Hendrick Motorsports’ General Manager issued a public “big apology” to Chip Ganassi Racing on Friday (June 4) for the mechanical failures that resulted in CGR’s two Cup cars finishing in the last two spots of Sunday’s (May 30) Coca-Cola 600.
Ganassi is part of a technical alliance with Hendrick. While Hendrick Motorsports won the race with Kyle Larson and put all four of its cars in the top five, Ross Chastain finished 37th and Kurt Busch finished 38th.
Jeff Andrews made his comments on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“We owe a big apology to them because we let them down in a big, big way with both of their cars over there the other night,” Andrews said. “There’s some corrections we’ve made to the issues we’ve had there with the front drive system.
“Really, just got exposed in the particular situation in that environment. We’ve made adjustments there and we’re moving forward and working closely with those guys and staying in touch with them on exactly what happened.
“But that was 100% on us. That had nothing to do with anything in their raecars or particularly their teams or vehicles. That was 100% on our group there. We own that one. … We owe them a lot better than what we did over there Sunday night.”
Both Ganassi cars spent significant time in the garage following similar mechanical problems. Chastain was able to return to the race, but only completed 359 laps.
Busch’s engine expired as he attempted to return to the track on lap 174, causing a caution.
“The car lost power steering and I saw the oil pressure drop, not much warning of any issues,” Busch said after he was eliminated from the race. “We thought we made repairs to carry on, but apparently the damage was done and forced us out of the race early.”
Entering this weekend’s event at Sonoma Raceway (June 6), both Ganassi cars are outside the playoff field. Busch is 19th and Chastain sits in 21st.
ICYMI: Jeff Andrews @TeamHendrick accepts responsibility for Chip Ganassi Racing's issues during the #CocaCola600 @CLTMotorSpdwy pic.twitter.com/JBlhuFfAEz
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) June 4, 2021
About the author
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
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What he should have said was “Hey, Chip – that’s what you get for trusting a convicted felon and known cheater.”
Maybe the only sensible thing Bill Clinton ever did.
How come Clinton can be mentioned but not the con man who just lost the White House?
Was the mention of Clinton derogatory? That’s where the line is.
You can mention anyone you want but if it’s derogatory then you turn the comments into a nasty political debate. I can’t believe you were foolish enough not to realize that yourself before you asked such an silly question. I am betting you already knew the answer but you just thought you’d try to stir up some chit.
When I saw the broken belt to drive the oil pump I knew the engine was toast. The engine crank is turning about 130 revolutions per second and the lack of oil pressure ruins the engine in less than a tenth of a second. I hope Ganassi gets free engine rebuilds after the “accidental” problems.
I’m sure all that is covered in the lease agreement between Hendricks and Ganassi.