Hendrick says extensions coming for 2 crew chiefs
NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick is close to announcing contract
extensions for crew chiefs Alan Gustafson and Chad Knaus.
"We absolutely should be able to announce something here in
10 days or so," Hendrick said before Sunday's race at Talladega
Superspeedway. "We weren't that concerned about it, but that's
going to happen here real soon."
Hendrick has been working on an extension with Knaus since
late last season, when driver Jimmie Johnson agreed to a deal to
drive at Hendrick Motorsports through 2015. The driver and crew
chief have won a NASCAR record four consecutive championships
together.
Gustafson is currently crew chief for Mark Martin in the No.
5 car. Kasey Kahne recently completed a deal to drive that car in
2012, but Hendrick says he has not yet determined his crew chief
lineup.
The owner did say, though, that the No. 5 team belongs to
Gustafson - the first indication that he could be paired with
Kahne.
"As long as I'm alive, Alan is going to work for me. And the
5 car is his," said Hendrick, who declined to be more specific on
potential future pairings.
Kahne has a strong relationship with Kenny Francis, his
longtime crew chief who is currently with him at Richard Petty
Motorsports. But Kahne is leaving at the end of this season, and
although he wants to continue working with Francis, he's said he
doesn't know what will happen.
Hendrick, after all, has to first figure out where Kahne will
even drive next season.
The deal the owner and driver agreed to doesn't put Kahne in
the No. 5 until 2012, but makes Hendrick responsible for finding a
ride for him next season. The pairing will most certainly be with a
Chevrolet team, but Hendrick said Sunday he had nothing figured out
yet.
"It's amazing how many options people have called me with in
this garage area," Hendrick said. "We're just not in any hurry
right now. A lot of things can happen and seriously, I have so much
going on that I told Kasey, 'If you want to do it and I want to do
it, we agree and then you go race and let me do my job.'
"We'll worry about the rest of it later."
Also undetermined is if Budweiser, Kahne's current sponsor,
will be with him after this season. Hendrick said he's got
potential conflicts with current HMS sponsors, but also has
options.
"I've got a lot of first-refusals where I can say to those
people that you've got 30 days to decide," Hendrick said. "I have
to abide by those contracts."
Same goes with Martin, who is signed through 2011, but
indicated after Kahne's signing that he has no plans to walk away
from racing. Although Martin will likely scale back to a partial
schedule starting in 2012, he expressed interest in some sort of
owner-driver role with his own team.
"When you heard that, that was the first time I had heard
that," Hendrick said. "I didn't even know he had thought about
that. I would be happy to help him. I think our sport needs more
guys like that who want to own their own teams. But it's really
hard to plan when you're going to run a limited schedule.
"I think he's had to have had a ton of options, because I've
had people calling me. And I'm like, 'You gotta call him.' Because
I can't run him in a limited deal and have four teams."
