Photo courtesy of HendrickMotorsports.com
When did you start watching NASCAR?
For me, it was 2007. I fondly remember how incensed I was as Jimmie Johnson won four straight races to lock up the crown. While I was partially upset because my favorite driver, Matt Kenseth, ran 5-4-2-3 in said races, I was so annoyed, yet also amazed, as to how one driver could be that much more dominant than everyone else. Little did I know that he wasn’t alone at the top.
Jimmie Johnson won 10 races that year, yet he wasn’t even the best driver at his own team for most of that year. We know the story, Jeff Gordon sets a modern record with 30 top-10s and wins six times, but loses to the dominance of the no. 48 when it counted. Hendrick Motorsports was cooking with something different that year, as Kyle Busch (remember when he was there?) scored a win and finished fifth in points, and Casey Mears even got his first win at the Coke 600.
Hendrick Motorsports has been so good for so long that it feels like a given that they’ll win roughly every six races. Kyle Larson’s win on Sunday gave Hendrick Motorsports sole possession of most wins by any team at 269, a record that will likely never get topped. While it’s been greatness in five different decades, with 13 championships and eight Daytona 500s, the team has taken different approaches to get to this point.
We know about how good Gordon was in the first half of his career, putting together the greatest four-year run in NASCAR history from 1995-98. Gordon was essentially a one-man show in those days, aside from Terry Labonte’s shocking 1996 Championship. When Johnson camearound, Hendrick shared the wealth and formed a dominant team the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Such a dominant standard the team set in years like 2007 and 2009 was impossible to sustain. Drivers leave, free agents don’t pan out, legends retire, things happen. Hendrick wasn’t immortal, they slowed down in the late 2010’s. With Johnson retiring in 2020, there were a lot of question marks about the new core. Nobody could’ve expected them to turn back the clock like this.
Hendrick Motorsports has been the talk of the sport in recent weeks, as the four-man crew of defending champion Chase Elliott, breakout star William Byron, unintimidated Alex Bowman and polarizing superstar Kyle Larson are leaving no doubt as to who the best team in the sport is. Think about those names, Larson, Elliott, Bowman, Byron. How many of those names do you think the average American household knows? Larson? Maybe Elliott? These aren’t the Gordons, Johnsons, Earnhardts, Martins or Kahnes of decades past. These aren’t superstar names, both because of NASCAR itself, but also because of Rick Hendrick’s younger approach.
We talked about the big names retiring, the first of which was Jeff Gordon in 2015. Hendrick didn’t go far for his replacement, pulling Chase Elliott from Jr. Motorsports to take over the no. 24. While it’s almost impossible to fill Gordon’s shoes, Elliott made it clear from the start that he is a superstar in the making, forging his own brand in the no. 9. Two years later, Hendrick makes two hires, as Alex Bowman was tabbed to replace the retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the no. 88, while William Byron was selected to replace Kasey Kahne. While both were seen as long-term projects, they have each proven they are more than serviceable for a big team. Then, there was Jimmie Johnson’s replacement last season. There were plenty of rumored suitors, like Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace and even Brad Keselowski. With all those options, Hendrick went with the biggest wildcard possible in Kyle Larson. Let’s be clear: Larson was not a wildcard in terms of talent, as he may be the most talented race car driver west of the Atlantic Ocean. We all know why he was a wildcard. Sponsorship was going to be a struggle. All Larson has done is kickstart Hendrick’s resurgence.
We are 15 races into the 2021 season. Hendrick Motorsports has won six races, which leads all teams. They have led 1515 laps, which leads all teams. They are sitting 2-2-4-12 in points, not to mention they had a 1-2-3-4 at Dover.
Elliott was considered the weakest link because he hadn’t won yet. He grabbed a win at COTA and is fourth in points and a 10.6 average finish. If that’s a weak link, I’m sure Mr. Hendrick is content. So then who is the weak link then, Bowman. Yeah he is sitting 12 and only has four top-fives, oh wait he’s won twice. There is quite literally no weakness for this team at the moment. Byron has been the most pleasant surprise in the sport this year, grabbing a win and going on an 11-race top-10 streak. While Byron’s consistency has been a revelation, we all know who the star of the team has been: Kyle Larson.
Remember when I said that Hendrick’s 1515 laps led is more than any other team, yeah Larson has led 1105 of them. Larson’s return couldn’t be much better if he tried, threatening for wins week-in and week-out. He’s even starting to grab sponsors, mission accomplished.
What is this team’s downfall? They went 1-2-3-4 at Dover, 1-2-4-5 at Charlotte. They won COTA, run well at Talladega and Daytona and they have the defending champion for crying out loud. At this point, Hendrick could very possibly hold three out of the four Championship spots with how good they’ve been collectively. You think they’ll fold under pressure? Please, this is Hendrick Motorsports. They’re back.
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