Can you imagine what kind of season Hendrick Motorsports could be having if the organization hadn't got off to such a slow start in 2007?

I mean, they didn't win either of the first two races on the schedule -- with Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing capturing the season-opening Daytona 500 and Matt Kenseth of Roush-Fenway Racing reaching Victory Lane in the second race at Fontana in California.

Can you believe that?

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As much as Hendrick has dominated NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series since then, the fact that it took them three races to win is probably more shocking than the fact that Hendrick has now captured seven of the last eight.

The latest was Jimmie Johnson's fourth win of the season last Sunday at Richmond International Raceway (watch video). Hendrick teammate Kyle Busch finished second, and Jeff Gordon, the most revered Hendrick disciple, finished fourth to maintain his stranglehold on first place in the all-important driver points (watch video).

In the aftermath of the latest Hendrick conquest, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were asked if the organization has become the New York Yankees of racing -- the one that many love, but the overwhelming majority seems to love to hate.

"We're doing our jobs. That's what it's about," said Johnson, who wasn't about to apologize for all the winning he has been doing.

Johnson argued that other teams have come close to knocking them off. Denny Hamlin, for instance, has threatened to get to Victory Lane for Joe Gibbs Racing in every Car of Tomorrow race. Harvick and Tony Stewart, another Gibbs driver, also had moments at Richmond where they looked every bit the contender before pit-road incidents did them in. And others have threatened to win in some of the other races.

But as the Cup Series heads to Darlington this weekend, is it in desperate need of one of the other teams breaking through? Is it good for the sport to have Hendrick dominate so thoroughly?

Again, Johnson understandably refuses to apologize for his team's success, and the success of the teams within the Hendrick team.

"I think we put on good races and we've been racing hard for these victories even amongst our teams," Johnson said. "I don't think you've seen anything like you would in Formula One, where the red car is winning all the time ... and things like that. We're really racing for these victories and that's why NASCAR is such a great sport."

Knaus said that he does not think it is possible for any one team or racing organization to stretch their dominance over a sustained period of time in the current climate of Nextel Cup.

"You've got to realize that the 24 car [of Gordon], just not too long ago, was winning 10 or 11 races a year," Knaus said. "The likelihood of that happening again is probably pretty slim. So I don't think it's going to be quite like it used to be."

Let's hope not. Of course that's exactly the way it's been so far this season.

While no one can begrudge the Hendrick teams for savoring the fruits of all their obvious hard work, what the sport really needs right now is for someone else to win a couple races. Otherwise, the danger of boredom setting in on this season before the Chase for the Nextel Cup phase of the campaign even begins becomes very real.

What the sport needs is for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and / or someone like colorful and controversial rookie Juan Montoya to jump up and win a race.

In other words, some driver who isn't employed by Hendrick Motorsports needs to get to Victory Lane for more than a congenial visit -- and fast. Then the Cup Series will get real interesting real quick again. But until the other guys figure out what is making Hendrick so good and then quickly devise a way to match that group's overall excellence, it doesn't seem likely to happen with any kind of regularity.

And while that bodes well for Hendrick, it might not be so great for the overall health of the sport itself.

Adding 'em up

Kyle Busch was asked over the weekend if he thought anyone could ever match or top the 77 career race victories now owned by Gordon.

"I don't think it'll happen. I really don't. I mean, Jimmie is probably the closest one who could do it. He's won the most races over the last three or four years. But I don't think you'll see Jimmie Johnson with 70 wins by the time he retires," Busch said.

"I don't think you'll see another driver get to 70. Guys won't drive as long, and guys can't win 13 races in a season anymore. Jeff had three seasons there where he won 13, 11 [actually 10], 10. He was just a dominant force every week. The most I think you can put together in a season now is about five."

Johnson's win at Richmond was the 27th of his Cup career (watch video), now in its seventh year. Of course, he now has four wins with 26 races left in the season. So if he can continue at his present pace, the drama of this season may end up being in his pursuit of matching or surpassing Gordon's total of 13 wins during the 1998 season.

