2010 Progress Reports - Salutatorian, Hendrick Motorsports

The bell has rung and spring break has hit NASCAR. It’s All-Star week and progress reports for the semester are indeed out. Yesterday we reviewed valedictorians Joe Gibbs Racing and their splendid A+ campaign early in 2010 and right at their heels are longtime head honchos of NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports.
HMS has a pretty potent history in the sport, winning nine of the last 15 series championships, including four in a row under Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus but is the HMS powerhouse slowly dropping from their usual perch atop the Sprint Cup Standings?
Find out after the fold!

Hendrick Motorsports (A-)
Four Wins
Three Cars in Top 12
It’s not as if the unsinkable H.M.S. Powerhouse has sunk. It’s merely a six week winless streak in which one driver (Jeff Gordon) has led the most laps in 2010 and the other (Jimmie Johnson) is leading the series in wins and is the four-time defending series champion. The sky is certainly not falling and in fact, it’s not even tilted.
There is slight concern as Jimmie Johnson is averaging a 15th place finish and has gone winless since moving to the spoiler. Furthermore, the 48 team in beginning to show uncharacteristic race mistakes and that could lead to the dynasty’s downfall.
For teammate Jeff Gordon, it’s an entirely different story. The 24 has undoubtedly had the best race team all season but appears unable to finish races on the same token it starts them. Out of 13 races, often maligned crew chief Steve Letarte has unloaded the best race car in at least seven of them. Letarte is not the problem this year - the driver is. The fact is that Jeff Gordon must correct his restart and short run woes or else he can kiss the Drive for Five goodbye until 2011.
Mark Martin set the world on fire in 2009 after a slow start and appears to have set a trend going into 2010. For a better part of the first 13 races, Mark Martin set well outside the Top 12 until cracking the Chase after Pocono. This is the stage where Mark Martin began his runner-up campaign last season and should be strong the rest of the way. Martin and crew chief Alan Gustafson must pick up the pace and pick up several wins heading into the summer or the no. 5 could be on the outside looking in.

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. even a part of Sprint Cup anymore? It appeared that crew chief and by-proxy psychologist Lance McGrew had this team turned around lafter an impressive Speedweeks and the month of March. But its been all downhill since, with the 88 following the 48 team’s lead in struggling with the spoiler. Dale Earnhardt Jr’s chance for a career-stamping title appears to have gone the way of the spoiler unless McGrew and company can fix what ails the 88.
Jr. Nation is extremely impatient and growing tired of excuses. Don’t think that Rick Hendrick is beyond yanking Jr. out of the 88 in leiu of Kasey Khane if improvments are not met before Richmond and the end of the regular season. Khane is the odd man out in 2011, still without a ride for next season and Earnhardt Jr. is the odd man out at HMS. You can take that as a prediction more than mere speculation.
In baseball they say that speed never slumps and NASCAR has no faster than Hendrick Motorsports. HMS will be fine and should pass with flying colors come Homestead-Miami.