Is it time for HMS to panic?

Part of the problem is that Chevrolet threw an SS badge on everything back in the mid/late 2000's (Malibu Maxx SS.....lol) and when the Chevrolet SS replaced the Impala in NASCAR, I can see why it might be confusing to some, especially when you consider that the SS is relatively unknown
 
Mopardh9 said:
I followed the SS from the beginning, I've only actually seen 1 up close and personal, a buddy at work had one. I honestly don't think Chevy ever intended this car to be successful. It's a shame because it's a pretty awesome car.
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There are a few in my area, but most of the ones I have actually seen in person were at car shows (where the cool thing is to put the Holden grille in them) or at Chevy race track displays. You're right, I don't think Chevy WANTED to sell many of these, with only so much production available in Australia with a winding down of auto manufacturing there, the cost of having to ship them to the US, and not wanting to convert a north American plant to producing them. It IS a shame because I don't think there is any doubt it's the best sedan Chevy has ever offered, and on par with anything GM as a whole has offered in this type of car. I wish Chevy could have done a new version based on the Cadillac CTS, but Chevy already has three sedans that aren't setting the world on fire in sales, so I never seriously thought that would happen.
 
Brad D was talking about the new splitter put the Chevy behind the Fords and Toyota.
 
Someone told me last week that the Chevys running well at Talladega meant they would run good here at Dover. Forget who it was, but looks like they were wrong.
 
Alan Gustafson, in his hatred for winning races, has secretly conspired to make all the Chevy Camaros suck so it won't look bad on him. :p
 
ChexOrWrex said:
How about now?
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They’ve now cycled through a couple tracks they’ve “owned” (Martinsville and Dover) and two plate races without seriously threatening. Yeah, it’s time. I guess it’s official when they battle for 10th at Charlotte.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
Someone told me last week that the Chevys running well at Talladega meant they would run good here at Dover. Forget who it was, but looks like they were wrong.
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who ever told you that knows very little about the cars. The tracks require pretty much the opposite characteristics from the cars. Yeah the Hendrick cars are terrible, Jimmie wasn’t even close. It’s seems like the team isn’t the same since shr left. It’s going to really cause issues with sponsorship if they don’t pick up the speed. It’s interesting that Harvick put 7 seconds on Clint at the end of the race, but dad gum near couldn’t pass him. IMO this package they are running is one of the worst in recent memory.
 
Kiante said:
Still not halfway through the year, give it until race 18 and if they are not consistently planting a car in the top 5. Then, I'd be actually concerned.

Its Chevy wide, not just HMS and Ganassi.
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Aren't they close to halfway through the regular season though?

Hendrick has been strong at Dover, with Jimmie and with Chase. For them to not be a factor is a cause for concern.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
No, his line is “copy.”

Chase: “I’m really free entering, but tight on landing and can’t get drive off the exit. I need XYZ...”

Alan: “Copy.”
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He must have changed it up for Chase as he is too young to remember the CB craze. It was always "10-4" with Gordon.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Aren't they close to halfway through the regular season though?

Hendrick has been strong at Dover, with Jimmie and with Chase. For them to not be a factor is a cause for concern.
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They aren't even a 3rd of the way through the season. It takes a long time to go from data acquisition to finished product. Let's see where they are in August. Even then, who knows? Didn't Tony Stewart win a championship after having a very mediocre season leading up the playoffs?
 
the 42 team completely screwed Larson from the first but he salvaged a top ten out of it. Johnson's crew sure didn't help his chances . Pitted out of like third place, pitted again with 12 laps on his tires in the closing laps?
 
ChexOrWrex said:
I’ll never forget

Gordon: “What lap are we on?”

Alan: “copy”

Eddie: “154 Jeff”
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I can believe that. If you’re a casual fan listening to a scanner for the first time, the 9 team’s trio will put you to sleep.
 
Was it just me, or did Chase and Alan really butt heads today? Chase was describing the problems, and Alan wanted to go up on right rear (after rain delay). It was obvious that they had discussed this change in either debrief meetings or during delay, and Chase kept shooting it down saying he didn’t feel it would help. Then Chase relented saying “but do what you want. It won’t hurt my feelings, but I do t think it’ll help.”
 
48 was running top-3 before a couple questionable pit calls. Don’t think he was passed on track all day apart from restarts and that was just the product of being in the lane that didn’t go. Obviously anything other than a win is disappointing at Dover but I don’t think it’s disaster mode just yet.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
Was it just me, or did Chase and Alan really butt heads today? Chase was describing the problems, and Alan wanted to go up on right rear (after rain delay). It was obvious that they had discussed this change in either debrief meetings or during delay, and Chase kept shooting it down saying he didn’t feel it would help. Then Chase relented saying “but do what you want. It won’t hurt my feelings, but I do t think it’ll help.”
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Alan has always been good at bringing a car that unloads fast but if they get behind during the race its usually game over. Gordon and Alan had the exact same conversations. See Pocono 2015.

