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A NASCAR BLOG BY Art Weinstein
In search of the ‘real’ story at Hendrick Motorsports
Dawn is fast approaching as I crawl in the dark through a wooded area near the Hendrick Motorsports complex in Harrisburg, N.C. I’m crawling, in camoflage fatigues, because I don’t want anyone in the vast Hendrick conspiracy to see me.
This is thankless work, but as a journalist, I feel compelled to find out the real story. Sure, I’d rather be home, with a hot cup of coffee, but as I crawl through the mud, moving ever closer to the Hendrick empire’s nerve center, I’m inspired by the huge bundle of NASCAR fan mail I carry in my knapsack. I’m haunted by the questions posed again and again in those letters:
• “Why does Rick Hendrick give all the good stuff to Jimmie Johnson?”
• “Why is Hendrick cheating Jeff Gordon out of another championship by giving Johnson the best engines?”
• Why does Dale Earnhardt Jr. get the leftovers at Hendrick?”
• “Why does Hendrick want Junior to fail?”
Those thoughts bore into my skull, until I can’t stand it anymore. I want to scream, but don’t, because Hendrick security forces might find me. Even though I’m on a farm next to Hendrick’s shop – I offered the farmer two tickets to next year’s Daytona 500, for permission to play commando on his property – I’m not taking any chances with a race team that some fans say is involved in so many terrible conspiracies.
Finally, I arrive at a clearing with a full view of the engine loading area at Hendrick Motorsports. With my powerful binoculars and directional microphone, I can see and hear everything. I also pull out a video recorder and start recording.
I watch as crewmen, wearing white gloves, use an engine hoist to place a shiny new engine in a No. 48 Chevrolet.
“Jimmie’s ready for Talladega,” one of the men says.
Nearby, another crew takes a gleaming new engine toward the No. 24 Chevy driven by Gordon. Suddenly, the hoist tilts and the engine smashes into the ground. Pieces fly everywhere. Crewmen panic.
“That’s OK!” a foreman shouts. “Jeff probably won’t need all that horsepower anyway.”
I watch in horror as they install Gordon’s mangled engine into his car. A thoughtful crewman gathers all the wayward pieces into a large trash bag and throws it in a trash bin.
Next, a crew carefully loads Mark Martin’s engine in the No. 5 Chevrolet. They pull it off flawlessly. Some of the lines on the engine look a little old and wrinkled, yet seem to be in exceptional shape.
Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for. Crewmen roll the No. 88 Chevrolet out. Now they’re standing around. No engine in sight.
“Elmer!” someone shouts. “Where’s Earnhardt Jr.’s motor?”
“Still fixin’ ’er up!” comes a gruff reply.
Across the parking lot, a greasy old man emerges from beneath the hood of what looks to be a 1978 Chevrolet pickup truck. I can’t tell for sure, because the grille’s all smashed in, from a crash. Incredibly, crewmen take a hoist, lift the rusted engine out of the pickup, and place it in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
Someone shouts, “Junior’s ready to go!”
I’m so excited, as I realize I have the story of a lifetime. Pulitzer Prize, here I come! I leap up … and am suddenly confronted by the old farmer who’d let me go on his land for two Daytona 500 tickets.
“Sorry, but Hendrick gave me FOUR tickets to the Daytona 500,” the farmer says. He grabs my tape recorder, video recorder, notes and knapsack and stomps them into the mud at his feet, ruining everything.
“The letters!” I cry. “Don’t ruin the letters!”
“Go home,” the farmer says. “Get some coffee.”
Tears in my eyes, I trudge home, thinking back to those letters in my ruined knapsack, especially recalling one heartfelt letter: “NASCAR wants Johnson to win every championship. It’s a conspiracy. Why doesn’t the media report that?”
Art Weinstein
Managing Editor Art Weinstein has been covering NASCAR since 1995 and has worked at NASCAR Scene for 11 years.
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Comments
12 responses to "In search of the ‘real’ story at Hendrick Motorsports". Post a Comment.
stone069 said:
Nov 1, 2009 at 9:08 PMThat's funny right there I don't care who you are!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmwallick said:
Nov 1, 2009 at 9:40 PMIf Rick Hendrick wanted Junior running well and winning, he would have grabbed Addington. Junior brings enough money into HMS to pay Addington what he deserves.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportofishtails said:
Nov 1, 2009 at 10:38 PMVery good and funny, makes you wonder!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmwallick said:
Nov 1, 2009 at 10:57 PMIf Hendrick does not want to pay the money to get Jr. a top flight crew chief, and put him in new top flight equipment, fine. Last spring Nascar Now started reporting the Tony Jr. was putting Jr. in cars that he was building from the DEI specs from 2007; Lance made him 2 new 1 1/2 mile track cars by HMS specs. At Charlotte Jr. was put in the car he finished 27th with in Pocono in June, another one of Tony Jr.'s cars. It means that Jr. cannot be competitive. Do you want me to believe that Hendrick is too stupid to know what is going on? If that's all Hendrick wants to spend on Junior...fine. But then man up and let Jr. go to someone who will. Nascar racing is suppose to be about competition. It might improve Nascar's diving ratings and attendance.
Report as AbuseMarybeth
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» Confirm Abuse Report4-DA-88 said:
Nov 2, 2009 at 3:47 PMLMAO!! I knew it, I knew it all the time. Just exactly like I thought!
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» Confirm Abuse Report4-DA-88 said:
Nov 2, 2009 at 3:49 PMNow if you only had gotten inside the garage you would have found the bag of tricks Chad uses, and the contract that JJ has with the devil himself.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmwallick said:
Nov 2, 2009 at 7:34 PM...last spring Nascar Now started reporting about the old chassis Tony Jr. was building for Junior, and they also followed the story up. Marybeth
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmwallick said:
Nov 2, 2009 at 8:49 PMWhen Jr.'s weekly race-preview comes out and is put on-line by HMS, it says what his chassis number is for that weekend's race. When the Charlotte race preview came out it said that which chassis he was using and that he had finished 27th in Pocono in June. When I saw that I knew Jr. was in for a long uphill battle for the weekend. It would not surprise me if HMS does not put that info out or quite as accurately in the future. Look it up. Marybeth
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdgriffin said:
Nov 3, 2009 at 3:57 PMNice job, Art.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportannmyers said:
Nov 4, 2009 at 11:48 PMYa know what? I believe this.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportpj4jj48 said:
Nov 10, 2009 at 11:35 PMLMBO Art! Good one!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportLouTripodi said:
Nov 13, 2009 at 7:51 PMHow about this. First bring the old point system back. I'm a stewart fan and always will be. Next take Junior and Kyle Busch, 2 talented drivers whether or not people like it or not they race hard and want to win and put then in Stewart-Hass cars. Old point system and 4 drivers who race like what racers are supposed to will make Sunday racing exciting, fun and will fill the seats again. It may be far fetched but man what a team that would be. And by the way Jimmie would only have won the 2006 championship under the old way and Tony would be ahead now by 150.
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