SCR: Is that a key to the success at Hendrick Motorsports, the communication you have in-house?Loomis: Hendrick Motorsports surrounds you with so many tools. With Jeff Gordon, the nice part about it is, when we go to every racetrack we know we have the best driver in the world in our car. I have the mentality that with Jeff we should be capable of being in contention to win every race. Mr. Hendrick supplies us with the tools and surrounds us with the people around us so Brian and I can go out there and get the job done with Jeff.
SCR: Where do you see yourself five years, 10 years, down the road?Loomis:You know, I consider myself a pretty loyal and stable person. I said before I came over here that if I made the move I wanted to make sure it was going to be for a while and not just a little while. Somewhere involved heavily with racing. I'm sure 10 years from now I won't want to be down there under the microscope and the pressure cooker calling all the shots on the crew chief part of it, but who knows from there?
Wanted: Crew ChiefSure, Hendrick Motorsports had an opening for a crew chief for Jeff Gordon and the DuPont Chevrolet, but that didn't mean people were rushing to drop off a resume. After all, who would want to try to replace Ray Evernham, the man who led Gordon to three Winston Cup championships?
"Ray Evernham left behind some big shoes to fill," Gordon says. "I can tell you there were not too many crew chiefs who came forward who wanted the job."
Robbie Loomis did step forward. Gordon says Evernham had already mentioned Loomis' name as a possible candidate.
"He was at the top of my list because I'd seen how hard he'd worked at Petty Enterprises," Gordon says. "Plus, having a great crew chief like Ray Evernham say good things about Robbie meant a lot to me."
Gordon says Robbie knew the expectations would be high. "Robbie had a lot weighing on his mind, and I'll tell you, I was like a used car salesman trying to talk him into coming over to work with me," he says.