New Sheriff in town: the work of Hendrick Motorsports, led by Jeff Gordon, means it's high noon for Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s restrictor-plate dominance

Hey, Junior, who's that in your rearview mirror? It's not your teammate Mikey. It's Jeff, Jimmie and the rest of the Hendrick juggernaut. And they're gaining.

In 2004, Hendrick Motorsports not only caught Dale Earnhardt Inc. on restrictor-plate tracks, it surpassed Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 and Michael Waltrip's No. 15 cars.

Yes, Junior had the best overall restrictor-plate performance last season: two victories, four top fives and a total of 216 laps led. But don't think Jeff Gordon's win in the first Talladega race was a fluke caused by NASCAR officiating. He won in July at the other restrictor-plate track, Daytona, and is on a roll.

Gordon teammate Jimmie Johnson was second at Daytona in July. And Hendrick teammates Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers finished eighth and ninth. Joe Nemechek, whose No. 01 cars are powered by Hendrick engines, was 10th.

So how did Hendrick catch DEI?

"There is no secret weapon anymore," Earnhardt says. "The Hendrick cars and a bunch of guys have just gotten fast. It's no big secret."

Eddie Dickerson, Hendrick's director of chassis engineering, says HMS had crew members work strictly on restrictor-plate development. "You just work the rulebook as hard as you can," he says. "Obviously, you make the car as sleek as you can."

Some in the garage say it's more a case of DEI dropping back to the pack than Hendrick advancing.

"There was a time when DEI was really stout with their speedway program," a source close to DEI says. "They set the benchmark. Others had a lot to shoot for, but after a while (DEI) flat-lined. They didn't gain much in the last four years, and others just caught up."

Dominance in restrictor-plate racing--as in any other segment of competition--runs in cycles. Teams latch on to a trick and run with it, and now HMS is hitting its stride.

"It's a combination of things," says Jeff Andrews, Hendrick's director of engine assembly. "I think they've made some huge strides on the car side. On the engine side, we found some things early on last year. The more we pursued them on the open side (without restrictor plates), the more we carried it over on the restricted side.

"It seemed to pay off for us there in late May, early June, and we just kept on working and refining it. My guys back at the engine shop started working in August of last year for Daytona."

Hiring away two former engineering managers from DEI in the past year also helped. The results have paid off, impressing Gordon at last month's test session.

"Over the offseason, we felt like we built a car that was a little bit better than the car we had here in July," Gordon says. "So far it's going pretty well, and hopefully we can keep that going."

Lee Spencer's
Daytona 500 Power Poll

   Driver                 Cup wins     Average finish
                        at Daytona *    at Daytona *

 1 Dale Earnhardt Jr.        2             13.3
 2 Jeff Gordon               5             13.6
 3 Jimmie Johnson            0              8.5
 4 Michael Waltrip           3             18.7
 5 Tony Stewart              0             19.6
 6 Mark Martin               0             17.5
 7 Kurt Busch                0             20.5
 8 Dale Jarrett              4             16.3
 9 Greg Biffle               1             16.2
10 Joe Nemechek              0             26.9

* Includes July race

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