Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports seek bounce back after subpar 2017 season

Popping champagne to celebrate a championship is Jimmie Johnson’s preferred way to cap a season, something he’s done a NASCAR record-tying seven times. Yet when the 2017 season wrapped in November there was no spraying of the bubbly nor any jubilation in what had been accomplished.

Instead, following a trying and frequently frustrating season, Johnson sought to enjoy a different kind of adult beverage to begin the offseason. And he wanted one immediately after the checkered flag fell in the season finale Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I couldn’t find a beer quick enough and started popping some cold ones to try to forget a tough close to the season,” Johnson said.

A year after tying the championship record shared by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Johnson’s pursuit of an eighth title really wasn’t much of a pursuit at all. He set career lows in several major statistical categories — top fives, top 10s, laps led, average start, average finish — and although he won three times, he ended the season with a 23-race winless drought where rarely did he resemble the driver who many consider NASCAR’s all-time best.

There was no one area where Johnson and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team underperformed, but several. Six times Johnson failed to finish due to crashes, while his normally detail-oriented pit crew committed several gaffes — including making unapproved repairs to Johnson’s damaged Chevrolet under the red flag during the playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. The slip-up resulted in officials parking the defending champ for the remainder of the race, a loss of points that nearly caused Johnson to be eliminated in the quarter-final playoff round. (He did advance, though he was knocked out in the subsequent bracket.)

“I feel like the way the last quarter of the season went for us was below our expectations,” Johnson said. “It is unfair to always expect us to win a championship, but I think being competitive, leading laps and challenging for wins, that’s a fair expectation and we just didn’t do that at the end of the year.”

Inevitably, scrutiny began to surround the rapport between Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, as the communication between the two often gave the impression that the relationship was nearing its end after a 16-year run.

The struggles, however, weren’t so much about Johnson’s chemistry with Knaus, or even the mistakes on the track and on pit road. More so, the woes were indicative of the challenges Hendrick faced overall last season.

It wasn’t merely Johnson who fell short of expectations. Neither teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Chase Elliott won a race, while Kasey Kahne’s lone victory occurred in a wild and crash-filled Brickyard 400. The four collective wins were Hendrick’s fewest since winning the same number of races in 2000.

For most organizations a year that entails four combined wins, three of its four drivers qualifying for the playoffs, with two advancing to the semifinals would be deemed a success. A level of accomplishment worthy of celebration that buoys hopes heading into the offseason and what may transpire the following year.

Except Hendrick isn’t just any organization. It is NASCAR’s standard bearer, the owner of a Cup Series record 12 championships. Anything short of dominance is unsatisfactory, which in 2017 was the common feeling as the team saw itself again consistently outpaced by the Toyota superpowers of Furniture Row Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing for a second consecutive year.

In 2016, Toyota snapped Chevrolet’s 13-year reign as manufacturer champion. It repeated the feat this past season, with Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch finishing 1-2 in the driver championship and each leading over 2,000 laps. A stark contrast to the 865 laps Earnhardt, Elliott, Johnson and Kahne combined to lead.

Attempting to stunt Toyota’s advantage, Chevrolet is switching models from the SS to the Camaro for 2018. The new car shares similar characteristics to the Camry, which Toyota updated prior to the 2017 season, with the intent that the Camaro should be more competitive on intermediate tracks.

If the conversion manifests as Chevrolet anticipates with the Camaro better aerodynamically than its predecessor, that should help Hendrick bridge the gulf and get closer to its customary form.

“There is a lot of fire and excitement within our camp around our new car,” Elliott said. “… I think everyone has done their homework from that perspective.”

But that isn’t the lone change Hendrick has enacted as it attempts to unseat the Toyotas of FRR and JGR. Last summer, Hendrick announced a reshuffling of its leadership staff. The moves included the departure of longtime general manager Doug Duchardt and the reassigning of several behind the scenes personnel to different positions. Additionally, recently retired four-time champion Jeff Gordon has gradually begun taking on a larger role within the company.

The biggest change, though, comes with how Hendrick has constructed its driver lineup. Gone are the retired Earnhardt and the released Kahne, and in their places are Alex Bowman, 24, and William Byron, 20, who along with the 22-year-old Elliott give the team an abundance of youth. That also leaves Johnson, 42, as the only driver on the team to have won a Cup race, with his experience now being counted on to lead the resurgence.

Much like Gordon before him, Johnson is embracing the role. As opposed to last year when he spent much of the offseason at his home in Aspen, Colo., this offseason has seen the seven-time champion have more of a presence at the Hendrick shop in North Carolina.

“When Jeff stepped down from full-time driving, he cued me in on the things that would be expected of me and where I can help,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’ve stepped up into that role and been a large voice within Hendrick Motorsports.

“But as I try and help my young teammates, I’m also watching them. I know they’re going to bring in a different approach and even teach me things.”

Amid an offseason of turnover with new faces in new places, Johnson steadfastly believes Hendrick will ultimately be a force to be reckoned with on the track. There is simply too much talent and too many resources for the organization not to overcome its recent shortcomings.

“I think that the changes taking place for us is change in the right direction, is going to bring the company closer together, produce a better product, more competitive cars,” Johnson said. “I’m really looking forward to 2018. The decisions we’re making now will have a direct improvement on 2018, but I think as we stack a couple of years on it will only strengthen further out.”

Optimism that if it becomes an actuality means Johnson won’t need to find himself a six-pack when the season concludes.