Gordon had a three-year stretch, beginning in 1996, where he won a total of 33 races. His seasons of 10, 10 and 13 victories also were bracketed by seasons during which he won seven apiece -- meaning 47 of his career total, or 61 percent, came during those five seasons. Forty-two of those came during the first seven seasons of his career, though, meaning Johnson would need to win 15 of the remaining 26 races this season just to draw even with the remarkable pace that Gordon set at the beginning of his Cup career.

Tired of no tires

Todd Berrier, crew chief for Harvick, said that if NASCAR wants teams to start getting a better handle on the Car of Tomorrow, they should go back to letting them have Goodyear tires to test on. Prior to last season, NASCAR began a program where the Goodyear tires teams use during races are leased to teams; unused tires are turned in after each race.

Teams used to have stockpiles of Goodyear tires that they had hoarded, so they could take them to tests. But with those rapidly disappearing from the face of the Earth and NASCAR not allowing teams to replenish those supplies, teams are left to run tests on other types of tires that do not give them the data they need to translate to race days, according to Berrier.

"I feel about the same about the COT that I've pretty much felt all along," Berrier said after Harvick finished eighth at Richmond. "Over the winter, we tested these things a lot on 2003 tires. We used them up. Now we have no more tires, other than B.F. Goodrich's or Hoosiers or something like that. We can go places and test and try to make the thing better, but until you come to the racetrack under the same circumstances that you're going to race under, it's not going to do you that much good.

"The tires are the most important thing on the car, and we can't get anything even remotely close to resembling what we race on. So you take your best educated guess. I think we can make this car a lot better for everybody. I think you'd hear a lot less complaining about this car if they'd just give us some tires to test with that resemble what we're racing with. But I guess that's somebody else's decision to make."

Berrier also contended that it would help other teams catch up with the Hendrick stable in terms of competition.

"I'm sure the more tires you give us, we're going to get better and better," Berrier said. "I don't know that [Hendrick] is light years ahead of any of us. They have won races. You have to give them that. But we've led every race and been in contention to win every race as well. Circumstances just haven't fallen our way."

Asked if it seemed like it was just common sense to have NASCAR start releasing the types of tires for tests that are used on race day, considering teams are running a new type of racecar in the COT events, Berrier replied: "It would be common sense to us, being racers. I don't know if it's common sense to them as the sanctioning body. I look at things so different, I don't know. I think if you polled the 50, 60 cars that show up for a race any given weekend, they would all jump at the chance to get tires. We'd do whatever it took to get tires. We'd pay $5,000 a set for tires -- but we can't.

"They're going to have a better show when they start releasing some tires and you can go to some places and run your racecars. Right now all the things you think you should have done better at Richmond, next time you go back to a Loudon or a Richmond or a Phoenix, you're going to try to apply them as best you can. That's all you can do. It's not like we can stop in Iowa and test, because you've got to go on a Hoosier tire and it isn't anything close to this."

Quotable

Berrier knew his driver, Harvick, would be hot over a pit-road mishap that could have been avoided and appeared to cost the No. 29 team a shot at winning in Richmond (watch video).

"He's going to get upset over that kind of stuff -- always," Berrier said. "That's just his nature. But that's a good problem to have. I'd rather have to calm him down than have to pick him up."

Pit stops

• Teams pay an estimated $400 per tire now for their Goodyears, so when Berrier says teams would pay $5,000 for a set, that's about $3,400 over what they would usually pay. Yet he seemed serious. When will NASCAR figure out that even if they try to save team owners money one way, they're going to continue to find other ways to spend every dime their sponsors give them? That's why the rich likely will always get richer in this sport, no matter what NASCAR tries to do to level the playing field.

• The way driver Clint Bowyer is starting to run in the Busch Series, it's only a matter of time until he starts winning at the next level, too. He is the real deal (watch video).

• A couple of long Cup streaks came to an end at Richmond. Driver Ken Schrader failed to qualify, ending a string of 44 consecutive starts at the track. And Dale Jarrett had his string of 424 starts in a row snapped when he failed to qualify in his No. 44 Toyota. It was the first race Jarrett had missed since October of 1994 at the old North Wilkesboro track in North Carolina.