NASCAR Cup Series: Hendrick Motorsport leave penalty woes behind and show why they’re still the team to beat

Hendrick Motorsports have regained their momentum in the NASCAR Cup Series after a hectic past few weeks. In the Toyota Owners 400 race, all four entries from the team drove a brilliant race as they left Richmond with a 1-2 finish and three of their drivers in the top ten.

Last month, NASCAR penalized all four entries from the team for modification of single-sourced supplied parts. The team suffered a major blow as the sanctioning body docked 100 drivers and owner points from each entry. NASCAR also docked 10 playoff points and suspended the four crew chiefs for four races along with a $100,000 fine for each.

After an appeal made by the team, on March 29 the appeals panel restored the driver, owner, and playoff points. The decision came as a major relief for the team last week as they reached Richmond. The HMS team then went on to carry out their regular business by dominating the race as they had done since the start of the season.

Kyle Larson and William Byron in the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400

In the Richmond race, similar faces were in the lead group with William Byron and his teammates leading the field. Byron led most laps on Sunday (April 2) before wrecking out of the race. This cleared the way for Kyle Larson to take the checkered flag, winning his maiden race of the season.

Substitute driver Josh Berry has made his mark in the Cup Series, taking home a second-place finish. Berry, replacing the injured Chase Elliott, continues to impress with his progressive results as he gets comfortable with the team. Alex Bowman finished eighth, putting three HMS cars in the top 10.

William Byron and Kyle Larson have led the team in taking three victories in the last five races. While the duo have been busy winning races, Alex Bowman leads the drivers' standings with 263 points. Byron occupies the fourth position (228 points) and Larson is two places behind in sixth (222 points).

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Jeff Gordon credits Chevrolet for their impressive start to the NASCAR season

NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon credited the Chevrolet team for their stellar start to the season. He said that the collaboration is working well as the team hits the ground running on most of the tracks.

Gordon said:

"Certainly, we’re off to a great start, Our folks at Chevy are doing an amazing job with not only the design of this car starting last year, but also some of the new things that have been brought to all the OEMs and opportunities that they've had."

He added:

"Then the job that the teams do collaborating together, sharing information, and trying to prepare for each and every race. They’ve done an amazing job."

Jeff Gordon also praised the interim crew chiefs who have continued to deliver solid results.