Jeff Gordon, Dale Earrnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, here before the Las Vegas race earlier in the season. Along with teammate Mark Martin, the Hendricks Motorsports teammates have a combined 14 victories at Dover International Speedway.
DOVER, Del. - All four of Rick Hendrick's drivers are in the top 12 in the Sprint Cup Standings: Jimmie Johnson is second, Jeff Gordon fourth, Mark Martin 10th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12th.
Yet, somehow, entering the season's 12th race, the aura surrounding Hendrick Motorsports is mildly unsettling. Gordon, Martin and Earnhardt haven't won a race yet. Johnson won three of the first five but has finished outside the top 10 in two of the past three. Gordon has a series-best five finishes in the top five but has managed on four occasions, essentially, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The hot drivers of the moment, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, are in Joe Gibbs Toyotas. But the four Hendrick drivers have combined for 14 victories at Dover International Speedway, site of the Autism Speaks 400. The three JGR drivers - Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano - have one Dover victory between them.
Double-file restarts and green-white-checkered finishes have plagued Gordon.
"On one hand, they make it really exciting, but for somebody like me, when we've had the dominant cars, the cautions didn't fall right," he said. "When we've gone out there and tried to still win under a late-race caution, the green-white-checkered or the caution didn't fall right for us. There's a lot of different ways to win races these days, and sometimes the fastest car wins and sometimes it doesn't."
Rules changes haven't exactly turned the world upside down, but they have added layers of strategy and uncertainty, most notably to drivers who have dominated races right up to the end.
Drivers like Gordon.
"This is why I don't compare past history to what's going on today," he said. "The point system is different, the cars are different, the 'green-white-checkereds' are different, and the double-file restarts are different. Had we had single-file restarts, we would have won three races, I think, right now. It's just that much different when you (leaders) start single-file, especially if you start double-file with the lapped cars on the inside like we used to. It's just totally different.
"You still have to win under these conditions, so it's important that you get it right. ... I think that right now, you've got a lot of guys experimenting and lots of teams that are solid. Of course, everyone is trying to win races but you're also trying to get yourself really ready for the Chase and to win the championship. I really don't think there is anything we could do different to have won those races other than me spinning the tires (on a late restart) at Phoenix."
Ryan Newman won that April 10 race, with Gordon second. In 11 races, he has finished second twice, third twice and fourth once. He has been 14th or worse in each of the other six races but is still fourth in the point standings.