Posts tagged HendrickMotorsports at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

After blowing up colorful projectiles in the name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.

For a NASCAR beat writer, Friday afternoon would have been an easy day to pump out the stories at Daytona International Speedway. Here's why:

Denny Hamlin Wins No. 9 for No. 20: Hamlin scored the ninth win of the 2008 season for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Nationwide Series Friday night in Daytona, further solidifying my point about Joey Logano. Simply, the No. 20 is unstoppable, whether or not Hamlin, Logano, Tony Stewart, or Kyle Busch is in the driver's seat.

Hamlin held off Sprint Cup teammate Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish sprint to the finish line. Brad Keselowski led the most laps but wound up 10th according to NASCAR.com in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

In a quick side note about the race, David Poole of the Charlotte Observer made an interesting point about the Nationwide Series entry list:

Here's a sobering thought for you. Morgan Shepherd is 66 years old. James Hylton is 73 years old. Kerry Earnhardt hasn't driven a race car in a year. All three of those drivers were cleared by NASCAR to compete in Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Joey Logano just turned 18 and has already won a Nationwide Series race. [...] Logano was not approved to race Friday at Daytona.

Interesting.

Paul Menard Overshadows Teammate's Trouble: I promise, FanHousers, I didn't mean to jinx Martin Truex Jr. with my prediction in Thursday's "Chase Bubbler" feature.

After blowing up colorful projectiles in the name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.

With Casey Mears gone from Hendrick Motorsports after 2008, team owner Rick Hendrick doesn't appear to be wasting any time in announcing who will pilot the now vacant No. 5 Chevrolet.

HMS released a statement Tuesday saying that it will announce during a 12:30pm/ET news conference Friday at Daytona International Speedway who will indeed be behind the wheel of the No. 5.

Sources across the 'net are saying that 49-year-old Mark Martin will most likely be introduced as that driver -- in a full-time role for a one-off effort at a Sprint Cup title.

Coincidentally, Aric Almirola was confirmed as the full-time driver of the No. 8 U.S. Army DEI Chevrolet for 2009 and beyond, removing Martin from his part-time role with the team. Martin hasn't driven full-time in Sprint Cup since 2006.

Casey Mears is officially leaving Hendrick Motorsports, effective at the end of 2008.

Mears, currently 24th in the Sprint Cup standings, leaves Hendrick after never doing anything that impressive while in the driver seat at the premier organization -- with the exception of one lone win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2007.

It's been a constant struggle for Mears this season to produce results like the rest of his Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. despite driving equipment built out of the same shop as Earnhardt. Dale Jr.'s No. 88 is currently 3rd in the standings.

Oddly enough, Mears' best finish of 2008 was just one week ago at Infineon Raceway when he brought the No. 5 Chevrolet home in fourth. Five finishes lower than 35th in 16 races this season, though, aren't wiped away with a single Top-5.

I like Casey Mears a lot -- he's a nice guy and doesn't cause problems on track -- but the statistics are much too telling about his performance at HMS. Granted he hasn't had the best of conditions to work under are switching racing teams and crew chiefs multiple times, but at some point, the results just have to come.

Mark Martin is rumored to be getting in the No. 5 for a last-ditch effort at a Sprint Cup title in 2009. From his performance in a few races in 2008 -- most notably at Phoenix -- the part-time Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver could really make some waves with the appropriate equipment.

Martin in the No. 5 for 2009? Sounds good to me.

A year ago, Jeff Gordon was Kyle Busch.

After the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, Gordon was leading the points and had won four times and started on the pole six times in 2007.

A year later, Gordon finds himself sixth in points and without a win.

Needless to say, the frustration is starting to catch up to Gordon.

"It's been an up-and-down year, and you know, we've been able to pull these top-fives out like this and not have great cars, and we're just working way, way, too hard for these types of finishes," said Gordon.

Working too hard is the understatement. Gordon was simply out to lunch for the first half of the race Sunday at Infineon Raceway and with limited adjustments, smart moves to get track position, and some late race crashes, Gordon was able to score a third place finish.

There truly hasn't been a race all season long that Gordon has had a dominant race car like he did several times in 2007. From his horrible outing at Texas to squeezing out a Top-5 finish at Charlotte thanks to a fuel mileage run, the No. 24 roller coaster hasn't been a fun ride.

I don't call myself a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, but I was happy Sunday afternoon to see driver No. 88 in victory lane after the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Earnhardt Jr. managed to squeeze every last drop of fuel from his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to win the 406 mile race extended by a late caution brought out by a spinning Sam Hornish Jr. It was Dale Jr.'s 18th-career win.

Something just felt good about the day, and Sunday night, looking back on the day's event, it still just feels good.

There's so many things riding on the entire saga of Dale Earnhardt Jr. that have been pressing matters for so long for the driver who would much rather be much more recluse than he's allowed to be.

