MADISON, Ill. — Hendrick Motorsports’ early postseason struggles were well-documented heading into Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
The results spoke for themselves; zero Hendrick drivers finished inside the top 15 in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opener at Darlington Raceway. To potentially make matters worse, Gateway followed, with the organization combining for only three top 10s in 12 starts there spanning 2022-24. And while the script wasn’t completely flipped at Gateway this time around, three Hendrick drivers concluded Sunday’s race with a top-12 finish (Chase Elliott third, William Byron 11th, Kyle Larson 12th), allowing for plenty of takeaways — both positive and negative — that the organization can use to improve over the duration of this season’s playoff slate.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway
“We just had good pace,” Elliott said about his No. 9 Chevrolet. “At different times, the car did a lot of good stuff throughout the day. Gave me some opportunities to be on offense and just put ourselves in a good position. So, yeah, just a much better effort than I’ve been having.”
Pace paved the way for Hendrick to start Sunday’s contest. Two out of four Hendrick drivers — Larson in second and Byron in sixth — started the race inside the top 10, vital at a track where all prior race winners started from a top-10 starting position. The opening stage continued this pace; three Hendrick drivers (Larson in second, Byron in fourth and Elliott in 10th) finished inside the top 10 in Stage 1, and aggression in race positioning was readily apparent, including on Lap 36 when Elliott made contact with Josh Berry, resulting in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford spinning.
Aggression — both on and off pit road — continued through Stage 2 and the final stage. Larson’s No. 5 team used a four-tire stop during a Lap 76 yellow, resulting in a fourth-place finish to conclude Stage 2, which came after Larson turned Ryan Blaney on Lap 134. Elliott also finished inside the top 10 in Stage 2, further providing a spark Hendrick could potentially use as the race continued.
That is, until in-race turbulence came to a head during the final stage. With 50 laps remaining, all four Hendrick cars were inside the top 20. A Ty Dillon caution on Lap 208, however, jumbled strategy, preventing the Hendrick cavalcade from potentially running a fuel approach to the front of the racing field.
“You had guys stay in, trying to stretch it on gas,” Elliott said, “and I think that we had just run so long that they were afraid that they were just going to get ate up, like, ultimately the 6 (Brad Keselowski) did, so it’s just part of the game.”
This jumble wasn’t the only frustration. For Byron and Alex Bowman, issues in other areas prevented possible gains.
“Just need to get a better balance on our race car,” Byron said. “Seemed like we had pretty good pace, but we just couldn’t get it balanced. So it’s really hard to see what kind of pace we had.”
“It was just really poor execution on all angles today,” said Bowman, who struggled on both the 1.25-mile track and pit road, finishing 26th. “It was a bummer. I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was OK once we were kind of towards the front half. We just struggled in the back. Super frustrating, but all we can do is keep digging. There’s a lot of people working really hard to continue to be better. I thought, race car-wise, we were heading in the right direction once we had some air on it. We just have to go to Bristol (Motor Speedway) and go to work.”
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
In the end, three Hendrick machines finished inside the top 15, a respectable turnaround following Darlington. Entering the final Round of 16 challenge Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), three Hendrick drivers (Larson at plus-60, Byron at plus-39 and Elliott at plus-28) sit with double-digit playoff points, and while the buffer is still not comfortable for some, it’s progress compared to the team’s showing at the “Lady in Black.”
Perhaps there is even more to Hendrick’s Sunday showing than you’d think. With Gateway viewed as a critical proving ground for the team in its trek toward honing its flat-track notebook, Hendrick’s St. Louis performance — though not as eye-popping as it could’ve been — might be the stepping stone toward mastering future flat tracks on the postseason docket, including New Hampshire Motor Speedway in two weeks and then Phoenix Raceway, the championship bout.
“I definitely think we took a massive step in the right direction,” Larson said. “Would love to get to Phoenix to get the opportunity to see. Obviously, we’re going to race Phoenix, but would love to race it in the final four. Proud of my team. It’s been a struggle here and on this particular style track, but it’s really been a struggle for us at a lot of places lately. Not the finish, but I feel like we were back to looking like the 5 team today.”
“Hopefully, it helps us out at Phoenix, and hopefully we’re still a part of the game to make it matter,” Elliott said.
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