NASCAR

A Half-Dozen Races Into 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Season, Hendrick Motorsports Is The Cream Of The Crop

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Jared Turner
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Jared Turner Sports Editor

Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.

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Sports Editor

Published27 Mar 2025

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Jeff Gordon

Six races into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, it’s fair to say that some degree of parity exists.

After all, in those first half-dozen events, all three manufacturers — Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford — have been to Victory Lane. Also, the Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry scored his first career victory, and no one driver has dominated.

Sure, Christopher Bell owns three wins, all coming in succession, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver led more than just eight laps in only one of those races. And in the three races Bell hasn’t won, he’s finished no better than 12th.

So, despite Bell’s exploits, JGR isn’t the top organization of 2025 so far. No, that distinction belongs to Hendrick Motorsports.

So, What Gives Hendrick Motorsports The Early Edge?

Just two NASCAR Cup Series drivers besides Bell have three top-five finishes in the first six races of 2025. Those two drivers? William Byron and Kyle Larson. Yep, you guessed it: They both compete for Hendrick Motorsports — winners of a record 14 NASCAR Cup Series championships but none since 2021.

Byron and Larson also sit atop the Cup Series standings, with Byron holding P1 followed by teammate Larson. Giving Hendrick a clean sweep of the top three positions in the standings is third-place Alex Bowman, who owns a series-high five top-10s in six outings.

Hendrick Motorsports is also the only organization to send multiple drivers to Victory Lane this year, doing so with Byron’s Daytona 500 triumph and Larson’s win this past weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bringing up the rear of the Hendrick Motorsports bunch but strong out of the gate nevertheless has been Chase Elliott. Sixth in the standings, NASCAR’s perennial most popular driver — like teammate Bowman — is looking for his first win of 2025. But Elliott boasts a trio of top-10s that have him solidly in the mix.

Hendrick Motorsports is also one of just three full-time organizations that haven’t recorded a DNF in 2025 (Hyak Motorsports and Legacy Motor Club are the others). Is the organization led and founded by NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Rick Hendrick poised to capture its first NASCAR Cup Series championship in four years and break Team Penske’s three-year stranglehold on the crown?

While it might be too early to tell with 30 races still left on the 2025 schedule, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon couldn’t be much happier.

Jeff Gordon Pleased With Performance Of Hendrick Motorsports

After watching Larson out-hustle Bowman for the victory and give Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2 finish on Sunday at Homestead, Gordon was understandably gleeful.

While the four-time Cup Series champion and former Hendrick Motorsports driver acknowledged the organization has some room for improvement, his overall assessment of the four Hendrick teams couldn’t have been much rosier.

Asked a few minutes after Larson’s win about the company’s strong start to 2025, Gordon didn’t attempt to downplay it.

“Yeah, it really has been,” the Hendrick Motorsports executive and 93-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner said. “I know we’ve had a couple races where all four of the cars are in the top eight or 10. You know, it’s a finicky sport because you want to get off to a good start, get in a good position in points so that you’re not on your heels and playing catch-up. So that part is really nice.”

Gordon would like to see the four Hendrick Chevrolets be a bit faster, however. After all, the Hendrick bunch proved to be no match for Bell at the end of three consecutive races.

“We’ve been getting beat, you know?” Gordon said. “I think our guys really focused more on, ‘How do you bring the car with the most speed every single weekend?’ … It’s just constantly you’re just chasing it.”

But it’s the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, not Bell, that everyone is chasing when you consider the big picture. And that’s likely to continue Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, where Hendrick drivers have prevailed in five of the last nine races.