As we head into the first race at Pocono Raceway this weekend, its important to flash back to the happenings of the 2007 Pocono 500.

That event, won by Jeff Gordon, ended prematurely thanks to the rain that swept in and stopped the race for good at lap 106. Ryan Newman, though, nearly won the event after near passing Gordon just before the caution. Watch below:



Ah, that not-so-distant times of Jeff Gordon's wanna-be mullet haircut. The hair has been trimmed for 2008, which makes me think, should Gordon grow out the mop again?

After this race at Pocono a year ago, Gordon had won four races in the Sprint Cup Series, which means Gordon fans must start a petition for Jeff to avoid the barber at all costs for at least the next two years. It's all in the name of Sprint Cup victories and bad pictures, of course.

The long hair didn't quite work for Tony Stewart in 2008, so maybe the new car really is what is keeping Gordon out of victory lane in 2008.

Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Jeff Gordon may have had a car capable of running in the Top-10, but he simply didn't have the track position.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the car to beat until lap 296 when he blew a tire and slapped the wall -- while leading.

Somehow, though, the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates ended up fourth (Gordon) and fifth (Earnhardt Jr.) in the final standings of Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600.

Earnhardt Jr. truly had a car that was one of the top two or three in the entire field, and he likely had the best car as the race was set to begin its final 100 laps of the scheduled 400. Then, his right rear tire went flat as he prepared to lap Hendrick teammate Gordon while entering turn 3 on lap 296, and the No. 88 veered into the wall.

Luckily, Earnhardt had been using the high lane all evening so the impact wasn't as severe as it could have been. The team brought him to pit road many times under the subsequent caution, threw some new rubber on it, pulled out the fenders, and double-checked the suspension.

Junior rejoined the race around 20th, but the car just wasn't the same.

That's where his path aligned with that of Jeff Gordon's team and how to maximize their final finish.

It wouldn't really be a NASCAR season without Dale Earnhardt Jr. at least grabbing a part of the headline spotlight, would it?

The folks over at the Charlotte Observer (arguably the sport's best coverage in my book) seem to be getting wind of Junior starting to work with Tony Stewart about a ride with JR Motorsports at the Sprint Cup level. From the story:

Several sources have confirmed to The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com that JR Motorsports, which currently fields two Nationwide series teams and is owned by Earnhardt Jr., is also an option.

Under this scenario, JR Motorsports would field at least two Cup teams and likely abandon its Nationwide program or scale it down significantly, sources said. JR Motorsports already receives chassis and engines from Hendrick Motorsports and could continue that relationship on the Cup side.

Stewart first started to make news a few weeks ago when he announced that all options are on the table after his contract ends with Joe Gibbs Racing -- the only team Stewart has ever raced for in Sprint Cup -- after 2009.

If nothing else, Kyle Busch is proving that his 2008 success at Joe Gibbs Racing is a total team effort.

The 23-year-old driver drove to the pole for Saturday night's Sprint Cup All-Star Race XXIV at Lowe's Motor Speedway, just ahead of former teammate Jeff Gordon and brother Kurt Busch.

The qualifying format for the All-Star event is much, much different than a time trial for any other race on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. Instead of a driver making laps on track alone, in the All-Star format the driver has to complete three laps and the pit crew has to perform a four-tire pit stop.

Kyle Busch's crew dropped a four-tire stop of 13.4 seconds, and that combined with his laps gave Busch an elapsed time of 121.956 seconds. Gordon had the same speed of pit stop, but was about a half-second off of Busch's time.

A few penalties were assessed including Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick, and Casey Mears earning five-second penalties and speeding on to pit road were Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, earning each of them a 20-second penalty.

Jimmie Johnson's time was disallowed after missing a lug nut on the pit stop, pulling ahead, and then having service done outside of the pit box area by the Lowe's crew.

Kurt Busch's Miller Lite crew busted out a 12.9-second pit stop which was the fastest of the night. Harvick's team had the same time, but the penalty was a killer.

Jeff Gordon ran a very respectable third on Saturday night in the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.

The only problem, though, was that Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch was much, much faster and cruised away with the win for the third time in 2008 to tie Carl Edwards for the most this year.

It was Gordon's highest finish since his third-place result at California in February and showed that the extensive testing work that Hendrick Motorsports' teams have combined to do has started to pay some dividends for the new race car.

It still, in Gordon's mind, wasn't enough:

"I wish I wasn't so darn competitive because you have no idea," said Gordon. "I am happy that we have a top-five and we are third, but also how frustrated I am because of how far off we are from winning races right now. We did the tire test here at Darlington and the No. 18 just kicked everybody's tails tonight."

Tails kicked, indeed.

Four of the 2008 season's first 11 races have gone to Joe Gibbs Racing and just one to Hendrick by way of Jimmie Johnson's win at Phoenix. Stats like that are a far cry from 2007 when Hendrick picked up seven wins up this point a year ago.