Hendrick Motorsports made some major changes in the offseason hoping for an improved 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
For the first time in his Cup career, Jimmie Johnson will not have Chad Knaus working as crew chief of the No. 48 team. Johnson will now be paired with Kevin Meendering, who moves from JR Motorsports, while Knaus moves to the No. 24 stable and sophomore driver William Byron. Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson return to the No. 9 team while Alex Bowman and Greg Ives remain together in the No. 88 entry.
Johnson will try to get back to Victory Lane, which he failed to do for the first time in his Cup tenure last year, with new sponsor Ally Financial on the No. 48 Chevrolet.
“I’ve never been in this position, I know that much,” Johnson said. “There is a lot of ‘new’ to it, there’s no way around that. But, I do have the history of knowing everybody here at the shop and the history of the No. 48 and all that, so it doesn’t feel totally new, but largely new, for sure.
“It definitely is a new challenge and I welcome it. One thing that I did know was that the way things were going and where Chad and I ended up, that needed to change. It wasn’t bringing the best out of either one of us and we weren’t delivering like we needed to. So, I knew that much, for sure, last year. And then I’m just excited to get this fresh start and see where it takes us.”
Byron, who won Rookie of the Year in 2018, is looking forward to being teamed up with future Hall of Fame crew chief Knaus for his second full campaign.
“I think it is a great learning opportunity for me,” Byron said. “His experience level is really high, but he’s not like set in is ways. That is what I have noticed about him, he’s open to do new things. I feel like that is important as a crew chief and a team member.”
Knaus believes the new pairings as well as other personnel shifts and changes within the company will turn the Hendrick fortunes around in 2019.
“From a company standpoint there is a lot of things we did and took on that was really monumental tasks that we really shouldn’t have tried to do all at one time,” Knaus explained. “We combined all of our teams, combined all of our resources, really took all of the talent we had, put it into a big pile and said ‘okay this guy is going to handle our mechanical side, this guys is going to handle our fabrication side, we are going to use these procedures’, we are going to do all of these things and we are going to combine these buildings. So, we basically took over 220 some people and pit crews and said alright we are going to mix all you guys up and establish new procedures.
“That is a huge shift just in general. So now you stack on top of that we’ve got pit crew changes, changes with the roster so that the guys can go to the race track and then go ahead throw on top of that a new car we are trying to develop. I mean any one of those items is a huge task in itself and we decided to throw all three of them out there. That was horrible timing. I think with us getting our systems in place rolling into next year with a little bit stronger foundation we are going to be significantly better.”
Elliott led the team with three wins last year and showed great improvement. While he’s confident things will continue to head in a positive direction this year he also understands the difficulty in transferring success from one season to another especially in light of the new Cup Series rules package.
“It’s hard to carry momentum from something that happened in October all the way to February,” Elliott said. “I do think the confidence that was built and finishing and closing out some of those races will carry. It’s a new year and it’s hard to take the stuff on.”
Bowman is in the same school of thought with Elliott. He’s optimistic about his 2019 prospects but also somewhat leery of the unknowns coming with the new rules.
“I don’t think anybody knows what to expect this year until we get to the race track with the new package,” Bowman said. “It’s going to be interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing how different it is.”
Previous Team Previews
