The fourth Hendrick driver
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have been stunning this season. Johnson's win at Richmond was his fourth this season. Gordon has two wins and five poles, including the last four, and leads the points race by a mile. Busch the Younger has one win and a spectatular crash.
Together, these three Hendrick drivers have won all four COT races and seven of the 10 run so far. Johnson, Busch and Gordon finished 1-2-4 Sunday at Richmond. They're three of the top drivers (Gordon, then Johnson, then Busch in sixth) in the standings. After Saturday night's race at Darlington, where Johnson swept in 2004 (the last time they ran two races there), the Cup Series goes to Charlotte where Johnson won four straight in 2004-05.
As I read (and write) about the Hendrick domination of NASCAR - and that's exactly what they're doing, dominating - something occurs to me: Doesn't Hendrick have four teams?
Why, yes, yes he does.
This season, Mears has been -- how can I put this charitably -- invisible. One top 10 finish (10th at Bristol), one top 10 qualifying effort (Talladega, where he crashed out) and as many finishes of 30th or worse (five) as laps led. He is 34th on the drivers chart. Worse, he's 34th on the owners chart, just nine points ahead of Ricky Rudd and 43 ahead of Scott Riggs, who showed last year he could make up some ground quickly.
So here's a question for Hendrick fans, mostly because I don't think there are any Casey Mears fans out there: What do you do with the No. 25 team? Is there anything you can do? Is there any evidence to suggest a guy who has career season placings of 35th, 22nd, 22nd and 14th (thanks mostly to a few good early-season runs) will be any better than mediocre?
Remember, this is a guy in the first year of what probably is a mult-year deal, so dumping him's not an option. So what do you do?
More elsewhere:
"Who can put the brakes on Hendrick domination?" by Jenna Fryer, AP (and count the number of Mears references)
Mears's 2007 Cup stats
"Mears can breath (sic) easier after solid run"
Comments (3)
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I don't think Mears is a very good driver and think his 14th place was overachieving in 2006. In his defense he has been involved in a lot a wrecks. Not all have been his fault. He also has a rookie crew chief.
Posted on May 8, 2007 11:42 AM
I normally don't believe in jinxes, but I can recall people in the Hendrick organization claiming the #25 is just bad luck.
The best results the #25 ever had was with Tim Richmond, since then it has been marginal at best.
Schaeder
Craven
Nadeu
Nemechek
Vickers
now Mears
Years ago I thought the #25 would be Schaeder's big break, it turned out it was the only car he ever won with. Craven won 2 races after leaving the 25.
I guess I'm the most disappointed in Vickers, I thought he would have better success in Cup after winning the Busch title. Now he is stuck battling Mikey over the most DNQ's.
Posted on May 8, 2007 11:48 AM
With Rick's endless amounts of money he oughta buy out Casey's contract (can't be over 600 grand a year which is chump change for Rick) and lure Junior away from DEI so he'll experience what a REAL team is like and just possibly win himself a title.
Posted on May 8, 2007 12:21 PM