NASCAR Cup Series

With Hendrick Motorsports on an incredible run, can any other team keep up?

Updated Jul. 30, 2021 8:21 a.m. ET

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

The Hendrick Motorsports string of consecutive NASCAR Cup Series points wins ended at six when Kyle Busch stretched fuel mileage to win Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Is that how a non-Hendrick driver is going to have to win races?

"Thanks," Busch said when presented that question. "Fortunately, if you look at the metrics, I think we had the fastest car. We did have that over them, at least, where we had the fastest car.

"It was just a matter of being in the right position at the right time."

In fact, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver thought he could have won Saturday at Pocono — he placed second in that event — if he had gotten a better push from Hendrick driver Kyle Larson, who restarted behind him on what turned into the final restart of the race.

Maybe teams are catching up to Hendrick Motorsports. But it’s one thing to be able to catch them, and it’s another to beat them.

"It’s good that we got the balance to run that well," Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski said after a third-place finish Sunday. "We need to be where we don’t have to have the car perfect just to run with them.

"The days we have the car perfect, [we should be] the fastest car."

Keselowski wasn’t the only driver thinking his organization still needs to make strides. Kevin Harvick has finished top-10 in the past three races, including fourth Sunday, but still believes the Stewart-Haas Racing organization is behind.

"We’re just the same as what we have been," Harvick said. "Our cars are a little bit better. We still need some speed.

"I think we are better than we were, and I think our team just does a good job of getting good finishes."

The fact remains that in the past seven races, Hendrick has

— Earned six victories, with four 1-2 finishes, 17 top-5 finishes and 21 top-10s.

— Won nine of 15 stages.

— Led 1,203 of 1,516 laps (79%).

The surge comes in a season when Hendrick and ECR (Childress) have collaborated on the building of their Chevrolet engines, resulting in increased horsepower for the Hendrick teams.

But it also appears that the Hendrick cars are handling better. They didn’t seem as dominant last weekend at Pocono, and some might point to the team (and other Chevrolet teams) possibly having to rework the noses of their cars.

NASCAR said it didn’t issue any edicts after the June 20 race at Nashville Superspeedway, but there were apparently changes made to many of the Chevrolets.

The fact that Hendrick had a winner in the first race at Pocono in Alex Bowman and almost won the second race with William Byron, who ran out of fuel with a few laps left, shows that whatever changes might have been made, the Hendrick cars were still fast.

"Obviously, we've been a race team before that's been in this position," Hendrick Vice President of Competition Jeff Andrews said. "We've been chasing several organizations before ourselves.

"We certainly understand what it feels like. ... NASCAR and [series director] Jay Fabian, they do a great job of regulating this sport and keeping this sport in line. Any time they talk to you or want you to address something on your race cars, we go back and address that."

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The JGR drivers knew that last weekend at Pocono might not offer an accurate indication of whether they have made gains.

"This is a track where we can come here, feel good about our setup, baseline, everything we got and be quick," Busch said. "I don't know that the Hendrick guys can say the same thing like that.

"They haven't been fast here in a while. Obviously, they were better, they were faster this time around. But this was a good chance for us to stack up as good as we can be and as good as they are and see what happened."

Busch crew chief Ben Beshore said he will wait until mid-August to make any determination of whether they have made gains on Hendrick.

"When we go to Michigan, I'll probably tell you then," Beshore said. "Pocono is so unique, with three corners. Kyle is so good here. He probably equalizes maybe some of our car deficiencies here with his talent."

It’s better to have won and have a little bit of optimism. But it's just the nature of a crew chief who has an engineering background to want more data.

"We feel like we're chipping away at them," Beshore said. "Those Vegas, Kansas, Texas races deep in the playoffs, those are going to be the tell-tale sign of how far we've come."

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Thinking Out Loud

Was the Trackhouse Racing purchase of the Chip Ganassi Racing NASCAR assets, effective the end of the season, a good move or a bad one for the sport?

It’s somewhat mixed.

Chip Ganassi didn’t have anyone to take over the team and, at 63 years old, rightfully wondered if eliminating one branch of his motorsports operation would be a good thing. And Trackhouse owner Justin Marks is a racer, just like Ganassi.

But it’s still sad to see an owner who was dedicated to the sport for 20 years and his organization pretty much disappear into the hands of an existing organization. Even though Ganassi is involved in so many types of motorsports, losing him is still a loss to NASCAR.

NASCAR wanted new, young owners. But it also benefits from organizations that have history in the sport. That benefit is lost with this transaction.

Social Spotlight

They Said It

"Our team was not for sale. Justin simply came to me with a great offer and even a better vision for racing." — Chip Ganassi on selling his team to Justin Marks

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!