Kyle Larson finally broke his 51-race winless streak with a dramatic win at Gateway. But that win did not just end a drought that goes back to Kansas in 2025, it also showed that a cultural shift at Hendrick Motorsports is working. Larson’s win, aided by the drafting help from teammate Alex Bowman, was not all driving skills. It was also the result of a new data-sharing policy.

For years, HMS dominated NASCAR by building custom parts and chassis to match their drivers. But the Next-Gen car removed that advantage. Now every team must buy identical parts from single-source suppliers, and this setup erased pure driver talent.

Now, without being able to build faster parts, this season was disastrous for Hendrick. Toyota outpaced Chevrolet’s Camaro body, and to see how bad it got for HMS, look back at July’s Brickyard 400. After Indianapolis, the highest-ranked Chevy driver in the standings was the 23-year-old Carson Hocevar, while racing for underdog Spire Motorsports. Now that must have been the wake-up call Larson and the organization needed.

Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, knew the team had to stop keeping secrets from each other just to survive. Appearing on Dale Jr. Download, he talked about how deep the struggles had gotten.

“The Next Gen era, it has presented so much higher of a need for all of us to be fully open. Anything, from our brake package bills and how we’re gonna cool the brakes to car setups and air pressures and car builds, coupled with the fact that, newsflash, it has been a really tough year for Hendrick this year,” said Cliff Daniels. “We’ve had to lean so much more into each other and just put in all of the collective intelligence, the experience, everything that we can together to dig out of the performance hole that we’ve been in, that we’re as close now as we’ve ever been.”

That ‘performance hole’ had defined Larson’s 2026 season prior to Gateway. Despite having the pace, being second in the standings, having 11 top-five finishes, and leading the second-most number of laps after Hamlin at 838, it was more about near misses and three DNFs.

Larson dominated in Bristol; he led for 284 laps, and yet at the end he lost out to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs. In Kansas, he led 78 and went up to first on the track’s all-time lap leaders list. And yet came out with a second-place finish behind 23XI’s Tyler Reddick. Even early in the Chase, at Darlington, Larson had a shot at winning and even led 99 laps, but he got nothing more than a P5.

Those late-race fades showed one thing, Larson could not just rely on his raw talent to secure the win in the Next-Gen cars. This setup frustrated the whole organization. His teammate, Chase Elliott, suffered a 42-race winless streak and admitted that the Next-Gen car’s handling forced him to change his driving style.

With the driving styles in a way being neutralised, Hendrick had to change their approach. Daniels’ push for complete data sharing deviated from HMS’ playbook.

When Dale Jr. was an HMS driver, each team was housed in a different building. The competition within the team was very high, and it generally meant crew chiefs not sharing the setups to ensure they beat their own teammates.

That changed in 2017 with all HMS teams coming under one roof. According to Daniels, this move was a turning point, but the information sharing across the 2026 season has been unlike ever before, simply because of how much the HMS Chevys have struggled. 

“I’m coming at that from a place of just needing help and wanting to expand all of the collective intelligence that we have. Hey, here’s what I think the vision for the five-car build for Bristol should be, and for, you know, Kansas should be. What do you guys think? What’s your approach? What do you guys think are moves that make sense to stack up for aero balance of this track versus another track?” said Daniels. “And putting all of that together has been really important for us this year to lean into one another and to share that difference of opinion or perspective.”

Yet despite the open garage culture, there are differentiating factors that separate No. 5 team from the rest of the three teams.

“It doesn’t mean that all of our cars are built the same,” Daniels added. “But it means that at least we’re being very transparent with the idea for an approach and, of course, those little things that you have to put together to execute it. If there’s anything that we’re working in a world of black and white, or we’re working in the gray, or are some of these very fundamental items that you would build into your car for the weekend? Having that be presented on the front side just helps everyone see that much more clearly what their approach can be.”

While Larson is fighting for the title, his teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron sit 11th and 15th, respectively. Elliott is 93 points away from Hamlin and still has an outside shot at winning with eight races to go. But Daniels believes that even if the HMS drivers are title contenders fighting against each other, the transparency will continue. 

“If I’m gonna be racing Rudy(Fugle, Byron’s crew chief) and Alan(Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief) going into Homestead, I’m still gonna want their help,” said Daniels. “And I think they’re still gonna want my help to know that we’re maximizing everything that we can to go compete against those guys that have been fast and they’ve been tough all year. I just don’t see a way out of that without the help from those guys as well. And I’m sure they share the thought as well. So it’s a different page than probably what you’ve seen of Hendrick in the past, but it’s a really healthy page. And there’s a very high level of transparency.”

Transparency is the way to go at HMS, as they clearly understand the fight isn’t inside their team garage. Joe Gibbs Racing might have an edge, but their team dynamics are different to that of Hendrick Motorsports. And do not count Team Penske out of the picture; Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano are the best championship pairing of the Next-Gen era.

The win at Gateway proved that HMS can still win if everyone is on the same page. The team’s next test is this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, the same track where Larson watched his 284-lap dominance slip away.