Hendrick Motorsports has been championed by various drivers over the last four decades. Two names that hold the prestigious torch currently and are taking the team forward to heightened glory are Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Each with several accolades of their own, they broke self-records in the latest race at Bristol.
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Both Larson and Elliott finished in the top ten on Sunday and extended their individual top ten streaks at the ‘Last Great Colosseum’. In four starts at the track’s concrete surface, Larson has now never finished outside the leading five. Only Denny Hamlin comes close to him with four consecutive top-ten finishes.
Elliott, on the other hand, finished in 8th place and marked his 3rd consecutive top-ten finish.
Tire management was a crucial aspect that the entire field struggled with in the 500-lap race. Though Larson faced a penalty that refracted him from a win, he was particularly good at managing his wheels. “I felt like I was doing a good job of managing my stuff. We just never got a long run and then the one time we got a long run is when we had the penalty. I will take the fifth and be happy with it,” he told hendrickmotorsports.com.
For Elliott, Bristol gave him his best finish yet in 2024. He said, “It was like racing at a really old, worn-out short-track. It was a lot of fun. There was probably a little better balance somewhere up there, but I had a good time.” Their results have put Larson and Elliott at 1st and 6th in the driver standings, respectively.
The part that Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott play in Hendrick Motorsports’ legacy
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott both have 18 wins for their team. Larson has led 4,567 laps in HMS colors so far and Elliott, 5,113. These numbers combined account for nearly 12% of the total laps that the organization has led over its 40-year history in the Cup Series.
Notably, Elliott was the one who completed its 80,000th lap, in Bristol on Sunday. He told NASCAR before completing the feat, “It’s a lot of laps, for sure, and a lot of race wins encapsulated into all those laps that they’ve led as a company. Definitely proud to have been a very, very small part of that, but I’ve enjoyed my time, and hopefully we can keep adding to it.”
Larson and Elliott will next drive alongside each other at the road course in the Circuit of the Americas.
