Hendrick Motor Sports

[harvey lee]

Last season HMS was the best when the COT cars rolled out and for the entire season.

Who believe there is a team that can catch up to them this season. I do believe that for the start into the first 10, HMS will have the cars to beat.

[Sifty]

I think your right Tom.

HMS will be the one's people are chaseing but I think it won't take ten races for the pack to catch up.

Sifty

[LMITOUT]

Gibbs actually had better average finishes than HMS with the COT for most of the COT races, but now that they've switched to Toyota it'll be interesting to see if they can translate it across. They seemed to have the COT dialed in with the Chevy's though right from the get go.

[harvey lee]

Thats right, so it leaves HMS in the lead. We will have to see if the Gibbs team can make the Toyota go. Should be interesting how long it will take them.

[bassNspear]

i cant say that anyone will be close to HMS. There just way to powerful in that car, where there was really know one close to them when they were running them. I have a hard time thinking that one of the boys wont win.

[polarsusd81]

I think this year will be seeing a lot of quality finishes from the guys on the HMS teams as well as the Gibbs teams. Will be an interesting year.

[VMS]

I think this year will be much different with the matchbox car... Last year, when teams were testing the cars at the same track, HMS was not there. What happened is there was some sort of miscalculation in the setup (by NASCAR) and HMS didn't receive that information since they were not there.(this was found out way later after many races for some reason...) HMS did their own research, so they were way ahead of things.

That is not going to happen this year....everyone I feel will be much closer, and HMS isn't going to run away with things...

Steve

[lawdog]

HMS was the best new or old car and there is no reason to believe they will be anything but that again. Until someone beats them, you have to give them the nod as the favorites. In order to be the man, you have to beat the man and Rick Hendrick is the man in NASCAR racing...

[HOF#13]

It'll be interesting, but until someone else knocks them off the podium, they are still top dog. They will surely have 2, and most likely 3 drivers, in the chase for the cup. I do think that the gap between HMS and the other teams will be closer than it was last year for sure.

Team Toyota has me scratching my head right now...they sure have been impressive in the preseason testing sessions. We'll see if that carries over into the season...and then of course Rousch and Childress will be better too. DEI...I think they may struggle. Not just because Jr. is gone, but because they have lost some real quality staff there as well.

[wally20]

With the COT it should'nt really matter what motor is in the car. With what Gibbs knows about the COT and would think some info from schrub, they should be right there with HMS. You really can't go by anything Toyota did last year with the teams and drivers they had!! Look at what they've done in the truck series. If the they get the motors tuned up LOOK OUT!!

[VMS]

 Originally Posted By: wally20

Look at what they've done in the truck series. If the they get the motors tuned up LOOK OUT!!

I agree...the truck series is now very much dominated by Toyota, as has been the open wheel events where toyota is in as well. It's just a matter of time until it happens.

HMS is strong, but now all teams are working JUST with the matchbox car. That makes a huge difference because the lower $$ teams now don't have to worry about R&D for two entirely different car schemes. We may see HMS strong in the beginning, but I highly doubt it will last long. They only have two top notch drivers in their camp with solid performing crews behind them. Mears will see improvement, but it will not be on a fast track, nor will Jr....Jr is going into what has been (IMHO) an R&D team to help the top two out.

Only 4 days till we see some racing, and little over a week until the duels.

Steve

[bassNspear]

i still believe that HMS builds the best motors out there, and has the best all around team in the game. There is alot of great teams out there as well, but there team is still the team everyone is shooting for.