The NASCAR Cup Series will head to the Arizona desert this weekend for its fourth race on the 2024 calendar. The upcoming race at the Phoenix Raceway will be a crucial one, for it is the location of the Championship 4 finale in November. With the importance of the day in hindsight, here are the 13 times when NASCAR giant Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) has been successful at the track.
Advertisement
The first time HMS won at Phoenix was in 1994 when Terry Labonte took the checkered flag. Notably, it was the last race for the Chevrolet Lumina. Nearly a decade after Labonte gave his team the historic win, Kyle Busch returned the Hendrick name to the victory lane in 2005. In 2007, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson combined to give the team its first sweep of the Phoenix Raceway.
Terry Labonte won the 1994 Slick 50 500 at Phoenix.
It was the first Cup win at Phoenix for Hendrick Motorsports and the last Cup win for the Chevy Lumina.#TexasTerry pic.twitter.com/0jwV67U4KO
— NASCAR Legends (@LegendsNascar) March 13, 2022
In 2008, Johnson singlehandedly completed the track sweep once again and won both of the year’s races, en route to his 3rd Cup Series championship. Hendrick Motorsports continued its dominance of Phoenix in 2009 and completed its third sweep, with Mark Martin and Johnson taking each of the two races to their names. Johnson’s win marked the team’s 6th consecutive win at the track.
Jeff Gordon won at the track once again in 2011, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. did so in 2015. In 2020, Chase Elliott kept the run going by capturing the flag at the short track on his way to his first Cup Series title. Kyle Larson did the same in 2021 and marked the team’s 12th win at Phoenix. The last time a Hendrick Motorsports driver won here was in March 2023 when William Byron took the checkered flag.
The dominance of Hendrick Motorsports in the Phoenix Raceway
7X Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson holds the qualifying record at the track with a speed of 143.158 mph (2015). A Hendrick Motorsports driver has won the pole at the track on 15 occasions, the highest in NASCAR. With a total of 14 different organizations winning a race at Phoenix, HMS is the winningest team with 13 victories.
Rick Hendrick’s team has already kicked off 2024 with two wins in three races and heads to Phoenix with momentum on its side. Should one of the four stars from its garage end up winning at the first short-track race of the year on Sunday, it could end up being the foundation upon which the rest of its year is shaped.
