Where They’ve Been and Where They’re Going: Part 1

Over the next couple of weeks TC and I are going to look at teams, recapping their performance over the last year and evaluating their outlook for the impending season. For part one of this yet to be determined part series I will take a look at Hendrick Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Hendrick Motorsports

Hendrick Motorsports began the 2008 season with great promise and a list of high profile names to back it up. Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the team after departing Dale Earnhardt Inc. following the 2007 season. His much anticipated arrival at Hendrick coupled him with Casey Mears and champions Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Midway through the season Mears was released from his contract for 2009 and replaced by veteran Mark Martin who ran a partial schedule with DEI this season.

Dale Jr., who was winless since 2006, scored his first win at Michigan part way through the season. This small triumph though was not enough to quiet the critics who were disappointed with his 12th place finish in the points and lack of on track domination.

Jeff Gordon who raced neck and neck with his teammate Jimmie Johnson for the 2007 championship came into 2008 with hope of bettering the prior season. The 36-year-old Gordon struggled though; he went winless for the first time since the 1993 season and had his worst average finish since 2006. Gordon ultimately finished 7th in the Chase.

Casey Mears, who has struggled to find his stride, scored just 1 top-5 this season and had his worst average since he joined the top series in 2003. After finishing 20th in the points standings, Mears will get a fresh start with Richard Childress Racing next season in the #07 car.

Where his teammates struggled, Jimmie Johnson excelled. He scored seven wins and ultimately pulled out his third straight championship and giving Hendrick Motorsports their eighth. While Johnson was not dominate throughout the early part of the season, he showed consistency and strength once the Chase kicked in.

The outlook for Hendrick Motorsports in 2009 is very good. They have full sponsorship on all of their cars and they carry the momentum from this season. There is no reason to doubt Jimmie Johnson will be a contender next season, and after struggling this season, Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr. have something to prove. The addition of Mark Martin may or may not yield the team wins. While Martin was very good in his stint with Ginn Racing in 2006, he did not have much success with DEI this season (then again I guess no one did). The 49-year-old habitual retiree still wants a shot at that championship and if there was ever a place to do it, Hendrick is it. While, I’m not prepared to say they’re going to win the championship, they are going to be very strong competitors across the board.

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates

CGRFS began the year with three Cup teams and one to two Nationwide teams (if you count Krisiloff’s short stint and the races here and there). Their driver lineup was diverse, with Juan Pablo Montoya, Reed Sorenson and newly minted NASCAR driver Dario Franchitti. By the end of the year though, there was one fewer team, laid off employees and they were embroiled in a merger with one of the most recognizable teams in the sport.

Montoya began the year with the greatest hope for the season. The goal for the team was to win races and to put Montoya into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The team struggled though, with Montoya only scoring two top-5s and three top-10s. While he was good at both road course events, the team could not replicate results at the ovals. Toward the end of the season the team began to show promise and consistency but they could not overcome a string of bad luck. He ended the year 25th in the points standings.

Montoya’s teammate Reed Sorenson, the most veteran NASCAR driver in the Ganassi stable, also struggled this season. He had just one top-5 and two top-10s and finished 32nd in points. The team replaced him in Sonoma with Scott Pruett after he dropped near the 35th spot in owners points. After a disappointing three seasons Ganassi and Sorenson agreed to part ways after prolonged contract negotiations. Sorenson will join Gillett Evernham next season.

In one of the boldest moves in motorsports in a long time, 2007 IRL champion Dario Franchitti left Andretti Green Racing for a shot at the Sprint Cup Series. Franchitti’s time with Ganassi served as a trial by fire for the Scottish driver. After getting hurt in an horrific wreck at Talladega, the driver sat out for five weeks recovering from a hurt ankle. In 12 Sprint Cup starts in 2008 Franchitti failed to make two races and had an average finish of 34.3. Poor performance coupled with lack of sponsorship forced Ganassi to shut down the team less than halfway through the season and contributed to the laying off of about 70 people. After sitting out the remainder of the season, Franchitti will return to the IRL with Ganassi in 2009.

Following the merger with DEI, Ganassi has potential for next season. The addition of Martin Truex Jr. and Chevrolet may be the boost the organization needs. Both have a proven track record for winning and given a stable environment and competent leadership I think they can easily return to their winning ways. The same can be said for Montoya, who has grown a lot over the last two seasons. He has the potential to win, he just has not had the stability around him to do it. Almirola I’m not so convinced about.

The team only has two and half sponsors for four teams and that could be a problem. Ganassi though knows how to get and keep sponsors, something DEI hasn’t been so adept at. While they did lost Texaco this year, it was not an issue of the team but a reorganization of priorities for the company. With better leadership in Steve Lauletta on the business side (i’m assuming) and Steve Hmiel and Tony Glover on the competition end, I think Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing will be better as one team than as the former two.

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