CONCORD, N.C. – Sunshine and warm temperatures always make for the best road trips.
And right now, the four Hendrick Motorsports teams are in the middle of their early-season road trip, the West Coast swing. This three-week stint includes races in three different states and a whole lot of planning.
With multiple haulers full of cars and equipment for three different events, there is quite a bit that goes into getting all four teams to the track during these three weeks.
For details on how exactly Hendrick Motorsports executes its West Coast swing transportation, take a look below.
1) Hendrick Motorsports uses six haulers during the West Coast swing, a primary hauler for each team and two swap-out haulers.
2) The primary haulers, which initially travel from Concord, North Carolina, to Las Vegas, stay out west for all three weeks, traveling then to the tracks in Phoenix and Fontana, California.
3) The swap-out haulers are the vehicles that do the most traveling during the three weeks. Those four-car haulers make two separate trips out west, first to Las Vegas to trade the Phoenix cars and bring the Las Vegas cars home. The second trip is to Phoenix to swap out the Fontana race cars.
4) Over the course of the three weeks, the four primary haulers will travel a combined total of 21,084 miles, with a total of 329 hours on the road.
5) The swap-out haulers, however, over two round-trip journeys apiece, will cover a combined total of 17,336.4 miles and be on the road for about 268 hours.
6) There are 12 Hendrick Motorsports hauler drivers involved in the process. While the drivers of the primary haulers remain out west all three weeks, the swap-out drivers, who travel back and forth from the race shops to the tracks, then fly out to California after returning the Phoenix cars so they can drive the primary haulers home.
7) Hendrick Motorsports has 20 race cars traveling across the country during the swing, including 10 from the Nos. 5 and 24 race shop and 10 from the Nos. 48 and 88 race shop.