to understand what makes each of us tick a little better.”
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