CONCORD, N.C. — One of the traditions in motorsports and stock-car racing in particular has been for fans to base their loyalties upon manufacturers and for media to pay a lot of attention to how the Fords, Chevrolets, Dodges and Toyotas are performing.
And while that still may be important to fans and manufacturers, with the advent of NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow, the cars really aren’t that different and the teams are paying more attention to which racing team a car comes from than what nameplate it wears.
“Do we have the same number of cars as other manufacturers?” asks Kurt Busch, who drives the Penske Racing No. 2 Dodge. “No. Chevy has more than we do, but we are balanced with the other manufacturers. When you are out there competing with the other guys, you don’t really look at the manufacturer.
“I think it is more the team you look at than the manufacturer, but we want to go out there and sell Dodge Chargers for people to buy on Monday after we have won on Sunday.”
His younger brother Kyle, who will drive a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing this season, concurred. “We look mostly at Hendrick and Roush and RCR. Evernham has been coming on better lately,” he said. “There are a lot of guys we have to keep an eye out to beat.”

“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the Hendrick organization. Those guys move the bar. People say, ‘We don’t pay any attention to Hendrick’, but I am going to wave the BS flag on that. Everybody pays attention to what Hendrick does.”

— Kyle Petty

But to most, the target is clearly on Hendrick Motorsports, which won 18 of the 36 races last season.
“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the Hendrick organization,” said Kyle Petty. “Those guys move the bar. People say, ‘We don’t pay any attention to Hendrick’, but I am going to wave the BS flag on that. Everybody pays attention to what Hendrick does.”
Joe Gibbs Racing has been one of the sport’s most consistent players in recent years while racing Chevrolets. But this year the team moves to the Toyota camp. Many believe the organization will falter as a result. JGR drivers and employees don’t agree.
“You would expect Joe Gibbs Racing to be strong regardless of manufacturer,” says Denny Hamlin, who drives the JGR No. 11. “To say all three of us are going to go this year and not have a win is kind of crazy. It’s just not going to happen. One of these guys is going to come through. The number I am looking for for Joe Gibbs Racing is (winning) five races among the three of us.”
According to 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte who drives Petty Enterprises’ No. 43 Dodge, what separates the teams are the resources available to them.
“We are a two-car operation, but we are competing against a lot of, not just three- and four-car teams, but five- and six-car teams with technical support and chassis and stuff like that,” Labonte explained. “There are some things we need to be concerned about. Years ago, a million dollars would go a long way. Today, it doesn’t go very far when trying to find that extra tenth or half a tenth. Getting the resources to improve is a big challenge.”
Many teams who struggled to keep up with Hendrick Motorsports last year have put new folks in new positions in an effort to produce better results. Michael Waltrip Racing hired Cal Wells as team manager and Roush Fenway Racing promoted longtime Matt Kenseth crew chief Robbie Reiser to a similar position.
“I think Robbie is gonna be a key ingredient in catching up to these other teams,” said Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle. “Robbie is a very smart person. He’s a very, very good organizer and we’ve lacked that position, so to speak, in the past. We’ve had people, but not of Robbie’s caliber of understanding the race cars, the race teams and how they operate and what we need to do technically behind the scenes. I think Robbie is gonna help bridge that gap and close up quickly to the rest of the teams.”