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CONCORD, N.C. – While not signaling a crisis, Hendrick Motorsports has secured a vital injection of momentum with Chase Elliott’s victory at Martinsville Speedway ahead of the Easter break. The win, a testament to strategic pit calls from crew chief Alan Gustafson and Elliott’s execution, arrives as the Chevrolet flagship organization navigates the intricacies of a new manufacturer body, a transition that has been a central theme for the team this season.
Prior to the Martinsville triumph, the narrative surrounding Hendrick Motorsports was one of an organization and manufacturer grappling with the learning curve associated with the updated car. The 2024 season marked the first time since 2019 that Hendrick had failed to secure a win within the opening six races of the NASCAR Cup Series campaign. While this six-race stretch represents a relatively small sample size, it underscores the exceptionally high standards maintained at the team’s Concord, North Carolina, headquarters.
A recurring sentiment from various Hendrick Motorsports personnel has been the acknowledgment of the new car’s "potential." This sentiment was echoed by Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon during the post-race press conference at Martinsville. "We know that this new body, whatever the upgrades, they show a lot of potential," Gordon stated. "But that doesn’t always mean it’s just automatic on how you extract it. It’s definitely a little bit of a balance change, so we’re working through that."
Gordon further elaborated on the team’s performance trends, noting, "If you look at the places we’ve run good this year, we had good notes and ran solid at those places last year. Places that we didn’t, we haven’t." He also acknowledged the heightened competition within the series. "Our competitors have stepped up too. I think you look at Ford in the areas, places they’ve been good, they’ve stepped up. Toyota’s been solid and consistent with Gibbs and 23XI pretty much every weekend. You have to give credit to them where credit’s due. All that does is make us work harder, come together stronger."
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The question of how much of the perceived struggle with the new body is rooted in reality versus perception was directly addressed by William Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle. "We are learning this new car, 100 percent," Fugle confirmed in an interview with Motorsport.com following the Martinsville race. "We feel it has more potential. It’s a car we want to race and expect it to be faster, but we just have to learn it. It’s got some new characteristics that we knew we wanted to include, but we have to encounter it in race conditions, and the only way to do that without testing is to race it."
Fugle indicated that valuable insights were gained during a recent Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which has been incorporated into ongoing car development. "We just don’t have the opportunity to test, so the only way to learn is to race it," he reiterated.
Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports’ Vice President of Competition and a NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief, acknowledged the challenges inherent in adapting to the new platform. "We’re definitely trying to learn the car and get ourselves put in the right positions to extract the full potential out of the car," Knaus told Motorsport.com. "We’re always trying to learn and get better. You know, once we got to Las Vegas, a track and race that’s more normal, we executed and had races to win, and that was a great showcase of the potential of the new Chevrolet."
The initial races of the season presented a varied set of challenges. The opening two events were drafting track races, followed by a road course at Circuit of the Americas, and then oval tracks at Phoenix and Las Vegas. Knaus suggested that the first three races, in particular, might require a degree of re-evaluation in light of the learning curve.
Despite the initial hurdles, Fugle emphasized the team’s commitment to incremental progress. "We have to execute on race day to a level we usually can overcome on speed because we’re stacking pennies with this car," he explained. "I know that’s a cliché, but we have to keep stacking good days and not jump the gun until we’ve extracted the most potential out of this car. We’re not that far away. We’re close. At Hendrick Motorsports, there is no one else more capable of taking on a project like this, and I’m excited to go to work every day with these guys to do that."
Cliff Daniels, crew chief for two-time championship winner Kyle Larson, characterized Elliott’s Martinsville victory as a result of a "gutsy" pit call by Gustafson and expressed pride in the No. 9 team’s performance. "Overall, I think we are a very strong company right now," Daniels commented. "We’re probably not quite as strong as we should be, and I only say that because of Vegas. We were right there with the Gibbs cars that have been really, really good on mile-and-a-halfs, and yes, we are still trying to figure out the nuances of this new body. I think it’s great, and there is a lot of potential there for us to unlock, and we were in the game at Vegas. At Phoenix, we were kind of hit-or-miss, and Darlington was not a great day for us, but only because we pushed ourselves too hard to try too many things. But we’re not that far away."
The victory at Martinsville, a short track known for its demanding nature, served to alleviate some of the internal pressure that may have been building. Gordon concluded, "It’s a long season. We got a lot of fighting to do. Today just feels good. It feels good to pull this off in the way that the 9 team pulled it off, taking some risks, executing, Chase getting after it when he needed to. It’s always nice to reassure yourself of days like today that you can get it done, even as we’re searching a little bit in some of the other areas."
Hendrick Motorsports, a storied organization with 14 Cup Series championships, is continuing its methodical approach to mastering the Next Gen car’s evolution, aiming to fully harness its capabilities as the season progresses. The team’s focus remains on continuous improvement and extracting maximum performance from the new Chevrolet platform.
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