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Hendrick Motorsports had a historical first on Sunday night in the Window World 450. Not the type of historical first that the decorated race team will be celebrating.
According to Seth Eggert, last night at North Wilkesboro was the first time that Hendrick as a four-car team had all four cars running at the end of the race, and all were at least 2 laps down at the finish.
Is it time to sound the alarm on Hendrick Motorsports in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season? That completely depends on who you ask. It was debated on The Teardown last night with Jeff Gluck opening the debate on his concern about Hendrick with Jordan Bianchi.
Sound the alarm
“If you’re Hendrick Motorsports right now, what have we talked about a lot this year?” asked Gluck. “‘Penske is off. Penske has problems. Penske, whatever.’ Right?
“Okay. Well, now Penske’s won the last two weeks. So Penske has actually three wins this season. Hendrick Motorsports has two wins all year, two Chase Elliott wins. (William Byron hasn’t won. (Kyle) Larson hasn’t won. (Alex)Bowman hasn’t won.
“Now you’re going to the Brickyard 400 next week. So we’re that deep in the season when everybody shows their stuff and everybody’s going to be expecting Toyota to go kick everybody’s butt [at Indy].
“And then all of a sudden, The Chase is pretty much here. So, if you’re Hendrick, how long can you tell yourself, ‘Hey, we have speed, we’ll be okay.’
“At some point, you’re like, man, okay, this is really getting frustrating, especially now that Penske has more wins than Hendrick. Man, because Penske’s been much maligned this year.”
Penske is one thing, but It’s not just JGR, 23XI, and Penske. Hendrick has the same number of wins as Spire and Trackhouse this season.
That can’t be sitting well with the flagship Chevy team.
Tap the brakes on the alarm sounding
Jordan Bianchi, despite the win differential, looked at the situation differently. Taking a face-forward approach to The Chase, Bianchi feels the season still has the potential to set up for success for Hendrick. And it starts with the schedule composition for The Chase.
“I still go back to the fact that if you look at the intermediate tracks over the last few weeks and months, you can noticeably see that Hendrick is getting better,” said Bianchi. “And we both agree that this championship is going to be decided on intermediate racetracks.
“There’s Martinsville in the playoffs as well. Hendrick is always good at Martinsville regardless. We know that. Then there’s Talladega. So, five intermediates, plus Talladega, plus Martinsville. That’s seven out of 10 racetracks right there where I think they’re going to be okay. Yeah, I’m not sounding the panic alarm, man.
“Going back to the five team, how many times have we said this year, ‘Man, they should have had a better finish, or they could have won this race?’ Chicago comes to mind immediately.
“They were fast last week. Tonight’s another example. They’ve got the ingredients. They’ve just got to figure out how to get the rest of it.”
In fairness to Hendrick, while the wins aren’t there, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson currently sit at 5th and 6th in The Chase standings. There’s just one non-Toyota driver ahead of them, and that’s Blaney in third place.
William Byron is in 12th. Outside of Blaney, the other two Penske drivers, this week’s winner Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, are 15th and 16th in points, respectively.
