The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Hendrick teams now guarding against parts failures in Chase
Hendrick Motorsports took time in its weekly meetings to address the parts failure that cost Jimmie Johnson a shot at a seventh championship.
Johnson was eliminated in the first round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship when an axle seal broke on his car Sunday at Dover. The failure occurred 103 laps into the race and he finished 41st to fall into the bottom four of the Chase standings.
While the issue could be a quality control problem, four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon said HMS discussed ways to “make sure that’s not something that bites us going forward.
“If I wrote down the list of inexpensive parts on the car that can fail at anytime on any given weekend, you’d blow your mind,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened, and trying to actually diagnose exactly what caused it and why it happened, it’s tough. Other teams will tell you these kinds of little gremlins can reach out and grab you at any time.”
Gordon said HMS, which still has Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Chase, can take “procedural” steps to guard against failures.
“I think we can take some extra precautions to maybe make it better, but there’s more of a long-term-solution to it that we can’t really address right now,” he said.
Earnhardt seemed less concerned with the issue.
“Just a freak accident. The seal can get a nick or tear throughout the weekend moving an axle in and out,” he said. “We’ve never had any problems with our seals and everything’s always looked good with our cars. You never know. You hope you don’t have an issue with that, and something as simple as that can ruin your day.”
Axalta-Dale Jr.
Axalta Coatings Systems will remain with Hendrick Motorsports after Jeff Gordon retires at the end of the year.
Starting next season, Axalta will be a primary sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet for 13 Sprint Cup Series races. That is an increase of three races per season, and the deal runs through 2018.
Axalta has been with Hendrick for 23 years in some form — the company was rebranded from DuPont — in a relationship that began in 1992 as Gordon’s first primary sponsor. Gordon will continue to work with Axalta as a spokesman and adviser.
“We began a journey 23 years ago with Hendrick Motorsports and a young driver named Jeff Gordon,” said Nigel Budden, Axalta vice president and head of its North America business. “Eighty poles, 92 wins and four championships later, we are proud of the run we’ve had with Jeff. Now, we are delighted to continue our relationship with Hendrick Motorsports and to adorn the hood of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevy SS with the Axalta logo in 2016.”
Axalta has hosted thousands of customers at events and created some of the most iconic paint schemes in NASCAR history. Earlier this month, Axalta and Hendrick broke ground on Axalta’s 45,000-square-foot Customer Experience Center that will be located on the Hendrick Motorsports campus in Concord.