Hendrick Motorsports is somehow both the calmest ship in the storm and the one quietly adding new sails. For the fifth straight year, Rick Hendrick opened the season with the same Cup quartet: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman. The stability got an extra bolt when Byron signed a four-year extension through 2029, even as the team expands its talent pipeline with a splashy No. 17 Xfinity program that mixes its Cup stars with teen phenom Corey Day under crew chief Adam Wall. If the Cup stays steady, the real intrigue shifts to how Hendrick deploys its Xfinity bench in the second half of 2025 and into 2026.

On the other hand, 23XI Racing’s 2025 campaign has been a study of volatility and grit. The headline came at Indianapolis, where Bubba Wallace excelled in a nerve-shredding fuel save and two overtime restarts to capture the Brickyard 400. Off the Cup stage, the team’s developmental work has paid dividends, too, with Corey Heim’s runaway form in the Craftsman Truck Series as a regular-series champion, with multiple wins and poles. This on-track progress, however, has run up against off-track turbulence with a high-profile legal standoff over charters, compelling the team to run as open entry in some events. Therefore, both teams have questions to answer. Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin have done just that.

HMS Xfinity lineup gains Kyle Larson’s vote of confidence

In a pre-race interview at Richmond Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson portrayed a hesitant confidence when asked if Corey Heim would still race all the Xfinity races for HMS that he had scheduled earlier this year. “Uh, I believe so. Yeah, so, I don’t know. Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” he said. In January, HMS unveiled a 16-race part-time No. 17 Xfinity slate mixing its Cup aces alongside newcomer Corey Day, a move Rick Hendrick framed as both a marketing and development play. “Corey has the raw speed that very few drivers have,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said in a team release. “What he’s done, at his age, in a sprint car is very impressive, and it doesn’t take a critical eye to see that he has the tools to have an amazing career in NASCAR… We’ll put Corey in good equipment with a very talented team behind him and do our part to contribute to his success.”

Larson’s comments make sense when looking at Day’s performance in 2025. The latter’s Xfinity introduction at Martinsville was electric and instructive as he qualified inside the Top 10 (P8), showed pace early, then lost significant track position after contact that sent him into the fence and damaged the car’s rear, forcing hours of repair and recovery drive that led him to finish 21st. A few weeks later, those raw flashes turned into tangible progress, with a steady, survival-heavy run at Texas Motor Speedway that yielded a 16th-place finish, and then delivered an 12th-place finish two races later at Nashville Superspeedway. He later also placed 24th both in the road course at Sonoma Raceway and in the Xfinity results at Iowa.

However, Larson‘s comments highlight how he publicly discussed Hendrick’s young signees, praising their raw ability while acknowledging the learning curves. Additionally, Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon publicly endorsed Day’s upside throughout the season. “Of guys who haven’t made it to the three series in NASCAR yet … he’s definitely the best prospect out there,” Larson told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I definitely endorsed him for sure because I’ve gotten the chance to race with him and firsthand see how good he is. He’s probably the only one that I’ve raced with that I feel like looks like me out there. Same sort of driving style and all that, and very versatile and can hop in anything and figure it out.”

The 19-year-old’s first experience in a NASCAR national series occurred in 2024, when, with HMS, he made his Truck Series debut in the No. 81 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway in September. Day totaled four Truck starts in 2024, with a best finish of 16th at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2024. And the resilience still runs through his veins. But another team is facing a rookie lineup shake amid Silly Season rumors.

Denny Hamlin backs rookie’s 23XI trajectory

In a pre-race interview ahead of the “Cook Out 400” Cup Series race at Richmond Speedway, when asked if Corey Heim would remain under contract with 23XI Racing, Denny Hamlin leaned in with an unmistakable faith. “Yeah, he’s our development driver for the foreseeable future, so he’s got plenty of races ahead of him with us,” he said. This year alone, Corey Heim has nabbed multiple Truck Series wins, including locking up regular-season dominance, grabbing his fourth straight pole at Richmond, with double-digit top-5s and top-10s already on his resume.

Richmond’s efforts turned the heat up with a 23.095-second lap at 116.908 mph, edging out defending champion Ty Majeski. It became an emblematic “Heim Fortress” and a strong signal that he is not just skilled, but steadily capitalizing on every opportunity. Behind the scenes, Hamlin justified sticking with this trajectory, noting, “He’s in the building multiple times per week, working on his craft, continuing to get better, waiting on the opportunity. And he knows he’s got a long-term future with 23XI Racing, and he’s happy with that. And he’s happy with the development process that we have set out for him in the future.”

Yet there’s a structural wrinkle that underscored Hamlin’s statement. 23XI already fields three full-time Cup charters, with drivers Bubba Wallace, Riley Herbst, and Tyler Reddick locked into contracts through 2026. That leaves no immediate room for Heim, despite his own readiness and his own willingness to wait. Hamlin earlier also acknowledged this, saying, “Ultimately, there’s only three cars, three charters that we’re allowed to have, and so we have to figure out in the future where we go with that.” But with the current state of affairs and Hamlin’s cryptic comment, speculations keep bubbling both for the team and Corey Heim.

Hamlin’s assurance not only locks Heim into 23XI‘s pipeline but also signals Toyota’s long-term investment in his steady rise. His remark becomes less a placeholder and more a promise that Corey Heim’s next chapter with 23XI is only beginning.