Seven races into the season, Hendrick Motor Sports is batting 0.00% - shooting O-fer.  But it’s not surprising.  Not many saw it coming; not the media, competition, or even the employees at Henrick.  It’s not that the former super team is struggling, but a race win for Hendrick in 2008 is looking more like a Par Three Day ace than the nonchalant, seemingly robotic domination seen last season.

2007 Repurcussions

Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson battled to the final checkered flag for the Nextel Cup last season.  That effort is hurting the chances for a Sprint Cup repeat in 2008.  The 24/48 shop poured everything into the final races of 2007.  Teams that normally depend on communication between themselves became stingy with the flow of information.

"A few people have taken note and not been impressed.  Others have been impressed," Jeff Burton said last Halloween at a Car of Tomorrow test at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  NASCAR’s top two teams were marked absent at the monumental test.

Gordon and Johnson elected to not participate in the test to focus on the current season.  Johnson and the 48 team missed the setup and struggled for 500 miles at Atlanta  last March.  Gordon drove one of the poorest set up Hendrick cars in the history of the organization to a 43^rd place finish at Texas, a similarly shaped track to Atlanta, last weekend.  Missing Atlanta is still hurting Hendrick.

The flip side of the coin

Dale Earnhardt Jr. stepped into the Hendrick number five car at the same Atlanta test session, setting media focus of the test upon the newest driver at NASCAR’s super team.  Eventual 88 crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was also there, learning and tweaking on a foreign car for a foreign organization.

It’s no coincidence that Earnhardt’s fourth place points standing is also Hendrick’s best effort going this season.  The success of the Amp Energy/National Guard team goes all the way back to the Atlanta test and Eury’s subsequent work up to Daytona.  Eury left Dale Earnhardt Inc. once it was confirmed Earnhardt wouldn’t be chasing the Cup and focused his efforts on 2008.

Earnhardt has only twice finished outside the top ten in 2008, once due to an early wreck at California.  The other came last weekend at Texas after handling went south on a pole winning car.

Meanwhile, in the greener grass…

Jack Roush’s teams struggled with NASCAR’s new platform last season.  While Hendrick Motor Sports was off winning everything in sight, the Roush Fords struggled to even make the chase. 

Ford’ biggest squad sent two to NASCAR’s playoffs in 2008 and won seven races to Hendrick’s 18.  If the NASCAR archives are correct, that’s one less chase driver than 2006 and three less than 2005.  2008 has been a turnaround season for Ford’s flagship team.  Roush has gone from mediocre to strikingly fast thanks to proper allocation of resources during last season to prepare for a full year of Car of Tomorrow racing.

Carl Edwards has three race wins in the early part of the season, and despite a heavy penalty for removal of the oil lid in Las Vegas, Edwards finds himself in the top 10 in points.

“This is by far the best I’ve ever felt in this series - by far.  2005 as great, but this is better,” Edwards said.  “I’m not worried about the points.  We’re going out to haul ass every week and let the points take car of themselves.”