Hendrick Motorsports returned to dominance in the NASCAR Cup Series last season thanks in part to hiring of the best free agent driver on the market.
Available because of a much-publicized incident involving a racial slur that led to his dismissal from Chip Ganassi Racing, Kyle Larson was hired to drive the No. 5 Chevrolet with most of the team’s sponsorship coming from other companies owned by team owner Rick Hendrick.
Hendrick didn’t become the winningest team owner in NASCAR history by understanding risk versus reward. But with Larson’s incredible talent, there was more reward available than risk.
The talented driver from Elk Grove, Calif., won 10 NASCAR Cup Series races and the series championship. It was the most victories for a driver in a single season since Jimmie Johnson won 10 races in 2007.
The team already had the previous season’s champion in the stable. Chase Elliott earned the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title when he won five races. He won two races last year and finished fourth in the standings.
Hendrick’s other two Cup Series drivers also showed impressive development. Alex Bowman won four Cup Series races, including a fender-beating battle with Denny Hamlin in the closing laps at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 31.
William Byron rounded out Hendrick Motorsports’ victory total with a triumph at Homestead-Miami Speedway last February.
With 17 wins in 36 races, Hendrick Motorsports came very close to winning 50 percent of all NASCAR Cup Series races last season.
The key to much of that success was pairing Larson with crew chief Cliff Daniels, who served as Johnson’s final crew chief at the end of the 2020 season. Johnson retired from NASCAR at the conclusion of 2020 and is preparing to start his second season in the NTT IndyCar Series.
Larson’s championship marked the first time a driver won the Cup Series title in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. That is quite impressive considering the great drivers who have competed for this storied operation.
“I think back to Jimmie Johnson and I think Kyle Larson broke Jeff Gordon’s record for laps led, so I’ve been very fortunate to have some champions that have won a lot of races and led a lot of laps,” Hendrick recalled. “I think the competition is pretty fierce. I’m not saying it was any harder today than it was back when Jeff or Jimmie won, but I think — I’m just surprised that Kyle and Cliff jelled as quickly as they did.
“Our crew chiefs have worked so hard together. We say we’re one team with four cars,” Hendrick continued. “Chad Knaus is back in the shop. When you put the talent of our crew chiefs together and you look at William Byron’s maturity and how he raced this year, Alex won four, Chase won two, I think we won, what, 17, 18 races, the organization really is as strong across the board.”
By joining Hendrick Motorsports and working with Daniels, Larson was confident he could win early and win often.
“I had heard the stories that he couldn’t close, that he was fast, and he would run near the wall, and he’d wreck,” Hendrick said of Larson. “When we got him in the car, it was pretty obvious that he was pretty quick, that he could run the whole race and he was fast, and he took care of the car.
“I knew his talent from watching him when he was driving for Chip Ganassi and could see some of the things he could do with the car. So, he has impressed me. I think his ability to know how to race has impressed me a lot this year because he’s fast, but he knows how to race and he knows when to race and when he needs to just take care of it.”
It was an incredible season that gave Hendrick Motorsports tremendous reason to celebrate.
But now, it’s 2022.
There is a new generation of race car. Instead of sheet metal wrapped on tube frames, the car has pieces that create entire sections of the racing machine.
Even the wheels will be different as NASCAR moves to an 18-inch alloy wheel with a single nut instead of the five lug nuts on the previous steel wheel. It will shorten pit stops and potentially add another element into the changing world of NASCAR.
Click below to continue reading.