Can Hendrick Motorsports Snap Their Decade-Long Drought This Weekend?

This weekend, the NASCAR fraternity makes landfall at the Darlington Raceway. This is a special race because it signifies a throwback weekend for the drivers. Denny Hamlin heads into this race on the back of a win in Kansas. Meanwhile, the Hendrick Motorsports quartet head into this race completely fired up. This is because the team has not won at the race track since Jimmie Johnson‘s 2012 triumph.

In essence, it has been more than a decade since a Hendrick car visited Victory Lane at the Darlington Raceway. This track is nicknamed, “Too Tough to Tame,” and it has certainly earned that reputation. It isn’t for the lack of trying on the part of the Hendrick Motorsports team, as they have recorded some impressive statistics. This has been the case even during the winless drought in Darlington since that last race win in the 2012 Bojangles Southern 500, courtesy of Jimmie Johnson.

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How has Hendrick Motorsports performed at the Darlington Raceway?

According to the statistics, they have racked up 12 Top 5 finishes and 22 Top 10 finishes in 57 starts. Furthermore, since their last win in Darlington, the Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut romped to 95 wins and four Cup Series championships as well. Despite all of that, they have yet to reach the top step at the Darlington Raceway. Hopefully, all that will change this weekend, or else they will be forced to wait.

Admittedly, they came close in 2020 but got extremely unlucky. There were so many times when one of the HMS drivers finished as the runner-up. The list includes the likes of Kyle Larson, William Byron, and even Dale Earnhardt Jr. It is also interesting to note that Hendrick Motorsports has won at every track, except for the World Wide Technology Raceway, Bristol Dirt, Indianapolis road course, and Kentucky.

Of course, the first three are relatively new to the NASCAR Cup Series, but in the span of 10 years, they have never won in Kentucky.

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