In the Hendrick Racing League, a level above the rest of NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series nowadays, great parity is developing.
Between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, that is.
As they run away with this season, at least they’re back and forth, leaving at least some suspense week in, week out, as to which one will win. Between them they’ve won four Cup races in a row, five of the last six, a total of seven this season, and their Hendrick armada has won eight of the last nine.
It was Gordon’s turn Sunday, in the Dodge Avenger 500. It was his third victory this year to Johnson’s four, but for Gordon this made three of the last four. And Gordon leads the point standings with Johnson second.
Hendrick also remained undefeated through all five Car of Tomorrow races this year. Kyle Busch won the first one, Johnson the second, Gordon the third, Johnson the fourth and now Gordon the fifth.
Gordon won this time by staying out on the track — in a Chevrolet overheating so badly it was blowing geysers of steam during a late caution — while Johnson handed him the lead by ducking into the pits for tires.
From there, Gordon was in clean, cooling air under green, but had to slow down — and heat up — again during two more caution periods. When the green flag waved for the final time with 13 laps to go, Gordon knew he had no choice but to run wide open until the engine blew or the checkered flag fell.
Johnson came out of the pits seventh after his stop, blasted back to third, but then got held up by Ryan Newman, who’d stayed out along with Gordon and was running second just after the restart.
After getting past Newman, Johnson got hung up in a duel for second with onrushing Denny Hamlin. With the help of lapped traffic, Hamlin won that fight, and wound up beating Johnson for second. Newman, the catalyst, faded to fourth.
“That’s the way to win races!” Gordon yelped in victory lane, meaning adjustments all afternoon by his crew, not to mention the risky call by his crew chief.
“Great call by Steve Letarte,” Gordon said of his pit boss’ firm command on the radio: “Stay out! Stay out!” at the moment leader Johnson turned toward the pit road.
Johnson said that even if he had it to do over, he’d pit and give up the lead.
“Tires always pay off here,” Johnson said.
Hamlin, who finished third to Johnson and Busch last Sunday at Richmond, with Gordon fourth, has been saying for weeks that his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolets are just as strong as the Hendrick cars, and the difference has been that “they don’t make any mistakes.”
To Hamlin’s chagrin, he illustrated his point again at Darlington. He led the most laps of the day, 179 of the 367, but dropped back from second to 16th with 62 laps to go on yet another miscue by his pit crew. Once again, he charged back through the field but ran out of laps.
“It just goes on and on every week,” Hamlin said.
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ehinton@tribune.com