 
Taco said:
Brad D was talking about the new splitter put the Chevy behind the Fords and Toyota.
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Another way to look at it is that the new splitter put Ford ahead of everybody.
ChexOrWrex said:
How about now?
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I think this will be interesting. So much babble about how Chevy would turn the corner like Toyota last year. The big difference is that Toyota was showing speed last year. The other big difference is that you had five cars with corners to turn all under the TRD umbrella. Chevy has Hendrick and then the step children. Jim Campbell better get them together IMO.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Wouldn’t be against Ives coming over for Chase. They won an Xfinity Championship together.
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I would agree, but Ives was a dumpster fire with Jr. Maybe no cc would have worked after Jr and Letarte clicked and Steve left, who knows. I do acknowledge that Chase fell off his sophomore year in Xfinity after Ives was moved up to Cup.
 
Revman said:
Another way to look at it is that the new splitter put Ford ahead of everybody.

I think this will be interesting. So much babble about how Chevy would turn the corner like Toyota last year. The big difference is that Toyota was showing speed last year. The other big difference is that you had five cars with corners to turn all under the TRD umbrella. Chevy has Hendrick and then the step children. Jim Campbell better get them together IMO.
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I never thought I’d agree with Rev, but he’s right about the false analogy between Chevy this year and TRD last year. Toyotas showed speed early, and piss luck kept the 18 from winning Phoenix very early on. Chevy, HMS in particular, look lost. The lone Chevy win so far was a fluke and an extremely dirty move at that.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Alan has always been good at bringing a car that unloads fast but if they get behind during the race its usually game over. Gordon and Alan had the exact same conversations. See Pocono 2015.

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I think Chase needs a moment like this where he goes off. Couldn’t hurt at this point.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
who ever told you that knows very little about the cars. The tracks require pretty much the opposite characteristics from the cars. Yeah the Hendrick cars are terrible, Jimmie wasn’t even close. It’s seems like the team isn’t the same since shr left. It’s going to really cause issues with sponsorship if they don’t pick up the speed. It’s interesting that Harvick put 7 seconds on Clint at the end of the race, but dad gum near couldn’t pass him. IMO this package they are running is one of the worst in recent memory.
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The 7 second lead tells me that there wasn't a race
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Aren't they close to halfway through the regular season though?

Hendrick has been strong at Dover, with Jimmie and with Chase. For them to not be a factor is a cause for concern.
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Lol.

One bad season doesn't spoil a bunch, I'm not concerned at all. The Chevy bunch are off the target atm, but I'm more patient than most though. Ford maybe data sharing more? I don't know, but Ford in general is strong.

Like I said, give it until halfway in the year to throw in the towel. Just HMS fans are accustomed to winning a lot by now, it could be worse.
 
four Chevys in the playoffs as it is now. Larson and Johnson are the highest GM's in the standings, well into the top 16. They all have to improve their pit work, pretty sloppy all around. Bowman, and Larson the pole winner had to start in the back, both had additional pit penalties, and both had to pit out of sequence and go laps down doing so, Johnson had two crummy pit calls, and Elliott that was good in practice never got the car under him in the race. Larson says it isn't the car. It wasn't at Dover IMO.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
There was some great racing all through the field.
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I watched the race, a lot of attention was given to 12th thru 20th place. I am one of those strange type of individuals that wants to see 3 or 4 guys fighting for the win .... a 7 second lead tells me that there was no fight for the win. Watching back markers fumbling around is not my cup of tea
 
Concerned? Yes. Panic no because that will lead to making even more mistakes trying to compensate for making up lost positions on track or in the shop. I'll start to full on worry after Daytona in July. I'll give it to the 2nd Michigan race.
 
Chevy guys just haven't figured out how to keep the splitter off the track and still maintain the balance. Believe the Camaro body has just a tad more front down force in an area that they have not figured out how to use as an advantage.

They'll figure it out...unfortunately.

Last practice session yesterday JJ ran an almost full fuel run at a consistence speed from start to finish...believe it was at 23.4's, mirror time lap after lap. That was the best they could do without bottoming the splitter on fresh tires and running down to the cords at the end.

Harvick did the same thing...only in the 23.2 range...and his tires were in much better shape at the end.
 
kyle18fan said:
I watched the race, a lot of attention was given to 12th thru 20th place. I am one of those strange type of individuals that wants to see 3 or 4 guys fighting for the win .... a 7 second lead tells me that there was no fight for the win. Watching back markers fumbling around is not my cup of tea
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Good racing in the pack IS important, but good racing at the front is MORE important. It's a shame that this week, like so many others, the Cup race was the turd of the three.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
I would agree, but Ives was a dumpster fire with Jr. Maybe no cc would have worked after Jr and Letarte clicked and Steve left, who knows. I do acknowledge that Chase fell off his sophomore year in Xfinity after Ives was moved up to Cup.
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Ives was not bad for jr I think they won 3 races together. Jr also had pocono won before he sat out the last of the 2016 season, if not for chase racing him too hard and letting Kurt get by both of them. After that Hendrick cars were not that great. Junior needs a great car, he didn’t have it nor did his team mates. Crew chiefs are the problem at Hendrick. The cars frankly suck that is the problem
 
Its very clear that NASCAR gave ford the advantage with the splitter change.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Concern, yes. Panic, no. Panic only creates more mistakes and errors in judgement.
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Agreed but by now I think they should be extremely concerned. Panic can wait for a little while longer.
 
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