Hendrick Motorsports didn’t have the best of results at Talladega in the latest round of the NASCAR Cup Series. All three of HMS’s playoff contenders were involved in some sort of incident in the second race of the playoff semi-final, some due to bad luck and others because of some baffling decisions made in the pits.
Advertisement
William Byron was the highest finishing car from the team in P25. Despite challenging the final laps at the front, he was spun around in the tri oval section of the track just before the checkered flag flew and the winner was decided. Kyle Larson finished one spot behind Byron, as he too was struck by a bit of bad luck, with the No. 5 driver running out of fuel on the final lap while battling near the front.
Larson and Byron, at least, managed to finish. Chase Elliott‘s Sunday came to an early end on lap 52 of the YellaWood 500 as the No. 9 driver got swept up in a multi-car wreck, while Alex Bowman rounded off the team’s effort in P29, not challenging for the playoffs during this round.
These finishes essentially mean that the HMS drivers will now head to Martinsville, each with their own agenda. None of them can afford to relax when it comes to advancing into the Championship 4. Larson sits +32 above the cutoff and will be battling Christopher Bell for points at The Paperclip, while Byron sits 36 points below, and Elliott faces a must-win situation with a 63-point deficit.
This turnaround for a team that was aiming for a top-five finish, if not a win, with two of its drivers left former driver-turned-broadcaster Kyle Petty perplexed. He spoke about how the final overtime restart should have seen both Larson and Byron line up back to back and push each other to the line.
“Why didn’t they just line up behind each other. I don’t know why they didn’t line up and push each other. All I can come up with is one was in on points, one was out on points. But in the big theory, both of them needed to win to assure themselves of going to Phoenix,” said Petty.
“Why don’t you double down? We see it in blackjack. Get one car in and go to the house. That’s what they needed to do, that’s what I thought they were going to do. And the way the race played out, it was a disaster for them,” he added.
It’s easy to see why Petty was perplexed by the decision, which ultimately cost both the No. 9 and No. 24 teams the security of knowing that their Final 4 berth wouldn’t depend entirely on their performance at Martinsville, which it now does. All that remains for them is to go out and perform, just like their teammate Chase Elliott, who also finds himself in a must-win situation.
