NASCAR post-Off Week Team check in: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing
Rounding out our look around the Cup Series ahead of Nashville race weekend, we have the two front-running teams Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hendrick Motorsports: #5 (Kyle Larson) #9 (Multiple drivers) #24 (William Byron) #48 (Alex Bowman, Josh Berry)
Photo: Evan McNelia
Despite maintaining its position as a front-running team, Hendrick Motorsports has had an all-but-ordinary year with its drivers.
Kyle Larson has had one of the more inconsistent starts to a season in his third year with the team. He’s been a massive example of boom-or-bust racing as he’s seemed to either wreck out or finish in the top five in races this season.
He has five DNFs this year through the first 16 races. Last season he had seven in the entire year and in 2021 he had just two.
Larson has six top-5 finishes and two wins. His wins came at Richmond and Martinsville, two short tracks. He also finished runner-up at Las Vegas and Kansas. He currently sits 10th in the standings, 85 points back from series leader Martin Truex Jr. He’ll have a good chance at climbing the standings the more that he can keep his car clean.
Chase Elliott and the No. 9 have had the strangest season of any of the Hendrick rides. Elliott has missed seven races, six due to injury and one due to suspension.
After placing second at Auto Club Speedway in the second race of the year, Chase Elliott was injured in a snowboarding accident in Colorado during the week. The injury knocked him out for the next six races between Las Vegas and the Bristol Dirt Race.
Jr Motorsports Xfinity driver Josh Berry received the call to fill in and capitalized with three top-20 finishes in five races. He placed 10th at Phoenix and 2nd at Richmond. IMSA driver Jordan Taylor was called upon to drive the No. 9 at Circuit of the Americas where he placed 24th in his NASCAR debut.
Elliott made his return at Martinsville where he finished 10th. He placed top-20 in his first five races back including a 3rd-place finish at Darlington. The following week at Charlotte Elliott right-hooked Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 driver Denny Hamlin. Both cars DNFed and Elliott was issued a one-race suspension.
The next week at World Wide Technology Raceway Spire Motorsports No. 7 driver Corey LaJoie filled in for the No. 9 team and placed 21st. Elliott closed out the first segment of the season with a 5th-place finish at Sonoma.
Elliott is 27th in driver points and will likely need a win to reach the playoffs, currently 84 points out. The No. 9 is still in the top-16 in owners points, 24 above the cutline.
Alex Bowman got out to a really hot start this season with six top-10 finishes in the first seven races. He placed third at Las Vegas and COTA but he faltered through the latter half of the first segment. Following an 11th-place finish at Talladega, Bowman was injured in a sprint car accident and forced to miss the next three races.
Berry once again lent a helping hand to Hendrick and filled in for Bowman at Dover, Kansas and Darlington. Berry placed 10th at Dover but was outside of the top 20 in his other two runs in the No. 48.
Following the race at Richmond Bowman and No. 24 driver William Byron were both docked 60 driver points, 60 owners points and five playoff points for unapproved modifications to the car’s greenhouse. Bowman was the series points leader before the penalty.
Bowman is currently 16th in both driver and owners standings, holding onto the last playoff spot. He is three points above the driver cutline and 23 points above the owners playoff cutoff.
William Byron would be the series leader in points had it not been for the greenhouse penalty as he has had a breakout season. Byron leads the Cup Series with three wins this season, he had four total in his previous five years in the No. 24.
Byron won in back-to-back races on the west coast at Las Vegas and Phoenix. His third win came in the middle of a six-race streak in which he had all top-10 finishes. The win came as his third-straight top-5 finish and he placed second the next week at Charlotte.
His seven top-5 finishes this season are the most of any driver. He also has the most stage wins this season with seven.
After placing a career-best 6th in the 2022 season, Byron looks ready for his first Championship 4 appearance.
Joe Gibbs Racing: #11 (Denny Hamlin) #19 (Martin Truex Jr.) #20 (Christopher Bell) #54 (Ty Gibbs)
Photo: Evan McNelia
Joe Gibbs Racing leads all Cup Series teams in total combined points this season. All of its drivers have been running strong, and all have wins aside from rookie Ty Gibbs.
Denny Hamlin has been running super consistently and won at Kansas. He has 12 top-20 finishes this season with four finishes in the top-5.
Hamlin closed the first half of the schedule in a somewhat disappointing fashion, DNFing in two of the last three races. Though, he did split those performances with a runner-up finish at Gateway.
He’s 8th in both the driver and owners standings however, he has 25 fewer driver points than owners points after receiving a 25-point penalty for an on-track incident with Ross Chastain at Phoenix. On the final lap of the race, Hamlin was losing track position and admitted on his podcast ‘Actions Detrimental’ that he intentionally took Chastain down with him. His gaps to the series leader are 63 driver and 38 owners points.
Martin Truex Jr. leads the Cup Series with 525 points. He has 14 top-20 runs as he opened the season with nine straight. It’s the best start to a season for Truex since 2019 a season in which he reached the Championship 4 and placed 2nd.
At Dover, he earned his first win since 2021, securing his spot in the postseason after he had missed the playoffs last year.
He DNFed at Darlington but closed out the first half of the schedule with three-straight top-5 finishes including a win in the last race at Sonoma. He’ll be looking to continue running strong in hopes of holding off Byron or whoever else may heat up in the last 10 races of the regular season.
Christopher Bell is 7th in points 32 points back from Truex. Bell earned his lone victory of the year at the Bristol Dirt Race. Last year it took him until the back half of the season before he found his first win.
He has had the best start to a season of his Cup Series career with 12 top-20 and nine top-10 finishes. He’s cooled off a bit since the start of the year as he had five top-5s in the first eight races and has not had one since his victory.
At Sonoma, he placed ninth ending a four-race drought from the top 10 so he’ll be looking for a bit of a resurgence as the schedule gets re-rolling.
Rookie Ty Gibbs has been off to the slowest start of the JGR drivers but still has shown promise. Gibbs has 10 top-20 finishes with just two DNFs. He’s currently 18th in driver points, 11 points below the cutline, and 19th in owners points, 57 points out.
Last season Gibbs filled in for 23XI in 15 races and earned one top-10 at Michigan. This year he had a solid run with top-10s in four races in a row between Atlanta and the Bristol Dirt Race.
Gibbs could have a shot at the playoffs as a rookie if he can stay consistent through the remainder of the regular season. He has shown he has the speed to compete, it will just be about putting complete performances together.
Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series is back in action at Nashville Superspeedway as NBC has its first broadcast of the year for the Ally 400. The race is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.