Chevrolet’s 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign was nothing short of stellar, highlighted by Kyle Larson’s championship victory at Phoenix Raceway, which secured the manufacturer its fifth consecutive Cup title and 44th overall Manufacturers’ Championship. Larson’s consistency and late-season surge capped off a dominant year for the Bowtie Brigade, which saw six different Chevrolet drivers reach Victory Lane, including Shane van Gisbergen’s five wins and William Byron’s three.

The brand’s performance reaffirmed its edge in the Next Gen era, proving that even with stiff competition from Toyota and Ford, Chevrolet remains the standard-bearer of excellence in modern NASCAR. Now, Rick Hendrick, Chevy’s oldest partner, has revealed their 2026 plans.

Hendrick teases Chevrolet’s 2026 reveal

When Rick Hendrick sat down with Sirius XM ahead of the off-season, he left little doubt that something big is coming for Chevrolet’s factory entry in NASCAR. Hendrick confirmed that Chevrolet will reveal its new 2026 body style “on Friday,” signaling a shift after the current Camaro/ZL1-era car ran through the 2025 season.

He added that the team has “been giving up a little bit to the Toyotas and the Fords… and they had a shot at the apple, you know, and made their cars better.” It was a humble acknowledgment from one of NASCAR’s most successful owners that his side needs to catch up.

Hendrick didn’t hide his optimism. “Our guys along with GM worked on this, and it’s supposedly better than what we got, so closer to what Toyota and Ford have,” he said, adding “I’m super excited about the power and I’m excited about having a new car that we can work with. It’s got a little more downforce.” That line says a lot. A new car isn’t just about styling, it’s about performance, and Chevrolet wants to close the loop on the competition.

The timing makes sense. NASCAR recently gave the green light for Chevrolet’s new body for the 2026 season. With indications that the body has already passed wind-tunnel testing and homologation hurdles, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports are positioning themselves to reclaim the high ground. The announcement Hendrick hints at could mark the official reveal of that body and possibly a rebrand or new identity for their Cup program.

Why does this matter? For years, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet dominated the Cup Series. But in recent seasons, competitors built momentum, especially manufacturer programs from Ford and Toyota. When a team of Hendrick’s stature openly admits “we’ve been giving up,” it sends a signal that the pendulum may swing back.

Of course, all the build-up doesn’t guarantee immediate results. Hendrick himself said, “It won’t be perfect right out of the gate, but I’m super excited…” The challenge will be integrating the new hardware, getting the setup right, and doing so under the spotlight. Considering Hendrick Motor Sports success rate, his organization holds 15 Cup championships. This is a meaningful moment for both the team and the manufacturer.

In short, Hendrick’s comments reflect a strategic reset for Chevrolet, for Hendrick Motorsports, and for NASCAR’s manufacturer competition. What remains to be seen is how quickly the performance gap closes, and whether the new car translates into wins. But the tone is clear. Change is coming, and it’s coming from one of the sport’s most notable corners.

Talking about Chevrolet, Kyle Larson’s 2025 campaign was a paradox, a season crowned with a championship yet haunted by a stretch that nearly broke his rhythm.

How Larson’s mid-season slump helped him

His second failed double duty attempt in May, which saw him crash out of the Indianapolis 500 on Lap 91 and later get collected in a wreck on Lap 246 of the Coca-Cola 600, left a dent in his results and confidence. For months after that chaotic weekend, wins dodged him.

The swagger that defined Larson’s driving gave way to frustration, even self-doubt. Still, by season’s end, Larson turned that bruising stretch into fuel for his title run, crediting a collective resolve from his Hendrick Motorsports crew to diagnose mistakes and claw their way back to form.

The No. 5 team’s midseason revival wasn’t instant, but it was instead forged in long nights and self-assessment. Larson admitted that those two months of “suboptimal setups and execution issues” tested everyone involved, but, in hindsight, built the foundation for their rebound.

“There was definitely some truth to mentally draining with how just didn’t do a good job, so kind of down, myself then lost confidence all at the same time. And then I think our race cars got little bit down the wrong path on our race cars, and we didn’t quite realize it for a while.”

For Larson, being “slow” was the wake-up call his team needed.

“I actually think being as slow as we were made us a better, stronger team as far as execution. And then we went to Darlington, and then struggled as a whole, eye-opening, I think. And then we quickly figured out where we had gotten off in those couple of months, and then I feel like we got back on track in competitive and running up front.”

Larson didn’t sugarcoat the struggle that followed, but then, the team attacked the second half of the season like a unit. Though he knew “ten weeks in the playoffs would be long enough to dig out of a slump,” he admitted they didn’t fully reclaim their pre-Indianapolis pace.

Yet the signs were unmistakable, laps led, stages won, and a consistency that whispered of the team’s old dominance. He believes they came close to what they were before the double-duty weekend.