CONCORD, N.C. – In a season that saw Hendrick Motorsports reach two significant milestones, lead the NASCAR Cup Series in several statistical categories and have two drivers reach the Championship 4, there was a lot achieved.
"I want our company to be proud of what they accomplished in 2023," team president and general manager Jeff Andrews told HendrickMotorsports.com.
In September, Hendrick Motorsports won its 300th Cup Series race with William Byron’s win at Texas Motor Speedway. Three weeks earlier, Kyle Larson’s victory at Darlington Raceway produced the 500th NASCAR national series win for the Hendrick Motorsports engine department. Darlington was also the site of a milestone for the No. 24 car when Byron earned the iconic number’s 100th Cup Series win in May.
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Those triumphs were part of a season that saw the organization win a series-best 10 points-paying races and earn the All-Star Race victory in NASCAR’s historic return to North Wilkesboro Speedway. The four-car squad also led the series in top-five finishes (42), top-10s (67) and stage wins (19). Byron led the series in wins (six), stage wins (nine), top-10 finishes (21) and average finish (10.97). Larson (1,127) and Byron (1,016) ranked one-two in laps led and that duo was tied for the most top-five finishes (15) on the season. The seasons of Larson and Byron culminated in Championship 4 appearances that saw those drivers finish second and third, respectively, in the final standings.
"It’s hard not to be excited to have two (teams) that went to the Championship 4 and had a shot at winning the championship," team vice chairman Jeff Gordon told HendrickMotorsports.com. "Those two teams performed at a high level all year long. The 24 car started strong and had a little bit of a lull during the summer, but overall they just continued to gain momentum. The 5 car – they won it all before. They’ve had big seasons like they had in '21. To see them grind it out this year and find their way to Phoenix (Raceway) to compete for a championship was exciting and great for the whole company to see.
"At the same time, we came up short. That’s also a bit disappointing. I feel like Hendrick Motorsports thrives in those opportunities. I feel like we executed flawlessly in that Phoenix race, but we just didn’t have the speed. We got beat quite simply. We will be highly motivated through that experience for 2024."
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Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team reached the Round of 8 in the owner playoffs, but the 2020 Cup Series champion suffered a fractured tibia and missed seven races during the season. Alex Bowman got off to a fast start and was leading the points standings in the spring, but he missed four events after suffering a fractured vertebra. Both drivers and their teams made late surges toward the driver playoffs but couldn’t secure the win needed to make the postseason.
"When those things happen, those are setbacks to race teams," Andrews explained of the impact of losing two drivers to injury for a significant time in 2023. "It can be easy to underestimate how important the chemistry, the flow and the cadence of the weekend goes between the driver, the crew chief and the race team. When you interrupt that, it takes some time to get that flow back. We were missing that when both of those guys came back and it just takes some time. Looking forward to the start of 2024 and having all of our drivers in place and our crew chiefs in place. I feel like we have got a great lineup."
SEASON RECAPS: Alex Bowman | Chase Elliott | William Byron | Kyle Larson
The team's pit crews turned in a strong season with the five-person units of the Nos. 24 and 5 ranking one-two in fastest average four-tire pit stops at 10.934 seconds and 11.033 seconds, respectively. The No. 9 crew ranked ninth in that category at 11.288 seconds and the No. 48 finished just outside the top 10.
"The consistency we had with our pit crews in the 2023 season – just really proud of those guys on pit road," Andrews said. "I would put anyone of our four teams up against anyone on pit road right now."
ON THE ROAD: No. 24 pit crew details preparation, shares season highlights
Across campus, the Hendrick Motorsports engine department had another stellar year. In addition to earning its 500th national series win, the engine department earned its eighth DAYTONA 500 win (with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and JTG Daugherty Racing) and earned its ninth straight pole position in “The Great American Race.” In total, the engine shop accounted for 20 national series wins this season (12 in the Cup Series and eight in the NASCAR Xfinity Series).
Across 463 events in 2023 in the Cup and Xfinity Series, there was only one engine issue for teams that utilized Hendrick Motorsports horsepower. That is a 99.8% success rate. The engine shop supplies Chevrolet engines to Hendrick Motorsports, JTG Daugherty Racing and Spire Motorsports in the Cup Series as well as JR Motorsports, DGM Racing and its own partial schedule efforts in the Xfinity ranks.
"An unbelievable year for our engine program. We’ve never had a year with reliability like that from our engine program," Andrews said.
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The impact of Hendrick Motorsports was also felt overseas with the organization’s involvement in the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Led by Chad Knaus, vice president of competition at Hendrick Motorsports, a modified version of the Next Gen vehicle was fielded as the Garage 56 entry. This was done in collaboration with NASCAR, Chevrolet, Goodyear and IMSA. The car, driven by seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, Formula One champion Jenson Button and two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, ran lap times better than cars in the GT class. In the 62-car field, the Garage 56 entry finished 39th, completed 285 laps and ran approximately 2,413.095 miles.
"There’s a huge sense of pride throughout our company about that effort, that initiative and being able to go over there and represent our industry in Le Mans," Knaus told HendrickMotorsports.com. “Nobody here wasn’t impacted by that program. Whether you touched the car or you didn’t touch the car, you had to shoulder some amount of burden for the folks who were building the car, setting up the travel, working on the logistics and pitting the car. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports touched the program in the same way and I think that is a huge source of pride for everybody."
PHOTOS: The sights of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Check back in January as we preview the upcoming season through the eyes of the executive team at Hendrick Motorsports.