Weekend That Was: NHIS

Denny Hamlin captured the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway last Sunday, and good for him. He was overdue to win, having come close so many times earlier this season only to fall short at the end.

This time, a pit gamble to go with two tires instead of four and ride them out for the last 50 laps proved to be the difference.

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But with all due respect and a firm tip of a Boston Red Sox cap to Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing for their satisfying triumph, the most remarkable display by a race organization once again belonged to Hendrick Motorsports.

I hear the sighs already, even as I tap out these sentences on the laptop keyboard. Some of you no doubt are getting ready to dial me up on e-mail, adding to the dozens of complaints (or is it hundreds?) along with a few much-appreciated compliments already left over in my in-box from last week (don't worry, I'll get to 'em when I can).

I can hear you: Geez, the Gibbs gang finally wins a race and this guy wants to write another column about Hendrick?

Well, think about it. Drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lose their crew chiefs to six-race suspensions that were handed down after their Car of Tomorrow machines failed pre-race inspection at Sonoma a week earlier, and yet they pull off top-five finishes? It was pretty amazing.

Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet team moved Jeff Meendering, normally the car chief, to the pit box and finished second. Johnson's No. 48 team promoted from within as well, bumping Ron Malec from his role as car chief to crew chief and teaming up to run to a fifth-place finish.

Hendrick also smartly placed each new crew chief with an assistant crew chief of sorts -- putting Ken Howes with Meendering and Lance McGrew with Malec. Both Howes and McGrew had what Meendering and Malec lacked: actual experience as crew chiefs.

Sure, suspended chief Steve Letarte helped set up Gordon's car by constant communication with Meendering during the week leading up to the race. Same with Chad Knaus, the king of suspensions for Hendrick and all of NASCAR who no doubt provided generous pre-race input on Johnson's car.

Both suspended chiefs were permitted to be at the New Hampshire track over the weekend, as they will be this weekend at Daytona. As long as they stay out of the garage and off the team radio during practices, qualifying and the actual race itself, they are permitted to hang out in the motor-home lot and meet frequently with team members there or under the stands or at one of the concession stands, or really wherever else they want.

The way the cars of Gordon and Johnson ran Sunday must have been disheartening to other teams in the garage. It likely made them wonder if the penalties assessed by NASCAR, which outraged team owner Rick Hendrick in their severity, were in reality severe enough to truly penalize the Hendrick operation in any way that might actually matter.

You've heard these guys compared to the New York Yankees? Well, last time I looked the Yankees were pretty far down in the standings, having a down year. The Hendrick guys don't even seem to have a down week.

It is beginning to be an insult to them to be compared to the Yankees, unless you're talking the 1927 Yankees. Now those guys had some depth, to go along with extraordinary power that enabled them to dominate. (Continued)