Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports have a fantastic record at Watkins Glen. The team has won the last five Cup Series races at the track while Elliott kicked off that streak with wins in 2018 and 2019. The #9 driver has always been good at road courses, especially The Glen. Alex Bowman revealed that Elliott was the one who unlocked the team’s potential at the track early on in his career and since then, there has been no turning back.
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It all came from a test session back when the #9 driver had just entered the Cup Series as a full-time racer. Elliott ran the test and the team developed a package that was incredible for that session. They have been building on the package ever since and have yet to taste defeat there since. The #9 won in 2018 and 2019 at the track while Kyle Larson won in 2021 and 2022. William Byron won the race last year to make it five in a row.
“Yeah, we had a test there maybe my rookie year or maybe shortly after that. It was already a good road course package before I got there, so it wasn’t like we created something out of thin air. We had a good basis, but there was one particular test that we developed a good package for, and we built off that,” the 2020 Cup Series champion said.
Bowman might have made it sound like it all happened in a day but Elliott revealed that wasn’t the case. It took a lot of hard work from the drivers and team after the test to make the package as good as it was. Now with the Next-Gen car, changes were made to the package but it has yet to taste defeat.
Can Hendrick Motorsports win their sixth-straight Watkins Glen race?
A win at the track on Sunday would make it the second straight three-peat for the team there. However, the challenges are more this season. It’s not easy to run a road course in the Next-Gen car and Goodyear is coming with a tire compound that degrades a lot quicker than what these racers are used to. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding that aspect of the race which could work against HMS.
Apart from that, the team never had to go up against someone like Shane van Gisbergen in their five years of dominance. The Kiwi has proven to be miles ahead of every single NASCAR driver on road courses. Trackhouse Racing has also built an incredible car to complement SVG’s race craft so he will be one of the favorites to win on Sunday.
The second playoff race of the season is building up to be one to remember with so many elements to look out for. It will be interesting to see who adapts the quickest to the situation and wins on the iconic road course.
