Motorsports

Hendrick, Roush teams lead pack

By JAME BRANT
Published March 22, 2005

HAMPTON, Ga. - The Nextel Cup season has turned into a two-horse race already. Two organization that is, with Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing's talented stable of drivers dominating the first four races.

After Roush's Carl Edwards won his first Cup race at Atlanta on Sunday, followed by Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick), Greg Biffle and Mark Martin (Roush), and Brian Vickers (Hendrick) sixth, the teams have combined for four wins, 13 top fives and 18 top 10s. They also have claimed the first three spots in every race except the Daytona 500, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third.

"I think the Roush cars and Hendrick cars have definitely been up to speed," said Johnson, who leads the points standings, followed by four Roush drivers. "We've got four Roush cars and one Hendrick car. You'll see some change coming soon. It takes five or six weeks before the rest of the teams catch up.

"At the beginning of the season with a new (aerodynamics) package it seems that between the Roush teams and the Hendrick teams that we all have the same stuff. It boils down to pit stops and stuff like that. Once we get to the midpoint of the season, I think you'll see all the major teams up there. It's just everybody trying to figure out what to do with this new package right now."

But with their considerable financial firepower and technical resources, the teams are likely to discover the next evolution. For certain, team-owner Jack Roush said, the teams are "benchmarking against one another."

"We're parking against one another in the garage and the crew chiefs talk to one another and they look at the hardware," he said. "As much as I dislike it and I'm sure (team owner) Rick ( Hendrick ) dislikes it, there's a lot of cross-pollination with people that move around and have breakfast and lunch together in the Charlotte area.

"But we're definitely challenging one another with what we do."

It's not so much fun waiting for your team to catch up. Dale Earnhardt Inc. has struggled mightily, especially with Earnhardt Jr. languishing in 26th place in the standings, 315 points behind Johnson.

"People say they got more power - I don't know. People say they got better aerodynamics - I don't know," said DEI's Michael Waltrip , whose seventh-place finish on Sunday improved him eight places to 27th in points. "I just know that (Sunday) I had a car that I could drive. I was able to run with a bunch of cars, but I never saw (Edwards), (Biffle) or (Johnson). When they said "go', they left. I wasn't able to keep up with them."

SPARK PLUGS: Edwards became the 11th person to win a race in all three of NASCAR's top series and the first to win his first Cup and Busch races on the same weekend. He is the series' first first-time winner since Biffle won the 2003 Pepsi 400. ... Johnson's second-place finish gave him 10 straight top 10s, which includes five wins and two runnerups. ... Robby Gordon still has not finished a race after blowing a motor - for the third straight race - on Lap 295. His engines are being supplied by Menard Engineering, traditionally an open-wheel builder. ... Several drivers were assessed stop-and-go penalties for speeding on pit road Sunday, including two each by Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett . Both lost a lap as a result, with Earnhardt falling two laps behind then-leader Biffle. Jarrett's tachometer adjustment was off, causing him to be too fast on his penalty stop and incurring another. ... Veteran Dave Blaney had his best finish in 12 starts with Richard Childress Racing, eighth in the No. 07 Chevrolet. ... Childress has filed a lawsuit in federal court against ESPN Inc., claiming trademark infringement in connection with the network/production company's marketing of the Dale Earnhardt Sr. biopic 3. Childress owns the rights to the stylized 3.

[Last modified March 22, 2005, 01:22:12]