After suffering injuries in an October plane crash, Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick was at home resting during the Sprint Cup Series season finale in Homestead.
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[/media-credit]Like many, Hendrick had a front row seat to the closest championship finish in NASCAR history. Tony Stewart won his third Cup title in a tiebreaker over Carl Edwards, after Stewart won the race and Edwards finished second.
It couldn’t have been a better way to end the 2011 season, with many still talking about the Chase and its finish. Hendrick included. While none of his four drivers were in contention to bring him another championship, he was still as impressed with the finish as those involved.
“That was the most unbelievable finish,” said Hendrick. “Number one, when I saw that part go through his [Stewart’s] front end, I thought it had to get the radiator and then it’s over. And Carl [Edwards] was so good that I was watching the lap times, and I though, ‘Well, it’d be a heck of a race if they get together.’”
They did and Hendrick rode the emotions of the race with everyone else. There was Stewart coming from the back, twice. Then came a rain delay, followed by what was looking to be a fuel mileage race. Unlike seeing his driver Jimmie Johnson lock up the championship early the last five years, Hendrick sat and ran through many difference scenarios.
“That gas mileage deal, stretching that fuel mileage, that was brave,” Hendrick said. “It was kind of like a gunslinger race. Tony appeared that he had a ton of confidence, and Carl was super-fast, and his car was super-good, and they made no mistakes. I think if the cautions hadn’t fallen the right way, and Carl had been out front, I don’t know that Tony could have caught him.
“It was an exciting race from a spectator’s point of view. It was kind of cool to be able to watch it and not have a lot of skin in the game. Just being a fan. It was a heck of a race.”
In one regard, Hendrick didn’t have a horse in the fight. Yet in another way he did with Stewart who gets his chassis and engines from HMS. When Stewart-Haas was formed prior to the 2009 season, Hendrick was one of its biggest supporters, seeing first hand how hard Stewart was working to put the team together. He even went to victory lane with Stewart on a few occasions and is continually thanked by the No. 14 team as if he’s the team owner.
This year it was no different. Even though Stewart struggled through the first 26 races, failing to in a race and almost missing the Chase, he never doubted his equipment. There was never any criticizing of the parts, just the team for not putting together the performances they should have been.
The Office Depot/Mobile 1 team wasn’t finishing poorly because of part failures or blown engines, they simply weren’t executing. Bad luck bit them often and bad strategy such as in Las Vegas, kept them from victory lane.
After Stewart won the title in Homestead he made sure to thank Hendrick. For other team owners it might have been just a little weird or even bittersweet. A man who uses the same equipment just beat his drivers but not so for Hendrick.
He says he’s had talks with his HMS teams about situations like this. Instead of looking at other organizations who beat them and feeling they had better equipment or motors, with a situation like Stewart being in-house, it comes down to what each individual teams is doing.
“Getting beat by your own stuff, then you’ve got to look in the mirror and say, ‘OK. They had the same thing we did and they whipped us. Now we’ve got to go to work,’” Hendrick said.
“I think most of the equipment in that garage area is pretty even. I’m real proud of our engine shop for winning [the championship] six years in a row. I think the people make the difference. You’ve just got to give it to Tony [Stewart] and Darian [Grubb] and Gene Haas and that whole organization.”
It hasn’t been lost on Hendrick or anyone else the incredible run that Stewart went on when the Chase started. Even if he had a driver in contention for the title, such as Johnson, there’s no guaranteeing that he could have beaten the red hot Indiana driver. Because of which Hendrick sat back and watched Stewart win five of 10 Chase races and come from behind to overtake Edwards for the title.
“They just turned it on there at the end and they just were not going to be denied,” Hendrick said. “You don’t have to look at the motor shop. You don’t have to look at the chassis shop. You’ve got to look at the people and what adjustments they’re making and the commitments of the drivers and how bad do you really want it. I personally think it’s not a bad thing.”
It wasn’t a bad thing to lose to your own equipment; it keeps the success all in house. It also helped ease the disappointment of seeing his own five-year title run come to end, something he acknowledged would happen sooner or later. Hendrick will now enjoy seeing good friend and supporter Gene Haas have the success he deserves.
“I’m real happy for him,” said Hendrick. “He’s sure paid his dues and Tony’s done a great job. It’s well deserved. I’ll tell you, they put on a show there at the end.”
it seems the traction control went from Johnson’s car right on to Tony’s. It kept the Hendrick Cup Trophy where NASCAR wants it.