DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The DAYTONA 500 isn’t just the biggest race in NASCAR, it’s also the first points-paying event of each season.
So, while trying to win the Great American Race is certainly a goal for every race team in the garage, it’s also just the first box to check in a season full of them.
Hendrick Motorsports owner, Rick Hendrick, made an appearance on SiriusXM this week and talked about the importance of the DAYTONA 500, a race his organization won for the record-tying ninth time last year as William Byron scooted to victory lane.
And while another victory this weekend would be a big one, it’s not the endgame. Hendrick reemphasized his team’s objectives during the 12-minute interview.
“When you start the year, the championship is what you want,” Hendrick said. “That’s the end goal but things can happen along the way. The way we look at it, we want to be strong and competitive, lead laps and win races and so we focus on tracks that we have not been as strong and there’s tracks we need a lot of work at.
“The organization is used to working hard, trying to win and winning in any situation and that fuels us every single year when we don’t win the championship to come back and work harder and see if we can’t get another (Cup Series title). I think anytime you can keep core group together without any change and can go back and identify things you could be doing better and work on those I think you’re going to have a good result at the end of the day.”
To Hendrick’s point, the organization is in a period of unprecedented stability, at least in the driver lineup, with his four Cup Series wheelmen – Alex Bowman, Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson – now entering their fifth year together. That's the longest any foursome has ever stayed the same in Hendrick Motorsports history.
Byron’s victory last season was the first for any of the four in the DAYTONA 500. However, prior to last season, Hendrick Motorsports’ last four wins in the Great American Race had come as part of two, repeats (Jeff Gordon in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson in 2006, Johnson again in 2013 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2014).
And despite some minor bumps in the road during Thursday night’s Duel at Daytona qualifying races, Hendrick believes his organization should be poised to contend for that magic 10th win on Sunday.
“We’re going to race good. We didn’t qualify where we thought we would based on what we’re taking down there, but everybody steps up in the wintertime,” Hendrick said. “But that race is a race you can win from just about anywhere if you can be there at the end. The plan is to try and finish it and if you finish it, you can win it. We ran 1-2 last year. I’ve seen cars basically destroyed out there running third and fourth in a pack so it’s one of those survival races”
And even after all these years – this will be Hendrick’s 42nd DAYTONA 500 as a car owner – the pageantry and the hype of the event still hits home.
“When I get butterflies is when we’re down close to the end and we’re leading or running up front and you’re almost afraid to look when the caution light comes on,” Hendrick said. “We’ve won in (five decades) and that just means I’m an old man.”
And yet, the competitive fire still burns just as bright as it did in 1984, when Hendrick entered his first car into a NASCAR Cup Series race under the moniker of All-Star Racing. Fourteen championships and 312 points-paying, Cup Series victories later, he’s still looking for more.
“We had a good year last year, we didn’t get to win the championship, but we had a car there and I think we’ve improved on the flat tracks, and I think we’ve been good on the mile-and-a-halfs, good on road courses,” Hendrick said. “So, it’s going to be super competitive, but I think anytime you can get another year under your belt and the crew chiefs and engineers are all working together and they worked hard in the offseason … so, we feel like we’ve got the same lineup going back and we hope to have improved our situation over the winter. But I’m looking forward to ‘25, I think it’s going to be a good year. It’s going to be a hard fight, but it is every year.”