One team will win all of Team Hendrick the Cup

Two races to go and Rick Hendrick has two drivers with a shot at the 2007 Nextel Cup. Two drivers, but Hendrick likes to think of it as one team.

I know, it is hard to swallow that the 24 team of Jeff Gordon would be just as happy if the 48 team of Jimmie Johnson won the championship, or vice-versa. I don't believe that. I believe they would be happy for them but you know that each individual team wants to be the one that delivers the Nextel Cup championship to Hendrick Motorsports.

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Rick Hendrick knows that, too. But when you listen to him talk about his teams, you can believe he thinks of them as one team. In 2007, Hendrick Motorsports got off to a strong start. Right now it is clearly geared up for a strong finish.

"Ya know, I think we came off a good year last year and came out of the gate hot," Hendrick said.

"Jeff had a phenomenal year and really the other guys came on early in the summer, winning races and climbing up in the points. I think we really kept everyone together and kept rolling from '06 into '07. Jimmie had won the championship. Jeff has had a good year. It really has been a phenomenal year."

You can classify that as an understatement. There is no denying the strength of Hendrick Motorsports, the talent it has behind the wheel and the depth and discipline it has in the shop. And one of the big reasons it is where it is today is the Car of Tomorrow. Everybody had a shot to put their program together; some organizations decided not to spend the time, or the money, until the specs for the COT were finalized. Hendrick did not wait. It fired everything it could at the project. The time, and money, invested is paying off.

"We've had a lot of luck this year," Hendrick said.

"We did a tremendous amount of preparation on the Car of Tomorrow. We really worked hard to try and figure that car out. All the guys in the shop worked hard on it. David Green did a lot of work for us driving the cars and Max Papis on the road courses really helped us.

"We probably did more preparation for this season than we ever have before. You know, whoever figures it out first is going to be running better than the other guys. And I have to give a lot of credit to the Joe Gibbs guys. Tony [Stewart] had them covered at Bristol before he had trouble and we've had problems, too. But we were probably more prepared than ever before."

Right now, that really shows. Actually, we have seen it all season. I remember when Hendrick was involved in a news conference early in the season, when all of his teams were running extremely well. He explained something that every racer knows: you can cool off just as quickly as you caught fire. (Continued)