Why Hendrick Motorsports’ Biggest NASCAR Advantage May Not Last Long

The 2024 Cup Series season has barely begun and the Hendrick Motorsports-Chevrolet partnership is already the biggest hunting dog. The team has won two of the three races and stands poised as favorites going into the race at Phoenix. Despite the momentum, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Cliff Daniels believes that their competitors at Ford and Toyota might not be giving things up that quickly.

Daniels has been helming Kyle Larson’s #5 team since 2021 and won a championship with it. He credited the new cars of Ford and Toyota while talking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and pointed out that they were going to get a lot better as the season progressed. His words of awareness went, “I think in time they are gonna figure their stuff out more and more.”

He continued, “That’s gonna put pressure back on us to keep refining everything we have with our Camaro.” Where Daniels believes Chevy has an advantage is in three years of experience and study that has gone into the Camaro ZL1. Ford and Toyota have been running with new bodies and have just begun understanding the nature of the Dark Horse and the Camry XSE.

Despite Ford and Toyota’s new bodies, does @TeamChevy have an advantage early into 2024?

️ @DanielsCliff weighs in ⬇️

“We may have had that touch of being just barely ahead of them […] but I think in time they’re gonna figure their stuff out more and more.” pic.twitter.com/ejwzJydAz5

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 7, 2024

Despite this edge, Daniels is aware that they will have to keep bettering themselves to not let the competition catch up. He concluded, “We know how tight the field is and that’s just putting urgency in our camp to make sure we’re gonna keep pushing ourselves ahead.” Daniels and Larson won last weekend’s race at Vegas and head to Phoenix as favorites with opening odds of 6-1.

More voices supporting the chances of Ford and Toyota heading to Phoenix

NASCAR veteran Jeff Burton and former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte were among the many who discussed the dominance of Chevrolet after the Vegas race. While they were in huge admiration for the car maker’s product, they had to acknowledge that it was still too early in the season to judge Ford and Toyota.

On similar lines to Daniels’ opinion, Burton said on Motorsports on NBC, “We have to be careful to judge the Toyotas and the Fords on one race. There’s a whole lot left to go. Those guys are going to come home, they’re going to learn, they’re going to be able to apply, and they’re going to get better.”

Letarte continued to pick up on Burton’s words and noted that the average finish positions across both groups had gone up. The consensus after the first three races is that all three carmakers are putting up strong performances with Chevy having a slight edge over the others.