Hendrick dominates the Lady in Black

May 11, 10:04 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Martin leads the Nedrcik domination at Darlington Getty Images/Jerry Markland

Hedrick teammates Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Brad Keslowski finished 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th respectively in Saturday night’s cup race at Darlington. Stewart-Haas teammates finished, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, finished 3rd and fourth. Since Stewart Haas cars are Hendrick chassis and are powered with Hendrick engines that mean Hendrick prepared cars finished in the first five positions at Darlington.

That is domination on a level we have never seen in this sport before.

It is now clear that the Hendrick camp has learned something that the other teams have not caught on to yet. It is also safe to assume whatever they have is within the rules since we have not heard of any violations lately.

Whatever little thing they have found they are clearly better then 80% of the other cars out there. However it may just be a simple as technology sharing. Remember NASCAR teams started going to multiple car team to help them gather data. Right now Hendrick has at least six competitive cars running around the track each week collecting data.

Since every Hendrick crew chief and the folks that prepare the Hendrick engines for Stewart-Haas have access to all of that data and set up notes for all the teams. When one finds something that works they quickly share it with all the rest.

Could this be why the Hendrick teams are running so well right now? Or is it too simple an explanation?

Well to be honest many teams have similar open door policies in place. It seems that the key to the Hendrick success is they have drivers who have similar driving styles and seem to like the same handle in the race car.

Think about it Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson all drive the cars alike. Not exactly alike but close enough where similar setups work for all of their drivers.

Now let us take a look at a team like Roush Racing where they have also have seven cars circling the track each and every week. There Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have a similar driving style, while matt Kenseth likes the cars set up differently and Jamie McMurray is to busy battling the voices in his own head. Add to that a virtual rookie in David Ragan and the two Yates cars that are not competitive yet.

The point to all this is more of the Hendrick guys are on the same page with set ups and driving styles when compared to the other NASCAR super teams. So far in 2009 it seems that this cohesion is leading to all the teams running extremely well. Beyond winning races they are all running in the top virtually every week, of course there still is something amiss on the #88 team.