Jimmie Johnson admits that skipping the first test of NASCAR’s new car at Atlanta Motor Speedway might have allowed some other teams to gain ground on the Hendrick Motorsports program. Not that the team isn’t catching up quickly.

Johnson said that when his team arrived at Auto Club Speedway, it was a little off with the new car. He also felt they were off in the test session at the track. But the team worked on the car, finally putting Johnson at the front for 76 laps before he finished second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Auto Club 500. Teammate Jeff Gordon was third.

Johnson said that it’s too early to analyze where teams rank, as a whole, with the new car.

“The downforce tracks are new to everyone,” he said. “To be honest, we really didn’t focus on it too much last year. We skipped the Atlanta test, focused on the championship, things we had to handle in ’07. So we’re learning. The 48 and 24 may be a little bit behind, but I think we closed up a lot this weekend.”

Gordon agreed, also pointing out that this was only one race. Hendrick won 18 of the 36 points races last season and was strong in the new car in the events in which it appeared. Gordon said that this weekend gave the team a better idea of what it had.

After earning two of the top three sports, it’s clear that Hendrick is still on top of its game with the new car – or getting back on top at a high rate of speed.

Still, the drivers caution against reading too much into anything yet.

“Today was a pretty good indication of what we’ve got,” Gordon said. “But this is just one race, one track. We only test at three tracks over the offseason that we are all together that we can have an indication.

SceneDaily.com

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