NASCAR Cup Series

Jimmie Johnson on Hendrick Motorsports teamwork: 'It's spectacular'

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:20 p.m. ET

Joe Menzer

Finally, the questions can stop coming for Hendrick Motorsports.

Well, that’s not entirely true. But the questions are bound to now start taking a different turn, just like Jimmie Johnson’s season did when he won last Sunday’s rain-delayed Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Instead of folks wondering what in the heck is wrong with Johnson and the company that fields his No. 48 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, they’re now going to start asking more about what Johnson’s chances are of winning what would be a record-tying seventh championship.

In breaking an uncharacteristic 24-race winless streak at Charlotte, Johnson served notice that he’s back. Not insignificantly, the victory also guaranteed his advancement into the Round of Eight in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.

That’s farther than Johnson has ever advanced in the Chase elimination format since it was introduced in 2014, and also puts him just one elimination round from being included in the Championship 4 who will stage a one-race, winner-take-all battle for the title in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20.

None of which was lost on car owner Rick Hendrick, who said after Sunday’s race he knew all along that the demise of his organization was greatly exaggerated.

“I can't tell you how many races we were in position to win, but a caution would come out, a restart, and we'd just fumble the ball,” Hendrick said. “But we've really been working hard through the summer.

“Usually teams kind of come apart when they're not showing signs of speed, but the guys have never worked this hard together, and it's been paying off. … We've had the speed, but we just couldn't finish.”

For Johnson to finish with his third win of the season and the 78th of his storied career on Sunday, the team first had to do some serious soul searching.

Earlier in the summer, it was obvious that all of the Hendrick cars were lacking in speed. Recently they have shown better speed, but the No. 48 team, in particular, kept making critical, costly mistakes along with encountering some bad luck.

Some of the mistakes were self-inflicted. Crew chief Chad Knaus and Johnson knew it.

Knaus said it called for a complete examination, from top to bottom, of how they were doing everything. And for that, it took a village – one that included lots of behind-the-scenes people at Hendrick.

“Well, we had a lot of meetings. We definitely did,” Knaus said. “There wasn't any fist pounding per se, but what we did do was try to get together with all the heads of state, let's say.

“You've got the crew chiefs, you've got the management group at Hendrick Motorsports, (technical director) Kenny Francis and so on and so forth, and what we were trying to do was identify where our weaknesses were. And once we started to hone in on where we thought we needed to get some gains, we started to allocate the resources to where we needed it.”

Once that happened, it was only a matter of time until Johnson started winning again.

“That's what you've got to do, because, one, when you get into a situation where you're behind a little bit, if you give the people the problem, let them go solve it, usually you get a pretty good answer with the people that we have at Hendrick Motorsports,” Knaus said.

Johnson could not agree more.

“And just to add to that, we've always been very good teammates, but the way in which all four drivers and crew chiefs and even the engineers on the teams are working together and helping each other, it's spectacular,” Johnson said. “That's what it takes, and we've obviously made some good improvements through it. We look forward to what we can do in the future with it.”

Johnson sharing credit with the rest of the HMS driver is interesting, especially considering one of those drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has sat out the last half of the season because of a concussion.

Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman have replaced Earnhardt, who has continued to sit in on many of the team meetings even while out. That actually has added to the total input that also includes regular drivers Chase Elliott and Kasey Kahne.

Add it all together, throw in Sunday’s latest win, and the rest of the Sprint Cup garage can consider itself served with a stern warning: Johnson is back in the hunt as a legitimate title contender in a season when many had unwisely – and obviously prematurely – written him off.

“Nobody has to remind me that we hadn't won a race (in a while),” Hendrick said. “You guys (in the media center) remind me of that every weekend, and they do on TV. I think we were washed up and should have quit. But it kind of motivated us, and you know, Jimmie ‑‑ we just lacked speed through the middle part, early part of the year. We just had to work really hard to gain it back.

“Nobody ever gave up, and you know, we know what a champion Jimmie is.”

For others who possibly had forgotten, Sunday was a wakeup call.

“You get this machine of Hendrick Motorsports rolling and some momentum on our side, we can accomplish a lot, and I think all four cars are showing that,” Johnson said. “We've got a lot more to show the rest of the year.”