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 |
| Though 2007 will remain his most dominant season for wins (10) and top fives (20), 2009 is his best for laps led. After a dominating run at Phoenix he has led 2,210 laps this season. His previous best came last season when he led 1,959 laps. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Though he'll need Johnson to have a mishap like he had at Texas, he still has hope of claiming that elusive championship. More than likely though, Talladega looks like it'll be the killer just as many suspected. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| It's been a tough month for Gordon and his 24 team. After running off four consecutive top fives in October, Sunday's ninth-place finish was his best in three November races. | ||
| 4 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| When he's not wrecking or losing an engine, he has been pretty good, claiming top-five finishes in five of the nine Chase races. | ||
| 5 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Looked like he was going to have a chance to pull off back-to-back wins, but his car faded in the second half of the race and he had to settle for sixth. | ||
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| Started eighth at Phoenix, but faded quickly and was never a factor. With a 25th-place finish Sunday, he has finished outside the top 10 in four of the nine Chase races. | ||
| 7 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 6 |
| Wasn't quite able to snag another top five, but did manage to walk away with a top 10 after a couple of rough outings at Talladega and Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
| "We're not satisfied with finishing 12th, but on the other hand we're excited to start finishing 12th," said Dave Rogers after his second race as Busch's crew chief. "Joe Gibbs Racing made this [crew chief] change with three [races] to go so I can learn Kyle [Busch] and I can learn the guys to get that communication established. We had some valuable lessons today. We learned a lot, some we learned by failures. Our last stop there, me and the guys didn't communicate clear enough and went the wrong way on our adjustments and we tried to balance the car out. I'm disappointed but we know the big picture is 2010. All those little lessons we can learn right now and getting them out of our way will make us that much stronger next year." | ||
| 9 | Clint Bowyer | 11 |
| He has back-to-back seventh-place runs and has finished in the top 10 in four of the past six races. | ||
| 10 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| A tough day at Phoenix made worse by damage he received in the big, multi-car pileup. He has finished outside the top 10 in six of the past seven races. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 12 |
| A so-so afternoon at Phoenix for Biffle, who started sixth but faded into the teens where he ran most of the day. | ||
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | 10 |
| Just when it appeared Kenseth and his 17 team were getting their act together, they put in a dud at Phoenix. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 13 |
| Despite starting top five in each of the past two races, he wasn't able to parlay that into top 10 runs. | ||
| 14 | Jeff Burton | NR |
| Though results have improved with Berrier as his crew chief, qualifying has not. Burton has started 30th or worse 13 times this season, including 36th on Sunday and 42nd last week at Texas where he finished ninth. | ||
| 15 | Carl Edwards | 14 |
| The 99 team isn't exactly ending the season on a high note. Edwards has just two top 10s in the past 12 races. | ||
