Fansided

Dover showing proves just how much Hendrick Motorsports is struggling

By Nick Tylwalk

AVONDALE, AZ - MARCH 11: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's for Pros Chevrolet, talks to team owner Rick Hendrick prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 11, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
AVONDALE, AZ - MARCH 11: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's for Pros Chevrolet, talks to team owner Rick Hendrick prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 11, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /
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If Dover International Speedway wasn’t the cure for what ails Hendrick Motorsports, it’s a pretty safe bet that no other track will be either.

Dover International Speedway should have been a place the Hendrick Motorsports drivers could count on to get right. Yet you didn’t need any stats or advanced data to know that wasn’t the case during the AAA 400 Drive for Autism, because the team simply wasn’t passing the eye test.

Jimmie Johnson has more wins at the Monster Mile than any current NASCAR Cup Series driver at any track, and the crowd in the Dover stands came to life when he popped up in the top five. Yet his 11 wins meant nothing as he simply couldn’t keep up with the likes of Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, and he had to settle for coming home ninth, the latest in a series of “not bad” but uninspiring finishes.

In some ways, Chase Elliott’s day was a tad more depressing. Elliott had never finished worse than fifth in a Dover Cup Series race prior to Sunday, but while he was in or around the top 10 all day, he was run down from behind much more often than he was passing other fast cars. He and his team will be left to ponder how they were only good enough to come in 12th.

Alex Bowman, meanwhile, had a mess of an afternoon and could never recover once he got a lap down, ending up 23rd. The only Hendrick Motorsports driver who could be reasonably satisfied was William Byron, as 14th isn’t horrible when it’s only your fourth start in any NASCAR series at the Monster Mile.

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There was no way any Hendrick car was going to end up in Victory Lane at Dover, which is something you could not have said for … well, years and years. It was perhaps the best example this season of the interminable limbo the team has found itself in, where its drivers can run for top-10s and the occasional top-5 but are never threats to actually capture a checkered flag.

It’s a huge contrast to the optimism surrounding Hendrick Motorsports to start the 2018 NASCAR season. Johnson seemed positive he would bounce back from a quiet second half to 2017, and Elliott was picked by just about every broadcaster and analyst to not only grab his first Cup Series win but probably a few more to go with it. Byron was the latest XFINITY Series champion to know nothing but success, and Bowman got everyone excited when he won the pole for the Daytona 500.

Three months later, there are more questions than answers. Johnson, Elliott and Bowman are all currently in the playoff field, albeit barely in Elliott’s case, and that honor seems like fool’s gold anyway since they’ve combined for zero victories. No one’s winning the championship this year on points.

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The only thing that’s clear now is that it isn’t going to be simply visiting a favorite track that pulls Hendrick Motorsports out of its slump. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, maybe a eureka moment or two concerning the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, and some good fortune too. And those things all need to happen over the next three months, or this once promising season is going to slip away.

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