At the beginning of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, two teams stood above the rest: Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.
The two teams combined to win 10 of the first 12 races, and it certainly looked like the championship winner would come from one of them. Well, that’s why you race — why a season is 36 races long, not 12. JGR had zero drivers in the Championship 4, while Hendrick had just one, William Byron. Team Penske’s Joey Logano won his second championship in the last three seasons.
Kevin Harvick points out what went wrong for Hendrick Motorsports in 2024
Kevin Harvick discussed the fall-off of Hendrick specifically during his “Happy Hour” podcast this week, pointing out how their speed fell off as the season wore on.
“Let’s take the Hendrick cars for example. Those guys fired off at the beginning of the year and spent the first half of the year taking turns dominating, winning races and running up front,” Harvick said. “When you look at the end of the year, William Byron not as fast compared to the competition. Kyle Larson’s not as fast compared to the competition. Now, Kyle Larson was in position to capitalize on some things. But the speed of the car was not what it was in the beginning half of the year. I think a lot of that is just the driver communicating with the team to say, ‘We need this, we need this, we need this, we need this. I like this decision, I don’t like this decision.’
“It’s not that Kyle Larson’s crew chief doesn’t believe in him because Cliff [Daniels] and Kyle have a great relationship. But how can you keep moving the needle? And sometimes, it’s hard to be the leader. And I know they didn’t let their guard down. But they just didn’t push as hard as the other guys had to push because they weren’t as far behind. They were ahead. Sometimes, that’s the hard part about being the leader in the clubhouse is you don’t have to push anymore.”
Hendrick Motorsports fast, but not fast enough
Speaking of Larson, he did find Victory Lane six times this season, more than anyone else in the field. He won two of those races in the playoffs, but a pair of finishes outside the top 10 in the Round of 8 left him on the outside looking in at Phoenix. Byron, the lone Hendrick driver to advance, won three of the first eight races this season. He failed to win another, enduring a tough stretch over the summer.
Chase Elliott got a won at Texas back in April and had an average finish of 11.7. Still, it wasn’t enough to get him into the Championship 4. And then there’s Alex Bowman, who looked to have advanced to the Round of 8 before failing post-race inspection at the Charlotte Roval.
Yes, there were many highs for Hendrick this season. But ultimately, winning championships is the goal. They missed out on a title for the third consecutive season, though they figure to have four cars more than capable of winning it next season.
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