Hendrick team looks to extend winning streak

In My Opinion | History could be made with victory

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Apr. 14, 2007

• Raceday | Texas 500
• Gordon claims pole thanks to owner's points
• Follow the Texas 500

FORT WORTH, Texas – It really is tough to get past two primary conflicting threads leading into today’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The 12 Nextel Cup races here have been won by 12 different drivers, but none is among the active drivers at Hendrick Motorsports, the sport’s hottest team.

Considered together, it’s quite a remarkable thing. Since this 1.5-mile oval opened in 1997, only 38 drivers have won Cup races. Gordon has won 56 times, Johnson 26 and Kyle Busch four. Terry Labonte did win here in a Hendrick-owned Chevrolet in 1999, but he’s no longer driving.

“It’s just a very, very tricky place to get the right combination of aerodynamics, horsepower, mechanical grip, and set-up and get comfortable as a driver with the speeds we carry here,” said Gordon, who will start from the pole today after qualifying was rained out on Friday.

Gordon finished in the top five each year from 2001 to 2004 when the track had only one race per season, but his best finish since was a ninth last fall.

Hendrick Motorsports will try today to become the first team since Petty Enterprises in 1971 to win five straight races. Johnson starts third, Busch fifth and Casey Mears 33rd.

“The guys building the cars have just done a fantastic job finding a little bit in all these different areas,” said Gordon, who is leading the points despite having not won yet this season. “The cars are just so much more comfortable to drive and the speed comes is when that comfort is there. If there’s any time we've had a chance of a Hendrick car winning here or ourselves winning here, it's this year.”

Johnson hasn’t won here, but he hasn’t exactly smelled up the place, either. His worst Texas finish in seven tries is 11th and he’s had three top fives in the past four races. On the other hand, he’s led only three laps here in career.

“I think trying to get from the corner entry to the center of the turn, there's a real big transition,” Johnson said. “We haven't been able to get the car real stable and comfortable through that transition into Turn 1 and into Turn 3. Other guys seem to have that part figured out a little bit better.”

Busch was fourth here last fall, but he crashed his primary car in Saturday’s first practice. Mears is new to the Hendrick team this year and hasn’t profoundly shared in the team’s early 2007 success yet, but he has finished fourth twice and seventh twice in six Texas starts.

It might be hard to find a logical explanation for the fact that Texas hasn’t had a repeat winner, but explaining the Hendrick dominance so far isn’t nearly as complicated.

“When you tour Hendrick Motorsports and you see the ins and outs of that place, anybody in this garage area would say, 'How can you not be successful?'” Gordon said. “All the tools are there.”

Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton, who is second in the standings to Gordon and will start alongside him on today’s front row, sees that, too.

“They are well funded, they are well organized and they are exceptionally talented,” Burton said. “From top to bottom: drivers, crew chiefs, engineers, crew members, pit crews. …They have talent. They have well thought-out plans. They have a goal and they try to accomplish it. That's over-simplifying why they are so good but Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch and Casey Mears are all top-notch drivers.”

Success runs deep, said Johnson.

“I just think that Rick has done a great job of assembling people who are really focused and dedicated to the sport,” Johnson said. “Rick is really great at putting people together. He can see relationships and how they work – not only with the driver and the crew chief, but also with management, the engine shop, and the chassis guys. It's hard to explain it. I'm not sure we could recreate it. But it's worked for a lot of years.”

Longest win streaks

Hendrick Motorsports goes for its fifth straight Nextel Cup victory today, something that’s been done only five times in the sport’s history:

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