Dorton's protégés keep Hendrick engines in tune

CONCORD, N.C. -- When Randy Dorton died in the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash last fall, it was a major blow to the team's engine department, but the foundation he left remained intact.

In short, the 90-member team that builds Hendrick's engines didn't lose a step, mainly because Dorton had a pair of managers that had taken over much of the day-to-day operation.

Hendrick crew members unload an engine for Jimmie Johnson during January testing at Daytona. Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

The motors that won 14 of 36 Nextel Cup races last year arrived in Daytona this January without so much as a hiccup.

Owner Rick Hendrick says that's because Dorton had already placed things in the hands of two longtime protégés: Jeff Andrews and Jim Wall.

"These are the two guys who are getting it done in the motor shop," Hendrick said. "We had nine motors in Daytona testing. They were two horsepower difference between nine motors."

"A lot of people have asked, 'How do you go on without Randy?'" said Andrews, who is Director of Engine Assembly. "There was a side of motorsports that Randy had begun so involved in, not just engines."

Wall began working with Dorton in 1981 and eventually followed him to Hendrick, where he's risen to become Director of Engine Engineering.

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"(Wall) is so smart I don't talk to him unless two people are in the room with me at the same time," Hendrick said.

Dorton wanted Hendrick's engines to be as close in horsepower as possible. In 1992, right around the time Jeff Gordon was hired to drive for the team, Wall decided the team needed to start spending major money to keep up with the Junior Johnsons, Robert Yateses and Richard Childresses of the world.

"He came to me said, 'If you'll spend the money to buy this machine, I guarantee you I can duplicate cylinder heads and our horsepower won't be 20-30 horsepower difference and I won't have this driver screaming 'I want the motor I had last weekend,'" Hendrick said. "I said, 'How much is it?'"

"He said, 'It's a million dollars.'"

Hendrick had to take out a loan, but he bought the machine.

Rick Hendrick Credit: Autostock

Andrews was hired by the team right before Gordon joined Hendrick, and he says his main goal is engine equality -- from Gordon to Scott Riggs.

Riggs' team, MBV Motorsports, rents engines from Hendrick.

"(Closeness of motors) was always something (Dorton) strived for," Andrews said. "Not just our four cars, but also with our lease programs."

Andrews says the better teams do get the better engines, but only later in the season.

"Our operation builds a group of engines and then we take a look at the power in that group of engines and decide where they go," Andrews said. "It's not until we get halfway through the year is kind of our cutoff point where we start to favor the cars maybe higher in the points with the better engines."

Had Dorton lived, he would no doubt he dealing with a new challenge -- helping Wall and Andrews adjust the motors to match the new gear ratios.

"We have been happy with performance of motors power-wise we are dealing with a new set of rules with gear ratio but that is going to be kind of a moving target here at the first of the season," Andrews said. "We're trying to steady the first 5-6 races to understand.

"I feel NASCAR will adjust some of these gear ratios as we visit some of these tracks."