Rick Hendrick, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent the last month talking about how those in-house, offseason moves would make a difference.
On Saturday, they may have convinced everyone else.
Martin and Earnhardt posted the top qualifying runs and secured the front row for next week?s Daytona 500. It might not mean as much as Hendrick Motorsports? 1-2-3 finish in last season?s Sprint Cup standings, but the latest sweep provided some validation to those changes made in hopes of bolstering both teams and getting crew chiefs Alan Gustafson (Martin) and Lance McGrew (Earnhardt) on the same page.
?The challenge was we wanted one team with two cars,? Hendrick said. ?Then they unloaded two cars that ran almost identical times. I know this is just one race, but no one here and no one outside of our company will know the effort that Alan and Lance put into this team and these two cars, and I?m really proud of ?em.?
