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.

"I think [Sunday] mainly proved how strong Hendrick Motorsports is, more than anything," said a grinning but decidedly humble Meendering after Sunday's race. "Steve Letarte was very, very involved in this weekend, as far as helping me with the game plan and helping me get the racecar sorted out. I think he was a lot more involved than a lot of people think.

"He just couldn't be in the garage or on the radios. He couldn't make any calls. We were kind of on our own there."

Success continues

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson had top-fives in their first races with interim crew chiefs. Dale Jr. did, too, in his last race without Tony Eury Jr.

• Complete story, click here
• Video: Gordon, Junior talk

Then Meendering added a stunning statement.

"It was a little nerve-wracking for a while, but as good as our engineers are, as good as Ken Howes is at helping me out up on the box, again you get so much backing, so much support at Hendrick Motorsports, that it made it fairly easy," Meendering said. "I shouldn't say it, I guess, but it was fairly easy.

Yes, Hamlin won the race. But the HMS organization once again proved it currently is the best in the sport, able to overcome any adversity. (watch video)

Communication breakdown

During Gordon's first pit stop early in the race, the driver and Meendering had a miscommunication as Gordon was about to drive out of the pit stall. Seems Meendering was trying to tell Gordon to stop and let another car go by, while a confused Gordon thought he was telling him to go.

Gordon gently admonished his interim chief on the radio afterward, telling him that normally Letarte doesn't say anything and that Gordon simply mashes down the gas and goes when the jack is dropped.

"We did sort of a have a communication gap there," Meendering admitted later. "I was being ultra-conservative the first time getting him out. The 14 car [of driver Sterling Marlin] was coming around us, and I was stopping [Gordon] to get him back behind the 14 car as he came around us. I probably played it a little too safe there.

"But I think we got that communication thing figured out pretty quick. He just asked me to come up with a better way to tell him to get out of the pits."

They figured it out pretty quickly.

"It was a little nerve-wracking at first, just getting him on and off pit road clean," Meendering said. "But it was really just our normal routine. And after the first couple of stops, it became more natural to me."

Good call

Of course, Meendering wasn't perfect his first day on the box. The call of the day was made by Hamlin and his crew chief, Mike Ford. Their decision to take on only two tires when Gordon and most of the rest of the field took the time to grab four on the final pit stop ultimately made the difference in the race.

Like the rest of the field, the decision caught Meendering off-guard.

"We felt pretty good about being able to catch [Hamlin]," Meendering said. "He took those two tires, and we were feeling pretty good. But now we're kind of second-guessing our last stop -- wondering if we should have got just two ourselves. We just didn't feel those two tires were going to hold on as well as they did for him."

Gibson ready

There is much speculation as to who will be the crew chief for driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. next year when he begins driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Will Tony Eury Jr. follow him over from DEI? Will it be Alan Gustafson, currently the crew chief for Kyle Busch? (While Busch is leaving Hendrick, Gustafson has said he would like to stay).

Or how about Tony Gibson? Earnhardt heaped the accolades on Gibson after a fourth-place finish in Sunday's race, the last of the six in which Gibson has subbed for the suspended Eury Jr. Earnhardt made it clear that he believes Gibson is more than ready to become a full-time crew chief in his own right, whether it's at DEI or somewhere else next season.

"I think so, obviously. He's going to rely on friends, like Tony Jr. does, around the garage to assist you in gray areas that you don't have enough experience in or enough knowledge in," Earnhardt said. "I think Tony Gibson can get with any driver and be awesome. I think he's been around the sport a long time. I know he's done a great job for me. I can't complain."

Level playing field

Was that really Earnhardt making peace with the Car of Tomorrow after Sunday's race?

Well, yes, it was. One of the COT's biggest early critics now is beginning to sing its praises.

"I was real nervous when we were at Daytona [in February to open the season]. I thought we were going to be horrible," Earnhardt said of his team's improving COT program. "But shoot, it's leveled the playing field off to where it's pretty even for everybody. Everybody's got a shot with this car, if they can figure it out. Has and those types of teams, Inn [Racing], if they figure it out they can run up front. It's a level playing field, I believe. At least it is right now."

Not good enough

Matt Kenseth scored another top-10 finish in the COT. But he didn't have a car good enough to challenge for the win and he remains frustrated by that.

• Complete story, click here

Tough for Toyota

What began as a celebratory type of weekend for Toyota ended in more disappointment, as driver Dave Blaney faded quickly in Sunday's race after winning the manufacturer's first Cup pole during qualifying Friday.

"Our setup just died in the long run, especially once some rubber got put down on the track," Blaney said. "Just a few laps into the race, we were done because the car just got so tight. Then we would lose most of our brakes after 10 or 12 laps, so we just couldn't go anywhere.

"The first part of the race, the car felt just as good as it did in practice [Saturday], but it couldn't seem to keep going after about 10 laps. Then they said a bunch of rubber got put down on the track and that made it feel tighter. We just couldn't seem to get the car adjusted right."

Blaney eventually struggled to a 25th-place finish in his No. 22 machine. That was still better than the only other two Toyota entries in the race -- the No. 00 of driver David Reutimann and the No. 36 of Jeremy Mayfield. Driving for Michael Waltrip Racing, Reutimann finished 38th while Mayfield, driving for Bill Davis Racing, finished 40th.

"We just can't get a break and I feel like we just can't get it figured out," Mayfield said.

The other four Toyota hopefuls didn't even make the race, with Brian Vickers and his No. 83 car getting sent home after having his qualifying time disallowed by NASCAR.

Pit stops

• Driver Juan Montoya was unable to build on the momentum of the previous week's road-course win at Sonoma and some solid pre-race practice runs in which he was near the top of the speed charts. "We took what was a top-five car at the beginning of the race and turned it into a top-20 car by the end," said Montoya, who ended up 19th.

• Busch Series winner Kevin Harvick should have found a blackjack table somewhere Saturday night after he drove his No. 21 Chevrolet to Victory Lane to become the 21st different winner in 21 Busch races at NHIS.

• I guess I'd better give a shout out to driver Matt Kenseth, who finished ninth in the Cup race and a strong third in the Busch race. Listen, folks, all I said last week was that he struggled at Sonoma, which he did. I didn't say he couldn't drive or that he is secretly harboring weapons of mass destruction at the Roush Fenway Racing shop. (Let's just say my one line in last weekend's column about Kenseth's struggles at Sonoma drew a disproportionate flood of e-mail in response). (read more)

• Kudos, by the way, to all those who helped put on Roush Fenway Racing night at Fenway Park prior to Friday's game between the Red Sox and the Rangers. It was first-class all the way, even if Jack Roush's first toss of a baseball in 40 years wasn't. (read more)

• Number 99 needs to have a history lesson on No. 9. How in the world could driver Carl Edwards not know (or at least how could someone not have prepped him) on who No. 9 for the Red Sox was? When asked if he knew who wore No. 9 for the Red Sox back in the day, Edwards said he "had heard a lot about him." Who was he? Memo to readers: if you don't know who wore No. 9 for the Red Sox, I'm not telling.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.