Johnson: Hendrick faces "tricky" future after SHR's Ford defection

Six-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is conflicted on the subject.

You start questioning the relationship and if it really is the right thing.

Jimmie Johnson

Although it’s financially beneficial to have customers contribute to Hendrick’s bottom line and provide data from running the company’s engines, HMS’s investment in technology provides an advantageous springboard for a competitor who is savvy enough to put the pieces together.

“That environment's tricky,” Johnson said. “Just to be selfishly speaking of Hendrick Motorsports, the Stewart-Haas relationship... we didn’t get their data. We didn’t share their data. They had ours.

“So, it was a fantastic situation for them. They had our best stuff, and then they have a huge engineering staff, and they can take Hendrick’s best equipment and refine it and make it better.”

Data sharing since the news of SHR's departure

Prior to this season, when Stewart-Haas Racing announced it was moving under the Blue Oval with Ford Performance in 2017, data-sharing was a two-way street between the companies, according to Doug Duchardt, GM Hendrick Motorsports. That changed when SHR elected to switch manufacturers.

“Jimmie made a comment in his answer to you about not getting information from Stewart-Haas back, and that was not correct,” Duchardt told Motorsport.com. “I wanted to clarify that. In our relationship with Stewart-Haas, we received their information and they received ours. At the beginning of this year, obviously, that changed. But up to that point this year, that was reciprocal. I just want to make sure that that’s clear.”

Hendrick Motorsports has provided SHR with chassis and engines dating back to Gene Haas and the Haas CNC Racing days. That continued when SHR debuted in 2009. Two years later, Tony Stewart won his third Cup title. Kevin Harvick added a second championship in 2014. Between the SHR teammates, Johnson won his sixth title in 2013.

Helping the competition

Understandably, both Johnson and his teammate/car owner Jeff Gordon have welcomed technical alliances in the past — until the alliance begins out-running the mothership. That happened with Joe Gibbs Racing. Initially, JGR was a Hendrick client. Once Gibbs started running door-to-door with Hendrick on a weekly basis and eventually won the title in 2000 with Bobby Labonte, the relationship soured.

JGR faces a similar situation with Furniture Row Racing this season. After joining the Gibbs alliance, Martin Truex Jr. won a career-high four races this season — as many as Gibbs’ defending champion Kyle Busch.

Certainly, that can’t sit well with Busch and his JGR teammates.

“I think the Gibb’s group is going to be experiencing and has been experiencing that with the Furniture Row side,” Johnson said. “You know before Rodney Childers and Kevin Harvick were at Stewart-Haas it worked pretty good for us. We had a bunch of income for the company, didn’t have to worry about racing for wins or championships against the Stewart-Haas equipment, but those guys changed the game and bringing Kurt Busch and Tony himself and all that is there you start questioning the relationship and if it really is the right thing.”

Still, SHR’s departure leaves a huge void financially at Hendrick Motorsports, particularly with the uncertainty surrounding HScott Motorsports. Chip Ganassi Racing remains an engine customer of Hendrick’s and has one year remaining on its contract with Chevy. There have been rumors of Richard Petty Motorsports moving to Chevy in 2017 — but similar scuttlebutt usually swirls this time of year.

Getting the house in order

Whether the Hendrick entertains new business partners remains to be seen. This last year, Duchardt has focused on putting the Hendrick house in order.

“When you look at the totality of those types of relationships, you have to understand what’s the benefit and what’s the difficulty of doing those kinds of things,” Duchardt said. “I think for us right now, we take each opportunity individually and look at it and try to balance what makes sense for our company. I think currently, in the mode we’re in right now, we’re really working on getting better internally. I think some of the fruits of that labor are starting to show right here as the Chase began.

“So, we’re trying to get our house in order and work on how we are approaching things. I feel really good about the gains we’re making in that. As we get that settled a little more, we can look at how those relationships can work in the future.”

Yes, HMS is enjoying a resurgence. After Johnson won two of the first five races in 2016, the company — and Johnson — endured it’s longest winless streak since the No. 48 team was introduced in 2001. That ended last weekend when Johnson won at Charlotte for the first time in five races. Kasey Kahne finished third and both Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott were running up front before the No. 88 Chevy blew a tire and Elliott was wrecked in a 13-car accident.

"Tricky" situation

Johnson is leading the standings following his third win of the season, but he knows how fickle the sport can be. Does he believe adding new partners will be best for Hendrick in the long run?

“It’s tricky,” Johnson reiterated. “If Mr. Hendrick can raise the money to not have that relationship, I think for us, selfishly it is better not to. We would always like to have some people running our engines and trying to do durability stuff on new motors that are coming out.

“I would imagine having a couple of cars out there we will always have that, but a team at that high of caliber again, I believe we would look really hard before we made that decision again.”