Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest organization in NASCAR history are currently experiencing joy and ecstasy on one side, and cluelessness and desperation on the other. This is due to the state of two of their teams, the #5 of Kyle Larson and the #24 of William Byron versus the state of the #9 of Chase Elliott and the #48 of Alex Bowman. However, despite the win draught of the latter two, HMS aren’t really worried.
Advertisement
This was a notion put forward by Jeff Andrews in a recent interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Andrews claimed that while the results of the #5 and the #24 can’t be argued upon compared to the other two teams, there’s more going on behind the scenes than what meets the eye.
“We felt like that was a very solid weekend for the #9 team. Chase (Elliott) and Alan (Gustafson) had been putting a lot of time and a lot of effort into that team and worked really hard on Vegas in particular and some things showed there,” he described. “Great qualifying. They just missed making that ground by 200 hundredths of a second. And then ran inside of the top 10 a really good portion of the day, and then in a restart lost three or four spots.”
Andrews claimed there were “some positives” for the #9 team, and while they couldn’t get their desired results of a top 5 or a top 10 finish, there were some “real markers” that hinted at improvement for them.
It’s been over 500 days since either Chase Elliott or Alex Bowman won a #NASCAR Cup Series race. Should fans be worried?@TeamHendrick VP & GM Jeff Andrews isn’t. ⬇️
More ➡️ https://t.co/WGRTG5gVtL pic.twitter.com/bmdlcdMElP
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 8, 2024
Hendrick Motorsports not losing hope in the #9 and the #48 teams
As for the #48 team of Alex Bowman, Jeff Andrews made a similar case as he did for Chase Elliott, being that while they aren’t taking big strides and remain winless, they are improving little by little. He said, “The #48 was again, we felt like, was gonna have a pretty decent day and certainly capable of running inside the top 10, we had one little hiccup there on a pit stop and lost some track position.”
“It’s just hard to get that back when those kinda things happen late in the race. We’re positive about the improvements and the changes that have been made during the off-season.”
All in all, Jeff Andrews agreed that it is the #5 of Larson and #24 of Byron that have the results right now since they’re the ones with the “Ws in that win column.”
But with that, the #9 and #48 teams are also “working hard” and HMS remain excited to keep going on in this season for sooner than later, the wins will come for those two as well.
