Garage 56 has entered its NASCAR Cup car into this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, with JensonButton at the wheel. We go behind the scenes - TeamHendrick
A442 Turbo prototype, but only 7 seconds off the fastest Porsche 911 RSR and ahead of CSLs, other RSRs and a Pantera. The Torino was 54th, having set a time of 4.38 flat. Sadly, that poor quality fuel destroyed the Charger’s third and final engine on lap 2 of the race and the Torino retired in the 11th hour. It was a deflating end to an intriguing footnote in Le Mans history.Tyres and fuel. That’s all Hendrick want to be throwing at a car during a 24-hour test, and the crew have come prepared.
If the team look anxious and ‘Rocky’ is clearly very focused as he rolls out on track, the atmosphere amongst the other drivers is refreshingly relaxed. Jenson Button looks like a kid at Christmas. He’s always a smiley character but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bigger grin. Jimmie Johnson isn’t quite so gleeful but has such a calm, considered and content demeanour.
Jenson doesn’t know the track at all and the bumps are clearly a culture shock, but the biggest challenge is how a NASCAR machine is almost diametrically opposed to a single-seater. ‘I’m used to a very lightweight, high-downforce car and this is obviously a really, really heavy car without much downforce at all and it feels totally reliant on mechanical grip. It rolls a lot, there’s momentum, it’s just a different animal. Oh man. The noise. It sounds just as good inside the car.
However, by my watch, the times aren’t bad. We’re in the full heat of the day and it’s impossible to draw too many conclusions as there are so many tyre iterations to try here, but the car is in the 2.01s, then dips under and I get a couple of 1.59s, too. Rocky is immediately on the pace, as you’d expect, but reports similar things. Endless oversteer. Jimmie is, as ever, a little more relaxed when I catch up with him. ‘I guess from my point of view it’s a stock car, so I know what to expect.
As the sun falls, the other cars that have been testing slip away and the Camaro is alone. I’m staying at a hotel that overlooks the track, and having watched Jenson, Jimmie, Rocky and Jordan out on track, seen the glowing brake discs and the flaming exhaust and pondered whether NASCAR’s version of a race car is inherently in tune with what fans crave wherever in the world they live, I fall asleep to the hypnotic sound of a 5.8-litre V8 being wrung out mercilessly.
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