The 2024 NASCAR season could not have started better for Hendrick Motorsports. In the first eight points races of the season, HMS has won 4, with William Byron and Kyle Larson grabbing three and one victory respectively. Does that put pressure on Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, even though the two have improved from their dismal 2023 performances? Jeff Gordon thinks so.
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The Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman spoke to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about how the team wants to carry the momentum forward and how that impacts everyone in the organization to rise to the occasion. The 4-time Cup champion said, “Yeah there’s a lot of momentum. The #24 is just red hot with what William (Byron) and Rudy (Fugle) are doing and what that does is, it motivates the other teams within the organization.”
“So they’re all stepping up; right now two of them have won and the other two also wanna get to Victory Lane, and we are pulling for that as well,” Gordon concluded. And if the first eight races are anything to go by, Gordon is right.
Elliott and Bowman are both inside the top 10 in the points tally on the back of consistent finishes, something they struggled to achieve throughout the entirety of the 2023 season.
How have Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman performed heading into Texas?
Elliott has run 762 laps in the top-5 this year, which puts him fourth in the field. The #9 driver is yet to win at Texas in 13 starts, with two top-5s and six top-10s. The last two outings at Richmond and Martinsville saw the 2020 champion finishing 5th and 3rd, so safe to assume, he is gaining momentum and could take his first victory here this weekend in more than 18 months.
Bowman has three top-5s this season and like Elliott, has never won at Texas. The #48 driver has two top-5 finishes here in his career and will be desperate to break his winless streak that has stretched now to more than 24 months.
