Kyle Larson dominates at Charlotte, Hendrick Motorsports becomes NASCAR wins leader | 40 wins in 40 days

Editor’s note: This is the 34th in a 40-part series highlighting 40 of the greatest wins in the history of Hendrick Motorsports to finish its 40th anniversary season. A new installment will be released each day from Nov. 22, 2024 through New Year’s Eve. Votes were taken from Hendrick Motorsports employees as well as representatives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Racing Insights with all unanimous selections being ushered in automatically. The remaining wins were deliberated and decided upon by a small panel.

CONCORD, N.C. - Rick Hendrick and the rest of Hendrick Motorsports didn't have long to reflect on tying Petty Enterprises for first place on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. 

And that was just fine with all involved. 

One week after Chase Elliott scored victory No. 268 at Circuit of the Americas, Kyle Larson smoked the field in the Coca-Cola 600, notching his first victory in the crown jewel event and putting the organization at 269, a cut above the rest. 

Fittingly, the pair of victories came amidst a blazing-hot stretch for the company. From May 16-July 4 in the summer of 2021, Hendrick Motorsports claimed seven victories in eight points-paying events with Larson's win in the 600 jump-starting a personal, three-race win streak and an eventual championship-winning run. 

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His title followed Elliott's first the season prior. Elliott finished second to Larson in the 600, giving Hendrick Motorsports a third-straight 1-2 finish at the time and with William Byron finishing fourth and Alex Bowman fifth, the organization put all four entries in the top five. 

And to think, Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels was anxious about qualifying that weekend. 

“I remember that weekend clear as day and Kyle still makes fun of me,” Daniels recalled. “The rules we had then and the trim levels of the car, some being high drag, high downforce and some of them being low drag, low downforce … we wanted to put downforce into our car for the 600 that year and I was so convinced that we weren’t going to qualify very good and then we weren’t going to have a good pit stall.

“So, I was pretty upset after practice, knowing we had a really fast car in race trim and I was just really anxious. I had a lot of anxiety going into qualifying that day that we weren’t going to have a good qualifying result. Sure enough, it was a really hot, slick day for qualifying, so having downforce in your car did matter and we qualified on the pole.”

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Larson had the best 10-lap average in the event's practice session and also laid down the third-best individual lap. And it would be more of the same come race time. Lots more. 

It was a blistering of the field, similar to what Larson has pulled in other events in the past few seasons, most recently a win at Bristol this past fall in which he led 462 out of 500 laps. In the '21 Coca-Cola 600, that number was 327 of 400 and he swept all four stages, registering max points with a 70-point showing to go with eight valuable playoff points. His final margin over Elliott was 10.051 seconds. 

Yet, as dominant as the statistics make it look, Daniels continued to grind over changing track conditions and varying lap times. And lo and behold, that first pit stall proved to be invaluable after all. 

“We led a lot of laps and having the number one pit stall was a big deal because, as that race does, when it goes from daytime to nighttime, we ended up making quite a few adjustments to the car that typically could penalize your pit stop a little bit and probably did," Daniels said. "But our crew did a great job executing changes during the stops and having the first pit stall let us maintain the lead and still get off pit road first."

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Larson would go on to say that the win, "wasn't easy," with his Hendrick Motorsports brethren bringing fast cars as well. 

But as is typical with milestone achievements at Hendrick Motorsports, there was some unique symmetry. When Larson came onboard to begin the 2021 season, the No. 5 car was brought back after a few seasons of dormancy. That's the same No. 5 car that Geoff Bodine drove to victory lane at Martinsville Speedway in 1984, affectively saving the organization from shutting down. 

The 2021 Coca-Cola 600 also marked the first time Larson had won a race of over 400 miles in his career. 

“I think it all came together in victory lane for me, thinking about win No. 269 being a crown jewel win for us and our team,” Daniels said. “Everything that went into the way the race played out, to keep it up front and bring home win No. 269 was a big deal.” 

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Getting to the top of the heap has done nothing to slow the organization down thus far. Since win No. 269, Hendrick Motorsports has added 43 more with Larson's triumph on the Charlotte ROVAL this past October serving as win No. 312. 

And also, as most big victories at Hendrick Motorsports do, the win touched far more lives than just Larson's or Hendrick's with most if not everyone within the company having their own memory or relationship to the company's lofty perch. 

That included Daniels, for whom that breakthrough win at Charlotte was made extra special by his own journey within the world of stock car racing. 

"And then for me as a kid. Really, by the time I was nine or 10, I had been coming to Charlotte Motor Speedway with my family and ended up racing a lot in Charlotte at that race track - the summer shootout, bandolero cars, legends cars – and I had always dreamed of winning on the big track. So, full circle for me personally, plus of course, what it meant for the company. There were a lot of folks from Hendrick Motorsports there that night and it all came together in a very special way.”