With another win at Indy, Jimmie Johnson and Rick Hendrick still revere track
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson (left) celebrates his win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Allstate 400 with crew chief Chad Knaus (center) and team owner Rick Hendrick. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
Team owner Rick Hendrick still seems awed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway, despite the fact that he and his drivers have practically owned the place in recent years.
Sunday afternoon, Hendrick found himself celebrating his seventh win in the 16 races that have been held at the historic 2.5-mile oval. But in no way did he appear to be any less enamored with victories at the track. As Jimmie Johnson celebrated his second consecutive victory at the Brickyard - and his third in the last four races - Hendrick spoke glowingly of what victories at the track mean to a team.
"Any time you come to Indianapolis, it's almost like sacred ground," Hendrick said. "Reading about it and growing up in racing, [I] never thought I'd ever go to a race here, but [to] have an opportunity to win this thing, it's just phenomenal. It doesn't get any better than this.
"… I still get chill bumps when I walk out [of] Gasoline Alley and see all the people on both sides of the track."
Johnson, too, respects the wins he has there. That's one of his more charming assets, that ability to crush records but to hold them in reverence as he is doing so.
The same could be said of his racing at Indy.
Johnson has long been a power there, has become a perennial factor in races. But he still looks at each of those wins as special, still finds enthusiasm and excitement over the chance to race at the 100-year-old track.
"To be so close to the fans, the fact that I wanted to race here as a kid in the Indy 500, then to come back and now win here, it is the coolest, coolest feeling ever," the California native said. "To ride around just the lap in that Corvette, all the crew guys were piled on it, that is one of the coolest moments to experience and just absorb the energy of this place, the history of this track. At that point you start thinking about what this place is and what's gone on here.
"It means the world to me. The things as far as how I feel I fit in history, I've never been one to think I can put myself there. It's something that comes from all of you down the road, as you get close to retirement. I got a lot of years left in me. Hopefully four-, five-, six-time race winner here would be awfully cool."
Johnson's win did more than move him up the winner's list at the track.
It signaled that typical but dangerous rally this team generally makes at this time of year. One that has made it the three-time defending series champion.
Last season, Johnson won five races after his Indy victory. He finished in the top 10 in 12 of the remaining 16 races that season. Sunday's victory vaulted him to second in the standings, 192 behind Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner/driver Tony Stewart. This season, Johnson hasn't drawn his usual amount of attention, but he has steadily gained traction.
And now, he's gearing up for a run at his fourth title.
"It has been quiet," he said. "That is good because it allows us to focus and not get caught up in all the energy around winning races and leading the points. But we know it's coming. We know the Chase [For The Sprint Cup] is coming up. Our guys are trying to treat each race leading into the Chase like we are in the Chase.
"We're buckled down and ready. For whatever reason, that strategy or that style has been placed on this team, and it's not that we try to do that; it's just the way it works. We don't know why."
