Doom And Gloom?
The weekend struggles of Hendrick Motorsports have been well documented this season. With three young drivers that represent the future of the sport for years to come, the future is bright. The question is…How about now?
If qualifying was any indication, then this is not the weekend that we’ll see a turn around. With an average finish of 16.5 for the team this season, one has to wonder where the struggle lies.
A lot of fingers have been pointed at the current Camaro, but we’ve seen Kyle Larson run up front and contend for wins in that same car. Is the Research and Development part of the problem, or have they gone in a wrong direction. Alex Bowman doesn’t believe any of that development has had any impact on the Camaro. “A race car is a race car” Bowman said. “Mechanically the Camaro is no different than what the SS was underneath.” Bowman added that he did a lot of wheel force testing, which was more for the tires and really the simulator work that he did was to dial in the simulator for the full time guys to come, get in and run through their set-ups.
Hendrick didn’t have a Camaro body on the track until William Byron ran it at Las Vegas.
Progress…
The process has been really slow when it comes to making the transition to the Camaro for Hendrick. Bowman said the development has been consistent and they are really just a little off from where they need to be. “We’ll get there, we’ve made a bunch of improvements already, just from the start of the season.
“We’ve got a lot of smart people working on these cars.” Bowman doesn’t show any concern, and in fact, it’s all eyes forward.
Bowman currently sits in the 15th spot in points with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. just 19 points back. For Bowman, “outside of the speedway races, we’re not even looking at the points because we know we’re getting better.
All of this, plus the history of Hendrick Motorsports, fans should have optimism that “7-time” and his band of young guns will be firing on all cylinders soon.
