Crew and shop swap at HMS

[damg75]

http://www.nascar.com/news/101124/rhendrick-chief-swap/index.html

Gordon loses Letarte, gets Alan Gustafson...now we'll TRULY find out if it was Letarte that was holding Gordon back, or if it's Gordon himself in the COT.

Earnhardt drops McGrew, and gets Letarte...could 2011 be a vindication year for BOTH?

Martin loses Gustafson, gets Mcgrew...looks to be the losing team in this deal, maybe getting ready for the probable Kahne/Francis combo in 2012.

Also, the 24/48 shop has been split up and now it'll be the 5/24 shop and the 48/88 shop...2011 definitely will be interesting at HMS!

[harvick#1]

anything to help Joooyner.

and Dale will get more help when they change the Chase rules for him again to make it the top 15

[Jag_Warrior]

Except for that (brief) shoving incident, it looked to me like Jeff Gordon had lost much of the fire that he used to have. Separate him from his leggy fashion model wife and his kids, empty out his bank account except for a few thousand dollars and tell him that if he doesn't win at least 2 races and stay at the sharp end of the field in 75% of the races, he'll never see any of that again. Hunger and desperation make for great race car drivers.

I think Letarte is pretty weak (compared to Knaus or Ray Evernham, anyway). But IMO the issue with Gordon's performances these days lie between the seat and the steering wheel. I thought Martin was doing pretty well until they went from the wing to the spoiler again. Not sure why they couldn't come to grips with that aero change better than they did. As for Junior, not really sure what his problem is either. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's better than he's been showing of late. Maybe like Gordon, it's a motivation problem. :confused:

Other than F1, I think NASCAR Sprint Cup had the best season of any major series this year. I really enjoyed The Chase (something I've never said before). As the season progressed, there were several guys for whom I gained a lot of respect for their racing prowess: Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and especially, Jimmie Johnson.

Anyway, if I was Rick Hendrick (and I know he's glad that I'm not) I'd just be careful not to do anything to upset the apple cart in the #48 shop.

[beachgirl]

It will be interesting to see what happens with Junior in 2011. If he doesn't improve, I think he''ll be out of options at Hendrick. It certainly should be a make-or-break year. I wouldn't place a bet on either possibility.

[djparky]

anything to help Joooyner.

and Dale will get more help when they change the Chase rules for him again to make it the top 15

give him a one lap head start on the rest of the field should do the trick- he usually ends up one lap down (at least) by the end of the race. He's in the best team in the series and it's still not enough for him to be competitive anywhere except the plate races

NASCAR will probably keep changing the stupid Chase rules until he is in a position to be far enough up the rankings to qualify

as for Jeff Gordon- his powers appear to be declining- but he's in his late 30's or early 40's now so perhaps that's not suprising given how successful he's been