{"id":26250,"date":"2019-05-28T21:39:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26250"},"modified":"2019-05-28T21:41:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T02:41:30","slug":"hendrick-motorsports-carries-momentum-into-pocono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/hendrick-motorsports-carries-momentum-into-pocono\/","title":{"rendered":"Hendrick Motorsports carries momentum into Pocono"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. may have hoisted the winner\u2019s trophy late Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Hendrick Motorsports left the sport\u2019s \u201chome track\u201d feeling pretty good and certainly energized as the circuit moves to Pocono, Pa. this weekend for the Pocono 400 (Sunday, 2 p.m., FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
William Byron, driver of the #24 Liberty Patriotic Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 23, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the first time this season, the four-driver Hendrick team had four drivers finish a race ranked among the top 10. Chase Elliott \u2013 already a race winner at Talladega, Ala. last month \u2013 paced the group with a fourth place finish. Alex Bowman maintained his top-10 work \u2013 answering a three-race streak of runner-up finishes with a seventh-place showing at Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was eighth, followed by the race\u2019s polesitter, William Byron, who was ninth. Elliott led 43 laps. Bowman led eight and Byron paced the field for 31.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a trophy for the historically top-shelf Hendrick team, but it was vindication that after some uncharacteristic struggles in the last two years, there is promise on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like we\u2019re getting better for sure,\u2019\u2019 Byron said. \u201cWith all four of us in the top 10, that\u2019s pretty good. And we\u2019ll just work from there.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a calm and cautious way to say that the team is feeling as optimistic as it has in a while. Hendrick has had multiple drivers – two, three and now all four of them –  finish in the top-10 in the last four consecutive races.<\/p>\n

Elliott won Talladega and Bowman was runner-up. Bowman finished second at Dover, Del., Elliott was fifth and Byron was eighth. Bowman finished second at Kansas with teammates Elliott (fourth) and Johnson (sixth) not far behind.<\/p>\n

A top-10 sweep at Charlotte was the surest of signs that this championship-contending team may be turning what\u2019s been a competitive sharp corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said after the race. \u201cI was a little late to the party with running better, but it says a lot about the 650 people that work for HMS, working their butts off. I\u2019m not giving up and we\u2019re just going to continue getting better and better.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Heading to the notoriously tough Pocono 2.5-mile racing triangle this week, the Hendrick drivers have reason to remain optimistic. Last year \u2013 even while the team was in the midst of some performance struggles \u2013 it had solid results at \u201cThe Tricky Triangle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson (eighth) and Elliott (10th<\/sup>) both finished top-10 in this upcoming Pocono 400 last year. Three of the four Hendrick drivers had top-10s in the second Pocono race. Bowman was third, Byron was sixth \u2013 and led 10 laps \u2013 and Elliott was seventh, leading 14 laps.<\/p>\n

Historically, Pocono is encouraging for the Hendrick foursome. Johnson has three wins, 11 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes in 34 starts. He won from the pole position in this race in 2013 and swept the 2004 season races. His top-10 last year in the No. 48 Chevrolet marks his only top-10 in the last six races there. He has proven to be stellar, however, for most of his career at the track \u2013 finishing top-10 in 14 of 17 races from 2006-2014 including that win from pole position.<\/p>\n

Elliott has been similarly stellar, if not victorious, at Pocono. He has five top-10 finishes in six starts, his best showing is a fourth place in his maiden Pocono race in 2016 \u2013 leading 51 laps. He was 10th<\/sup> and seventh at the track last year in the No. 9 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Bowman is the only Hendrick driver that hasn\u2019t led a lap at Pocono, but his third place in last year\u2019s second Pocono race was the best Hendrick showing since Johnson finished third in 2015.<\/p>\n

Byron led 10 laps and picked up his first Pocono top-10 in his second Cup visit in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. There is solid precedent for the young driver, however. He won a 2016 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race from pole position at Pocono in 2016 \u2013 leading a dominating 44 of the race\u2019s 60 laps.<\/p>\n

Last weekend Team Penske\u2019s three-time 2019 race winner Brad Keselowski told reporters that he fully expects the full Hendrick stable to begin winning races very soon. The expectations are high both within and outside the company \u2013 a sure sign that good things are on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The four Hendrick drivers are all ranked within the top 16 in the standings, which would put them in the Playoffs if they were to start today. Elliott essentially has an automatic Playoff berth with his victory. Bowman is ranked 10th<\/sup>, Johnson is 14th<\/sup> and Byron is 15th<\/sup> \u2013 hoping to earn his first ever Cup title shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. may have hoisted the winner\u2019s trophy late Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Hendrick Motorsports left the sport\u2019s \u201chome track\u201d feeling pretty good and certainly energized as the circuit moves to Pocono, Pa. this weekend for the Pocono 400 (Sunday, 2 p.m.,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-26250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6Po","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/MENCS_CMS_Byron_052319-1.jpg?fit=4224%2C2812","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26252,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26250\/revisions\/26252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}