Things are going well for Hendrick Motorsports these days.
On Monday, Chase Elliott captured his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2022 season at Dover Motor Speedway. The win secured at least one win this season for all four of Hendrick’s drivers.
Through 11 races, Hendrick has five victories with William Byron owning two.
A few days after Dover, the team announced Byron had signed a contract extension through 2025.
That leaves all four Hendrick drivers locked in with the team through at least 2023.
In addition to Byron, both Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson are set through 2023 while Chase Elliott will drive for the team through 2027.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion and the current points leader, believes Hendrick is in a “really solid place right now.”
“Those three guys deserve their opportunities in my eyes and I think they’ve done a great job,” Elliott said Friday at Darlington Raceway. “They’ve had a lot of success and have run really well over the course of the last couple of years. So yeah, I think it’s a great thing. When a guy or a girl is deserving of an opportunity and they’re able to achieve that and have one presented to them in a manner like all of our guys have, I think it says a lot about them.
“I feel like we all work pretty well together. It’s just kind of an easy flow in operation, which is good. I think it’s a great thing. I’m happy for William and, in light of his news this week, I think he’s very deserving. I look forward to racing with him and working with him over the next few years, too.”
Byron, who has multiple wins in a Cup season for the first time in his career, was asked if have four drivers in their 20s provided a spark for Henrick.
“I think it’s just circumstances that we’re all the age that we are, but I think it’s just our paths to the Cup Series and the way that we’ve all come together,” Byron said. “We all have different experience levels from different race cars. I think we all get along really well because we’re similar in age and we all like similar things. A few of us play golf; a few of us go race other things. So, we all have kind of common interest.”
Hendrick Motorsports’ early season success comes in tandem with the overall success of Chevrolet. The manufacturer has claimed seven of the first 11 races, with the other wins by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain.
At this point in 2021, Chevrolet had three wins (all by Hendrick drivers).
“I think Chevrolet should take a lot of pride in that; and the teams within that banner should take a lot of pride in that, too,” Elliott said of Chevy’s dominance so far. “I can’t say that anything just miraculously changed overnight. I think it’s just the way this deal works. You’re going to go through those periods and you have to ride that wave while it’s good in a positive manner, just like you do when it’s bad. And just accept that’s the way it’s going to be sometimes. That can be a hard thing to accept in certain periods, but I am a believer that I think that’s just how this works and I don’t ever see that really changing.”
Keyword: Chase Elliott: Hendrick Motorsports In ‘Solid Place’