10 Years After Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Win, What the 2024 Daytona 500 Means for Hendrick Motorsports

Shaharyar
|PublishedJan 16, 2024

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February 5, 2022, Los Angeles, California, USA: Kyle Larson $5 and Chase Elliott 9 arrive to the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Busch Light Clash press conference, PK, Pressekonferenz on Saturday February 5, 2022 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. /PI Los Angeles USA – ZUMAp124 20220205_zaa_p124_004 Copyright: xJAVIERxROJASx

Hendrick Motorsports is arguably the greatest NASCAR team the sport has ever seen. After all, they have the most wins of all, and they’re the most valuable of all. In many ways, they are the biggest team there is in the sport today. But even a team this successful, this valuable, and this big stumbles at the biggest race there is in the sport, the Daytona 500.

Throughout its history, Hendrick Motorsports has won the Great American Race 8 times, with the first win coming in 1986 at the hands of Geoff Bodine, followed by Darrell Waltrip’s win in 1989, followed by Jeff Gordon in 1997, in 1999, and 2005, followed by Jimmie Johnson in 2006, and 2013, until Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s memorable win in 2014.

But this year, it would be a decade since a driver from NASCAR’s winningest team lifted the Daytona 500 trophy. For HMS, the wait for a Daytona 500 win hasn’t been this long in their illustrious history. And it’s not as if they don’t have the talent in their organization and behind the wheel to achieve this feat, they do.

In fact, all four of their drivers are looking forward to being the one to bring the trophy of NASCAR’s biggest race come February 18th.

Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman are ready to win the Daytona 500

Speaking about winning the Daytona 500, HMS and NASCAR’s biggest star, Chase Elliott claimed it would be “awesome to check that box.” He pointed to the couple of opportunities they’ve had in the past to win the race. “That would be a big one,” Elliott said.

Moving over to Kyle Larson, who is widely regarded by many big names in NASCAR as the biggest talent there is today in the sport, he too claimed that winning the Daytona 500 would be “pretty special.” Larson, who hasn’t exactly excelled at superspeedways in the past, admitted his shortcomings on the plate tracks. But that would make winning there all the more special for Larson. “The DAYTONA 500 is our biggest, most prestigious race of the year, so you want to win because of that,” he added.

Alex Bowman too, added that winning the Daytona 500 would be “a dream come true” for him.

About the author

Shaharyar

Shaharyar is a NASCAR journalist at the SportsRush. Along with two years of experience covering the sport, he is also a filmmaker and a big fan of soccer. His favorite NASCAR drivers in the modern era of the sport are Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch but when it comes to the GOAT debate, he believes no one is or will ever be as great as Dale Earnhardt.

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