Hendrick Motorsports didn’t quite have the season they would have expected to have, but with William Byron and Kyle Larson at the helm, they did manage to salvage quite a lot. However, The Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, felt slightly disappointed while sharing his final take on their 2023 campaign.
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Gordon mentioned, “It’s hard not to be excited to have two (teams) that went to the Championship 4 and had a shot at winning the championship. Those two teams performed at a high level all year long. The #24 car started strong and had a little bit of a lull during the summer, but overall they just continued to gain momentum.”
Speaking about Larson he noted that the #5 car had previously achieved great success and had impressive seasons, such as in 2021. Gordon expressed his excitement and pride in seeing the team’s journey to compete for a championship at Phoenix, highlighting how it had a positive impact on the entire company.
However, he added, “At the same time, we came up short. That’s also a bit disappointing. I feel like Hendrick Motorsports thrives in those opportunities. I feel like we executed flawlessly in that Phoenix race, but we just didn’t have the speed. We got beat quite simply. We will be highly motivated through that experience for 2024.”
William Byron and Kyle Larson held it together for Hendrick Motorsports this season
If it was not for Byron and Larson making their way to the championship four race, Hendrick Motorsports would have had a truly disastrous year. The 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott was not even able to make it into the playoffs for the first time in his career, after missing out on crucial races at the start of the year.
Something similar happened with Alex Bowman, who too suffered an injury that rendered him out of the car for a while. But ultimately it was the performance that caught up with him and he too like Elliott did not make it into the playoffs.
Ultimately, despite the mixed performance across the team, there’s always time for a fresh start. Heading into the 2024 season the team would hope to see all four of its cars make it into the postseason and challenge for the championship four as well.
