CONCORD, N.C. - In just six events so far, crew chief Adam Wall has had five drivers sit in the cockpit of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 NASCAR Xfinity Series ride.
Certainly, it makes for a unique challenge. But if there's been any drawback, it certainly isn't evident in the results.
And that success was taken to a new level on Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway as Kyle Larson led 277 of 300 laps in cruising to a victory, the first Xfinity win for the season for Hendrick Motorsports and Wall's first as pit boss of the operation.
It was the first of two dominant performances for Larson over the weekend as he went on to pace 411 of 500 circuits in winning Sundays' Cup Series race as well.
"We had two opportunities with him this year at Homestead(-Miami Speedway) and Bristol and you know when you take him to those places if you give him a reasonable race car, he's going to go put it to them and he did that both of those races," Wall said. "We weren't able to close it out like we wanted at Homestead but thankfully, everything kind of stayed a pretty normal race for us at Bristol and we were able to get that one."
Larson also led 132 of 201 laps in the race at Homestead-Miami that Wall alluded to before finishing fourth. And that was the second-worst result of the season so far.
It's been that kind of year with the team registering three runners-up to go with Larson's win with William Byron, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott each finishing second in their one start. Add it up and the No. 17 team is currently seventh in Xfinity Series owner points despite running three fewer events than any other entry in the top 22.
Hendrick Motorsports 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series finishes
| Date | Track | Driver | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 1 | COTA | William Byron | 2nd |
| March 8 | Phoenix | Alex Bowman | 2nd |
| March 22 | Homestead-Miami | Kyle Larson | 4th |
| March 29 | Martinsville | Corey Day | 21st |
| April 5 | Darlington | Chase Elliott | 2nd |
| April 12 | Bristol | Kyle Larson | 1st |
Byron is set for one more go in the car, coming at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, but otherwise, the reins will be handed over to Corey Day. He made his debut in the series just a couple of weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway and is scheduled to run eight more races in 2025.
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For Wall, the difference between having a Cup Series veteran in the car and a 19-year-old just starting to make his way in NASCAR's touring series can be stark, in certain aspects. But he maintains that if the car is good, the rest will follow. And the Cup Series guys have given him quite a barometer test early.
"I would say on the car prep side, it's not really all that different," Wall said. "Fast race cars kind of solve everything, so if we just focus on that, it takes care of itself. There's a little balance here and there we have to work on when we get into the weekend, but the driver prep side of it is definitely more intensive when we get to having Corey in the car. Just educating him on qualifying lines or how things are going to change throughout the run and just getting his notebook filled up a little bit more, so it's been good to check the box of car speed with the Cup guys early in the year here so when we do get into the bulk of races with Corey, we can know that our process is pretty good on the car side and shift our focus more to him."
That will start with a race on May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway with Day climbing into the car for the second time. With more events coming, the hope is that Day and Wall begin to get a better understand as to what the young driver wants and needs.
But Wall pointed out that there are a couple of positive things surrounding that development: 1. There are four Cup drivers that have already been in the car that have provided a valuable set of parameters from which to start and 2. Day is a virtual blank canvas on which to try new things.
"Having these four drivers, having been together here at Hendrick Motorsports for as many years as they have, even back to the Gen 6 stuff we have plenty of notes of what their overall balance is," Day said. "Really, they aren't all that different from each other. And then Corey doesn't know what he wants yet, so just putting him in that box somewhere and then working from there has been a good starting point."
And better yet, Wall and the No. 17 team will have some extra time to celebrate before returning to the track.
"We get to enjoy this one for a couple of weeks at least, that's good," Day concluded.