A question-and-answer session with Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick:

Q: What have been the challenges staying on top of the sport as it has evolved?

A: I think just trying to keep everybody together. When you have success you’ve got teams that want to gain or grow, then you have a lot of people offering your folks opportunities.

You’ve got a lot of new teams coming in next year and they need people. Where are they going to go to get people? The top choices would be the guys that have won it and have been there. If you can get that experience, that’s what they are after. Keeping your folks together and keeping them motivated and keeping working together, when you have situations like Talladega (where Hendricks Motorsports driver Brian Vickers, car No. 25, wrecked teammate Jimmie Johnson, car No. 48) can cause you problems. It’s a credit to our guys that they handled that themselves before we got to the plane that night, as far as the 48 team and 25 team. Jimmie went to the 25 shop and congratulated them. It was just a racing deal. Those kinds of situations can really tear down an organization that works really hard to make everybody work together.

Q: What are the challenges for your organization to move forward?

A: I try not to worry about everybody else. I challenge everybody in our organization and say that all we need to do is come back every week and be a little bit better. Look at where we are and where we’re weak and let’s be a little bit better, each team, and forget about everybody else. If we can do that then we’ll stay where we need to be. If we start focusing on everybody else we’ll get off track. We’ve just got to make our deal a little bit better. If we come back the same as next year, we’re going to get beat. There will be people stepping up. I think Jack (Roush) had five cars in the Chase (last year). I’m telling you, people don’t realize what an unbelievable job that was. I’ve told him that a million times. But everybody caught up. Everybody kept working.

You can see teams out here, they kind of dip then they start clicking and start hitting on it. Just because you are one of the top guys when this (season) is over doesn’t mean when you start next year somebody else hasn’t figured something out. You’ve got to work every single day and show up every single race better than you were last race or you’re going to get beat.

Q: What effect will NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow” have on teams next season?

A: I think next year is going to be an unbelievably up and down year. There will be so many variables coming in – the “Car of Tomorrow,” the standard car, new teams, trying to figure out this car, no testing. You have to maintain your fleet, build a new fleet and merge them in. It’s going to take more manpower at a time when more teams are starting up. It’s going to put a lot of stress on everybody.

Then we’ve got a new motor, too, so we’ve got to deal with that. So we have to run two parallel motor systems and two parallel car systems and integrate it in. It’s going to be a challenge for (established teams) but for the new guys it’s really going to be a dogfight.