Car of tomorrow still perplexes owners, drivers

Rick Hendrick was NASCAR's hot-ticket car owner the last two seasons, winning back-to-back championships with Jimmie Johnson, Sunday night's winner here in a duel with Greg Biffle.

But this season, well, Hendrick all but rolls his eyes.

"You remember when we did the media tour (in January), and we'd finished first and second, and had, what, 18 wins last year, and everybody thought 'Can anybody stop us this year?'" Hendrick said late Sunday night.

"I didn't think we'd struggle as bad as we have this year. And we worked harder this year than we did last year, and more testing, just trying to figure it out.

"And it's been frustrating because other teams have run well.

"But you can look at those two teams, Carl Edwards' and Kyle Busch's -- the other cars on those teams are not as dominant as those two. So it's just this (winged) car.

"I've never seen it since I've been racing -- It is so temperamental, and you just have to figure out what the crew chief and driver like.

"We've worked harder this year.... I can't remember testing any more ... more meetings ... throwing more things at it to try to get better.

"Sometimes the harder you work on this car, the further backwards you get."

So, yes, NASCAR's winged car still draws razzing from the men who have to deal with it, and the new machine has not provided any better racing or changed the balance of power in the sport or opened the door to new team owners (in fact owners are falling by the wayside, and the Tom Garfinkel-Jeff Moorad team may be the next to make a major change, just a year after they joined the tour).

Still, NASCAR officials steadfastly refuse to make any concessions to the teams to make the racing any better, in what some see as either arrogance or ignorance.

"NASCAR's got a problem, but I don't think they even realize it," one of the sport's most successful crew chiefs said, asking not to be named. "I was just talking with (another highly successful team owner) and he was saying the same thing."

What does Johnson, now a three-time winner this season and maybe back in contention for a third straight championship, think about this car?

"There's nothing comfortable about driving this car," Johnson said. "This thing is never going to complete a lap and have everything work out right for you. You're going to have to compromise somewhere.

"This car is not comfortable, and I don't think it ever will be -- with the lack of downforce, higher center of gravity, and all of the things NASCAR wanted. They wanted it to be to the driver's hands ... and they made it hard to drive, that's for sure.

"We finished second here at the start of the season, and that was the highlight of the first quarter of the season for us. Outside of that, we were terrible on the big tracks."

Hendrick points to extreme frustration among his teams in trying to get the car to work: "This thing has made a lot of people pull their hair out. It's hard.... I mean Jimmie left his vacation twice and came back to test.

"It was supposed to have been easier than this."

Hendrick, of course, isn't the only one in the NASCAR garage still complaining vigorously about NASCAR's winged car, which crew chief Greg Erwin, on Biffle's team, said may in fact actually have made worse many of the issues it was supposed to solve -- like the issue of clean air.

Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, said that the driver-crew chief relationship has become critical to making this new car work. And that's an interesting statement, considering that Knaus and Johnson are two of the closest friends in the garage, and they've struggled so much with it.

"It is extremely finicky, but you can fix it," Knaus said, looking hopefully ahead at his team's prospects in the upcoming chase.

"And if you're going to try to count out Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart or Matt Kenseth going into this Chase, I think you are just fooling yourselves.

"Now Carl, Kyle and us could walk in with our shoulders back thinking we're going to whip everybody's butt, but I think that's pretty cocky to even think that."

Johnson's win was his 36th since joining the Cup tour and his third here. Johnson, third in the Sprint Cup standings heading to Richmond this week, has been a key figure in the marketing of this east Los Angeles track, since he's from nearby El Cajon.

Earnhardt has Hendrick's only other tour win, a gas-mileage victory in June at Michigan.

Johnson started from the pole Sunday, and, while he couldn't escape Biffle, and then had to wait out a late run by Denny Hamlin, was in firm control all four hours, from the heat of day through the cool of the night.

"I think the track came to us, instead of us chasing the track," Johnson said.

"Usually when you're that good, you wait for something to happen," Hendrick added. "And when you have a car that good, it's hard to capitalize every race, especially a 500-mile race here.

"Hopefully we can take this momentum into the Chase."

But not likely, the way that Johnson's season has gone.

"Just before Chicago (mid-July) there were a couple of races where we were competitive -- Michigan (June) was really the first sign we were working in the right direction," Johnson said. "We've been getting better ... but this car is still so finicky.

"The second Michigan (two weeks ago) we got a little more aggressive with the setup, thinking we could get away from it ... and it turned away from us."

And at Bristol, well, that's not a great racetrack for Johnson.

"To win this Chase you're going to have to fight for wins every week, and every pit stop is going to count, because you're going to have at least Carl and Kyle to deal with," Johnson said. "So this was a really good night for our guys to feel that pressure and go through that.

"And for me inside the car, it's been a while since I've been in a situation to blow it or throw away ... and to really work on that mental toughness in those situations is important.

"We have been working on the other side of the line -- finding speed, and dealing with those emotions of not being where we want.

"That speaks to how impressive Kyle and Carl have been. It's tough to stay on top of this thing.

"At Indy (four weeks ago) we had a very, very good weekend. But at the end Carl was putting a lot of pressure on us."

E-mail Mike Mulhern at mmulhern(at)wsjournal.com.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)