Big Bear Nolan's Blog

Nascar’s most accomplished team seems to be having a rough time adjusting to the new Chevy

Hendrick Motorsports, Nascar’s most accomplished team in the sports history has struggled halfway though 2026. Which is shocking because since 2020, you can say they have been the best team. In the timeframe from 2020-2025, the team has seen three combined titles from Chase Elliott (1) and Kyle Larson (2) along with two Daytona 500’s in the emergence of William Byron’s career. This was coming off a rough stretch from 2017-2019 where only three drivers won races in that time span for HMS. Similar to that stretch, this season Chevrolet has built a new body for the Camaro ZL1 and while HMS is having a solid season, its not up to par with what they’ve expected, I want to give my thoughts on what I see.

1. Toyota, mainly JGR and 23XI is having an out of this world season

Those two teams which are mainly highlighted by the 45 of Tyler Reddick and the 11 of Denny Hamlin have dominated this season. Reddick himself has five wins this season (three came in the first three races) and has a 140+ point lead over Hamlin in second for the regular season standings. Hamlin on the other hand, who not only was on the heels of a heartbreaking loss in the 2025 championship race, and has already put up a good 2026 has found his footing winning two in a row. The 11 team has been in contention for nearly every race this season. It is hard to win when these two and their teammates who unfortunately hasn’t been getting the shine dominate every weekend.

2. Injuries and bad luck

This one will be about their fourth driver in Alex Bowman. He has had a lot of talk surrounding him with the rumors that HMS might be moving on from Bowman soon. To be fair to Alex, since his barrage of injuries in 2022 and 2023, he has had a lot of bad luck to deal with. Yes, he did strike gold in 2024 to win the Chicago Street Course race that season. But other than that, nothing else has really gone right for the man. Yes some races are his fault, but on a day like yesterday when his teammates were all running in the top 10 all day and he could barely hang onto 29th, there’s not much he can do. Bowman is also mainly in his point situation because he missed a few races due vertigo. Alex is a proven winner in this sport, everyone looks past at how good he was in 2020 mainly due to the fact that his teammate won the title. But before his injury in 2023, Bowman was leading the point standings. I think Hendrick as a team can be stronger if Bowman gets good cars constantly.

3. Inconsistency

The biggest thing I’ve noticed about Hendrick this season is that they are very inconsistent. Every week it always seems like one guy is getting the good stuff and the other three are getting a pile of you know what. Bristol, Kyle Larson was competing for the win where his teammates could barely hang onto the lead lap that race. Just recently in the Coke 600, Larson was consistently at the top while the 24 and 48 only got top 10’s because Bowman and William Byron had to wheel it. HMS has found victory lane twice this season courtesy of the No. 9 team (Martinsville and Texas) and while Elliott and co. who are advertised to be the most consistent team in the sport has been the best HMS car this season. The 9 team actually has been more inconsistent, for every race like Texas where Elliott dominates and wins, it seems like a race like Phoenix and Bristol where he could barely hang on with Legacy Motor Club happens.

4. 24 and 5 teams having hangovers.

Last season, William Byron and Kyle Larson made the final four with Larson winning the title. This season while both have shown the ability to compete, neither have really came close to winning. William and the 24 team have found themselves in a lot of other peoples messes this season or sometimes put out some stinkers of race cars. While the 5 has competed in a few races this season, Larson always seems to have to challenge a JGR or 23XI Toyota that is simply just better. It is also important to point out that even with the title last season, Larson’s last win in the Cup series came on May 11, 2025 of last year at Kansas Speedway so it has been over a year since we have seen the 5 in victory lane.

5. Field caught up?

I mentioned how good JGR and 23XI has been. But is it fair to say that others that we didn’t see coming like Spire motorsports play an effect in this? Spire has collected two wins this season from its drivers in Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez (Talladega and Coke 600). Not only is Spire a Chevrolet team, but they also are affiliated with HMS through a technical alliance. While Hocevar in the past has proven himself to be a talented driver, his first win in the cup series was just a matter of time. However with the team’s overall surge, is this an example of some challenges that Hendrick has to deal with?

Eventually Hendrick will get right back to where they should but 2026 overall just feels kinda meh for this team. We will see as there is still a lot of season left.