MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The last time Hendrick Motorsports went to Victory Lane was here last fall at Martinsville Speedway.
The team is ready to book another stay.
Perception of how the four-car organization has started the 2026 campaign probably depends on which team you’re asking. But the stats bear out a generally favorable start for the defending champions entering Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Martinsville starting lineup | At-track photos
While the No. 48 team perseveres through Alex Bowman’s bout with vertigo, Hendrick’s other programs have found reasonable success. Chase Elliott has wheeled the No. 9 Chevrolet to fifth in the standings with William Byron’s No. 24 team sixth and Kyle Larson’s No. 5 program in 10th.
Coming just short of a Daytona 500 victory, Elliott has four finishes of 11th or better this year with four top-five qualifying efforts, but that hasn’t been enough to wow him yet as the team navigates a new body style on its Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s.
“It’s been super up and down,” Elliott said Saturday. “You know, I thought if you take the speedways out of it, Phoenix I thought was just a down weekend overall, just in general. I thought Vegas was really strong. We didn’t qualify super good but raced really well. Darlington, I thought was less than what I would like to see. So been kind of up and down. COTA, we did qualify well — ran really bad in the race. So there’s been a little bit of everything in all of it.
“Just trying to piece all that together because some of the trends I feel like of last year haven’t really been the trends of this year so far. So I’m not sure if that’s body related or other things related, I really don’t know. So, yeah, we’re just working through it to grind. Obviously, as we all know, it’s very much a marathon of a year, and narratives, as always, can can change really fast.”
Last week’s showing at Darlington Raceway was disheartening for Hendrick Motorsports — Byron finished eighth, with his teammates 15th or worse (Elliott 15th, Justin Allgaier 24th, Larson 32nd). But it was a marked improvement from last Labor Day’s Southern 500, when none of the team’s drivers placed higher than 17th.
“We still have to improve at that track,” Larson said of Darlington. “I would say that’s not all tracks, you know? Like Vegas, we were really strong. Us at the 5 car and 24 and 9, we were just a small step behind the (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars there. Better than the 23XI (Racing) cars at that track. So I mean, I think it’s track to track a little bit right now with where we’re at, but obviously always want to get better. You’re trying to learn as quickly as possible.”
If nothing else, the team’s internal discourse after its Darlington woes seemed to push Hendrick Motorsports in the right direction.
“I thought (Byron) and really all four of us last week had really similar comments in our meeting on Monday,” Elliott said. “With that being said, I thought that that’s both good and bad, right? Like, it’s a good thing that we’re all kind of on the same page. It’s a bad thing that we were screaming as much as we were, but I think that’s part of it. That’s part of the deal, especially when you have a change, you shift aero balance and have an aerodynamic adjustment like we had over the winter.
“It’s just takes time, so we’re working through it. Hopefully this weekend is a good step, but we’ll see. This is another very different track type that we haven’t really seen yet. Phoenix was a certain way, Vegas was a certain way. Darlington was another certain way. And this is kind of different, too. So we’re trying to work through it until we see all these places. We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep building our notebook.”
Byron has generally been pleased with his starts, highlighting how well his team has executed its race days. But practice and qualifying stands out to the 28-year-old as an area where the No. 24 team could improve.
“I think we need to do a better job on balance on Saturdays so that we’re not guessing so much for Sundays,” Byron said. “Some of that could be obviously the new body, but also just tire changes and things of that nature. We need to do a better job of utilizing our tools and getting closer to unload so that we’re not guessing so much.
“If we have smoother Saturdays, we qualify better and we don’t have so many question marks going in Sunday, we’ll probably have a better weekend.”
The group seemed to find something helpful at Martinsville because Byron qualified second, behind only Denny Hamlin in Saturday’s time trials.
Byron also pointed to pit road as a possible area of improvement, eyeing everything from what he can do better behind the wheel to choosing having better pit-stall selection.
“I think trying to be as quick as we can be, especially when we have track position, we have an opportunity to capitalize and gain a spot inside the top five because I feel like those spots are a lot harder to come by on-track, as well,” Byron said.
