FORT WORTH, Texas – Despite qualifying three cars inside the top five, Hendrick Motorsports wasn’t able to turn that speed into a victory in Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
But for a four-car organization that hadn’t led more than a combined 118 laps in 2019 until touching down in Texas Motor Speedway, a day that ended with 110 laps led and two top-six finishes is more than significant. Jimmie Johnson called it a step in the “right direction.”
“I am just so proud of everybody on this Ally team,” said Johnson, whose No. 48 car paced the field for 60 laps en route to a fifth-place finish. “We’ve had a lot of pressure on us, and everyone has stepped up and (been) getting it done. …”
“For me, I was just trying to get a consistent weekend. It is one thing to have one-lap paced, we needed that and we did that on Friday (in qualifying). Then, Saturday went really well. So, in the back of my mind I was thinking we just needed to have a rock-solid day, and if we did that, then I could confirm to myself and to everyone else that we are moving in the right direction.”
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Consistency – both within the team and throughout the entire race – was the key element for Hendrick Motorsports’ performance in the Lone Star State all weekend. The 1-2-3 qualifying effort with Johnson earning the pole was certainly a strong start.
However, the team had seen similar qualifying speed in Daytona when William Byron and Alex Bowman swept the front row, but by race’s end in the Daytona 500, only Johnson’s No. 48 remained in the top 10. At Martinsville, Chase Elliott’s No. 9 nabbed a runner-up result – but the other three cars finished outside the top 12.
This weekend, the four-car team looked fast throughout practice (Johnson led the opening session and topped the 10-lap average charts in final practice) and three of four cars led multiple laps in the 500-lap event Sunday, with Johnson and Byron overcoming pit-road equipment mishaps for top-six finishes.
It was also a strong showing for the team’s intermediate program under the new rules package. In the series’ last trip to a mile-and-a-half track at Las Vegas, Hendrick notched 9th, 11th, 16th and 19th-place finishes after leading a combined 21 laps.
“We needed this,” said Byron, who finished sixth. “It’s been a long road for sure, the last year and a half, really, starting with this team. We’ve been working harder and harder and the guys have been putting in a lot of work. Still work to be done and definitely getting it there in the right direction.”
Yes, there’s still work to be done; Johnson, Byron and Elliott all acknowledged that after the race. With 12 premier series championships, the folks at Hendrick Motorsports are too competitive to settle for just “solid days.” But Sunday was a big step to getting back in Victory Lane, a place where seven-time champion Johnson hasn’t been since June 2017 after a winless 2018 season.
Does this weekend inspire him?
“Absolutely,” he said. “This is what we’ve been looking for.”