Hendrick needs a strong weekend at a tough track for a turnaround

A week after uncharacteristically missing it across the board in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason opener at Darlington Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports is looking for a reset.

On any given Sunday, that wouldn’t seem like a tall task, but this weekend the organization will try to do so at a racetrack that has not been one of its best – World Wide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis. Three years since it was added to the calendar, Hendrick teams are still searching for answers to the problem.

“I’m not really sure, and I’m not sure anybody knows, so that’s why we’re working hard to figure it out,” Kyle Larson said. “I wouldn’t say this place is perfect for my style, and then in the Next Gen era, it seems the shorter flat tracks, and maybe prior to Next Gen stuff, have been Hendrick Motorsports’ biggest struggle.

“So, I don’t know. Hopefully this weekend is different.”

All four teams finished outside the top 15 last weekend at Darlington. The results were one thing, but the performances of all four teams were also not as expected. Chase Elliott was the highest finishing driver in 17th position.

“It was pretty standard for a bad week: you’re trying to go back and reset, regroup and figure out where you missed it and go from there,” Alex Bowman said. “I think all four of us struggled with the same basic things in the race car and felt like we missed the same lack of turn as a group. Obviously, on our day, we compounded ourselves (with a 40-second pit stop) and made it worse. Yeah, it was not our best week by any means, but I think everyone is working really hard back at the shop to try and be better.”

William Byron admitted it’s been “a long time” since the organization missed it like they did. The fact that it happened at a racetrack the company is traditionally so strong on, and in the postseason, added to the frustration afterward. Byron, however, quickly turned the page and was optimistic ahead of Saturday’s practice session in St. Louis.

His confidence, and that of the entire organization, lies in the hopes of what came from a June tire test. Larson was the Chevrolet representative at the test, and Hendrick Motorsports is leaning heavily on those notes for Sunday afternoon.

“I think a lot of it has come from that test,” Byron said of the preparation. “That was even true for some of the other short tracks since that test, so I think a lot of our knowledge has come from their test here because it’s really all we have. Real track testing is so critical with this car, and we don’t get a lot of it. Simulation is good, but it never replaces coming here and focusing on the track. I feel like we have some good notes.”

Iowa Speedway and Richmond Raceway were mentioned as the two tracks where those notes were also used. Byron won at Iowa. There were two Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the top 10 at Richmond, while the other two had potential but were collected in an incident.

“It’s really hard to gauge yourself off of two other people who were here testing,” Larson said. “I felt OK. I think what we learned here we took to Iowa and Richmond, and we had some decent performances there from Hendrick Motorsports, so I hope that means we’re good or better. I do believe we’re a little better. I don’t think we’re lights out the dominant team, but I think we made a step in the right direction, which is always what you look for after a test. Now we have more people to judge off of and see if we’re better or not.”

Hendrick Motorsports has three top-10 finishes at World Wide Technology Raceway from its drivers. The organization’s average finish at the track is 15.8.

“All we can do for this week is look at the test that Kyle did for us a couple of months ago, and look at historical things that might be positives here,” Chase Elliott said. “A lot of them have been negatives, no doubt, but we can look at that test and dissect that. Cliff [Daniels] and Kyle went through a ton of different options with a ton of different changes, and you pick through that stuff from an engineering standpoint, from a car balance standpoint, of what I want to see out of the car, and put our heads together.

“We put together what we thought was the best choice for the weekend based on all the information that was presented to us. We’ll find out if it was any good.”