Why would Hendrick not want Junior to win?

He wants Jr. to win. Why wouldn't he want NASCAR's most popular driver, one on his team, to win??? He'd be rolling in the dough...heck he'd be able topay off the national debt.

Jr. was once a great driver. I loved watching him race (when I was a fan of his) so I don't know if he just buckles under the stress and his heart just isn't in it anymore...or maybe the accidents that he was in makes him a bit cautious without realizing it. He's got the same equipmentas the other three so to be honest I don't know why. If Rick switched crew chiefs (Chad) for a race or two maybe then we could put that whole thing to rest...is it the driver or the car??

Hendrick wants him to win, no doubt. Jimmie is actually hurting HMS's reputation by continuing to win championships.

I have two takes on why Junior's doing horribly. The first is Hendrick's approach to his team. It seems to me that all of his teams functioned individually until Johnson came along. That's when the 24 and 48 shared a shop, as Gordon owns 50% of Jimmie's team. They had about the same cars down to the nuts and bolts while the 5 and 25 were part of the same 'organization' but not part of the same 'team.' If you pay attention the performance of the 5 and 25/88 varied often from season to season, while the 24 and 48 ran on practically the same page with exception to 2008 (maybe b/c of the COT?). After all, Kyle Busch's three years in the 5 car varied, and take a look at Martin, although his 2010 season is a little skewed since this is the first year they've coupled the 5 with the 88.

The second is Junior's approach to the team. He has basically driven for family all of his life. I used to think it actually hurt his ability as a driver. But apparently it's the other way around. The further he moves away from the family trend, the worse his performance gets. He's also the odd man out- how much does he really fit in with Gordon and Johnson and Martin, compared to how RCR's team gels together (Burton and Bowyer even look a little similar imo)? I think you'd seem marked improvement from Junior if he drove for, say Stewart-Haas Racing, which is affiliated with HMS, but takes on that hard-edged attitude Stewart sets as the moral code of his team. I remember when my 3 of my 5 favorite drivers were Stewart, Newman, and Junior- man, wouldn't that be a team to watch?

Hendrick definitely wants Jr to win, as he gives Dale good cars most of the time. It just isn't working out in the 88 though, and it hasn't since the 2009 season started. An 18-time winner struggling like this with the best team is nothing short of puzzling. It makes one wonder just how killer that DEI equipment was...

I have a theory on this, im not saying its true though...What it could be is that rick hendrick wants to give junior lower tier equipment to make it seem like junior will struggle with even the best of teams. He may do this to break juniors self confidence, and make it so he does not want to take the chance in leaving hendrick, worrying itll just make his career even worse. Junior being a household name, and the face of nascar, brings in sponsorship money others can only dream of and keeping him with the team will give HMS a large financial boost.

There is absolutely no validity to that school of thought. That is ridiculous. I cannot believe that people actually believe that Rick would do anything that would prevent Jr. from winning and subsequently penalizing himself. If that were true, Rick would be risking losing Jr, either to go elsewhere or to develop his own team. That is irrational...it is the same comparison as the saying "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs." Jr.is still more valuable to Rick remaining at Hendrick - whether or not he is winning.

He gets the same equipment as his 3 teammates do. It's up to his team to give him a good setup for each track, and it's up to him to drive the car to the front. And for some reason they haven't been able to do that. I don't know what the problem is, but of course Rick wants Dale to do good.

My sentiment exactly!

Rick Hendrick is not a stupid man.

The whole " Rick Hendrick is giving him [Jr] inferior equipment" excuse is a pretty sad one, imo..

He wants Jr to win but I think Jr just might not be able to win in top notch equipment, maybe he needs crappy equipment to win. I mean this seriously..

at DEI it was bad equipment but montoya and mcmurray win there, now at hendrick its equipment but jj and Jeff win, seems to be something that actually has to do with the driver

Not true.

It's not the equipment. It's the driver. Jr. is done.