Struggling HMS Star Defends Rick Hendrick’s Men Despite Embarrassing Playoff Blunder

When the Southern sun beat down on Darlington Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports’ playoff quartet took to the ‘Lady in Black’ with championship hopes burning bright. Yet, reality hit hard. No HMS driver, including Chase Elliott, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman, finished in the top 16, marking the team’s worst collective outing at Darlington in the modern era, with an average finish of 22.0, the fourth worst in a four-car shootout. “We’ve definitely got some work to do. We’ll go to Gateway and try to be better there,” Byron lamented. But the performance was marred by a blunder that underscored deeper issues.

Underneath the surface of that dismal result lay a punishing snapshot of chaos on pit road: Alex Bowman’s green-flag stop devolved into a nearly 40-second debacle. A detached air hose, tangled under the car, while the jackman scrambled to lift the car again so the hose could be freed. By the time Bowman rejoined, he had dropped laps, ultimately finishing 31st and slashing his playoff odds by over 30 percentage points, leaving him 19 points below the cutline. HMS Vice President of Competition Chad Knaus didn’t sugarcoat it: “We probably need to get our heads wrapped around that,” he admitted. But instead of adding to the woes, Bowman chose to back his team up against criticism.

How a single pit stop shook Rick Hendrick’s star’s playoff hopes

In a pre-race interview at the World Wide Technology Raceway, Illinois, Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass wondered whether Bowman was directly involved in addressing pit-crew issues after the Darlington blunder or if he left it to the team. Bowman responded candidly, saying, “Yeah, I mean, I’m not part of the pit crew debrief, but I am friends with all those guys. They’ve been on my car for quite a while. They all work super hard throughout the week… Unfortunately, that was just a really bad combination of a hose coming unplugged and not really being prepared in the best way for it… And I know they’re as bummed about it as anybody.”

Observers like Kevin Harvick criticized the performance sharply, calling the sequence “a series of errors that are unacceptable” and “a complete disaster,” words that echo the emotional weight Bowman acknowledged. It wasn’t just about equipment; it was disorganization and communication breakdown that led to confusion, as Bowman alluded when he noted that it was a “learning experience on all ends.” While everyone was concerned about the pit crew’s mental state after such mistakes and whether the team felt external pressure or blame, Bowman didn’t mince his words. “They’ve been really fast at times this year. So hopefully we can turn around for them this weekend.”

Indeed, despite the Darlington meltdown, Bowman and the No. 48 crew have shown flashes of speed and consistency earlier in the season. Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president Chad Knaus reflected afterward that the stop “definitely looked pretty bad” but said the team would regroup and get aligned, highlighting how quickly teams have to pivot back toward competitiveness. Bowman, too, offered his empathy, saying, “It’s definitely different from the inside. I think after a weekend like that, everybody’s mental state was rough, right? Like you’re all, ‘what the hell just happened?’ But I think they’re all very capable of rebounding and having great stops this weekend. They’re all really good at what they do.”

That candid assessment aligns with Holden-level pressure at this stage of the playoffs. Bowman himself admitted that Darlington was “a frustrating and defining moment” in his 2025 season, with significant consequences, as he dropped 19 points below the playoff cutline after finishing 31st. He recognized the weight of every mistake now more than ever. “Just, it was a bad weekend globally, whether it was on pit road or on the racetrack, none of it went very well,” he further reflected. Indeed, none of the four HMS playoff drivers cracked the top-15 at Darlington, with Elliott finishing 17th, Larson 19th, Byron 21st, and Bowman 31st, a rare collective miss for the powerhouse organization.

Yet Bowman‘s emphasis on collective failure reflects that the issue wasn’t just one stop; it was a convergence of mechanical missteps, poor setup, execution problems, and bad luck at a notoriously unforgiving track.

Why Kyle Larson calls Gateway the key for HMS to crack Phoenix

HMS has long dominated intermediates and road courses, but Phoenix, the site of the Cup Series championship, remains its glaring weakness. Kyle Larson knows why. In a recent Bob Pockrass interview, he explained, “Why I think in the years we’ve run Gateway already, it’s always to me the one track that shows who’s going to be good at Phoenix. Penske and Gibbs, they’re always really good there. So I think if we can… and we’ve been really bad at Gateway but a little bit better at Phoenix. So if we can get good at Gateway, at least be on the same.”

Gateway and Phoenix share critical traits, including flat layouts, heavy braking, and unforgiving corner exits, that magnify precision. Penske and Gibbs have mastered them, with Joey Logano even sweeping Gateway and Phoenix in 2022. By contrast, Hendrick’s best Gateway finish is Larson’s 13th in 2024. That’s why Larson’s Goodyear tire test at Gateway earlier in 2025 has been hailed as a turning point, yielding new setup data crucial for HMS’s flat-track program.

Still, Larson admits the scale of the challenge. “Based off while we were at Phoenix at the end of last year and then in spring this year, we knew we had no shot to win the championship with the setup we had, so we had to go to work and we’ve still been continuing to work on it,” he said. His plan is clear: master Gateway first, then bring that confidence and speed to Phoenix when it matters most.