Updated May 11
Rick Hendrick wasn't at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night, but he certainly left his mark.
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| Rick Hendrick, pictured with famous actor Tom Cruise, is one of the biggest names in NASCAR. (Getty Images) |
A rejuvenated Mark Martin won for the second time in four weeks. He was followed across the finish line by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson. Jeff Gordon took fifth, while Brad Keselowski, in a part-time ride fielded by Hendrick, came home in seventh.
And then there were the Stewart-Haas cars of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman in third and fourth. While Stewart-Haas operates independently, it receives engines and technical support from Hendrick.
"Just have got to give everybody at Hendrick Motorsports props," said Stewart after his fifth top five finish in the past six races. "The chassis department and the engine department, they have just got us rock solid right now."
The ties that bind don't end with engines and technical support. Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb, spent several years under the Hendrick Motorsports umbrella.
"Stewart-Haas, they're really fortunate, I think, to have gotten somebody like Darian," said Martin's crew chief, Alan Gustafson.
"It's not often that somebody will leave our organization because they want to be around Rick. I know Darian has a huge amount of respect and admiration for Rick. But I know Rick also will take care of Darian regardless of what happens. Stewart-Haas is fortunate to have a guy like Darian. I've worked with him a long time. I think he's as good as there is out in the series. He's going to win a lot of races. He's going to be tough to beat. That's obvious by the way they've run."
While Stewart-Haas would seem to get most of the benefit from the relationship, Johnson said the information doesn't just flow one way.
"It's a great help," Johnson said. "For a lot of years Haas has been there, has been a part of Hendrick Motorsports, helping us in a variety of ways, working together.
"And now to have Tony and Ryan and the depth that they have in their race team, it's really great. The information flows different directions and it's actually cool. For a lot of years [with] Tony's old sponsor, we had this rivalry of sorts, now it's cool to be in a teammate situation. Granted, we're not teammates. But to actually talk about race cars, be a little more in-depth with Ryan and Tony."
Power Rankings after Darlington:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Is there any reason to pick against him other than the belief that the law of averages eventually has to catch up to him? | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| He's got to be fed up watching his teammate rack up the wins and titles. | ||
| 3 | Kurt Busch | 5 |
| Penske is the only Dodge camp in town. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It will be interesting to see how Busch adjusts to new crew chief Steve Addington, who helped lead his brother Kyle to 12 wins the past two seasons. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 6 |
| Throughout his career he has been the model of consistency with his first season as driver-owner right on par with his career averages. However, he'll need to step up his game during the Chase if he's to snatch the title away from Johnson. Consistency alone won't get the job done like it did in 2005. | ||
| 5 | Clint Bowyer | 9 |
| Of Richard Childress Racing's trio of drivers, he's the one who flies under the radar. But I have a hunch that this could be his breakout season. | ||
| 6 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
| He was dominant at times over the past couple of years, but when his car was off, he tended to pout and his finishes suffered because of it. It's up to Dave Rogers to keep him focused during the bad days. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 4 |
| Because of his strong finish to end 2009, many consider him the top challenger to Johnson. But his knee injury concerns me and I think it will affect his performance as the season drags on. | ||
| 8 | Carl Edwards | 15 |
| I don't know that I expect him to climb all the way back to 2008 levels when he had nine wins, but he should be much improved from 2009 when he had none. | ||
| 9 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| He had a magical season in his return to full-time racing with Hendrick Motorsports, but I don't believe he'll hit that same level in 2010. | ||
| 10 | Jeff Burton | 11 |
| He was among the hottest drivers the last few weeks of the 2009 season, but we have seen so often that momentum doesn't always carry over. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 10 |
| He's a lot like Bowyer in that I don't think he gets the amount of respect he probably deserves. He has championship ability; I'm just not sure his crew is up to the challenge. | ||
| 12 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| To be honest, I have no idea what to expect of Montoya entering this season. I think he can be in the mix again, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he takes a step back. | ||
| 13 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| He's never been the same since he lost Robbie Reiser as crew chief, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence that he's going to rediscover that magic without him. | ||
| 14 | Kasey Kahne | 14 |
| Like Harvick, he's a pending free agent with many believing he has got one foot out the door. But he has seemed awfully excited about the Roush-Yates power he has under the hood with Richard Petty Motorsports' switch to Fords. | ||
| 15 | Brian Vickers | NR |
| Can the team rediscover the consistency that helped vault him and his Red Bull team into the Chase for the first time or were his dreadful runs during the Chase a sign of things to come? | ||
