Hendrick Motorsports won the championship last year. Kyle Larson took the title, Chase Elliott was strong all season, and the organization looked like it was right back at the top where it always ends up. Fast forward to mid-2026 and things look very different. On a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin pulled up the Chevrolet owner’s points and could not let the moment pass.
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“I see, like, William Byron in 12th. That’s just… that’s mind-boggling to me. Corey Heim has as many wins as Hendrick Motorsports.”
“Here’s a trivia question. Which Chevy team is highest in owner’s points? Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s our satellite team.”
The joke cuts two ways. One, it is a straight shot at Hendrick for sitting behind a Toyota organization in the Chevy standings. Two, it directly pokes at the $8 million lawsuit JGR filed against Spire Motorsports.
JGR’s own legal argument is that Spire got fast because former JGR competition director Chris Gabehart walked out the door with their setup data. Since Carson Hocevar, who drives for Spire, is the highest-ranking Chevy driver right now, Denny Hamlin passed that comment and had a good laugh about it.
He did walk it back a little. At North Wilkesboro, he said, the No. 9 was really strong. They still have cars capable of running near the front. But the standings say what they say, and Hamlin read them out loud.
Three straight races without a single top-10 across all four cars. Then, at Watkins Glen in May, every HMS driver finished outside the top 20 on a road course. That has not happened since Sonoma 2005. At Indianapolis, Elliott’s day was effectively wrecked with a flat tire after contact in Turn 2. Larson blew a left rear. Denny Hamlin had a very specific take on that.
“Usually you blow a left rear, that’s not luck, folks. You can’t call things luck that someone has a role in. That was likely too low of air pressure. Or ran it too hard on the air, or the load on the left rear was too much. But they found their limit.”
Larson has not won since May 2025 and currently sits eighth in points. Byron is twelfth and has been vocal about handling issues all season, including a furious radio outburst earlier in the year. Bowman missed four races with vertigo and sits 29th. Elliott has two wins but just went eight straight races without a top-10 finish.
The new 2026 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 body is at the center of it. Hendrick has not cracked the aerodynamic setup the way Toyota teams have. JGR and 23XI figured out their packages early and have been pulling away. On top of that, Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels has openly said the team lost key people after the championship run and has spent months rebuilding chemistry with new support staff brought over the winter.
Chase Elliott recently said Rick Hendrick has something planned, specifically simulator work and aero adjustments aimed at fixing their struggles on flat ovals before the playoffs start. Whether that comes together in time is the real question. For now, Denny Hamlin is looking at the standings, doing the math, and laughing.