William Byron enters The Chase with Hendrick Motorsports still searching for answers. Three of the team’s four full-time drivers have secured postseason spots, with Alex Bowman missing out after his health struggles. But despite Byron’s place in the championship battle, the No. 24 driver admits Hendrick’s 2026 campaign has been far more difficult than anyone expected. The team entered the season with championship momentum, only to encounter an unexpected slump that exposed weaknesses with Chevrolet’s new body design.

“No, we did not expect that. I think we, we thought, based on where we stood last year, how we ended the year with winning Martinsville and having a shot at Phoenix, I think we thought we were going to be set better going into this year, and I think early on we kind of still felt that way,” Byron told Bob Pockrass.

That expectation was understandable. Hendrick had finished 2025 with Kyle Larson winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship, while Byron entered the new season as the Daytona 500 winner and finished 4th in the standings.

Across the 2025 campaign, Hendrick collected eight victories and 43 top-10 finishes. The organization had established itself as one of the strongest forces in the garage, making the sudden drop in performance even more difficult to explain.

The turning point for Byron came at the 2026 Bristol race. The Hendrick driver described that weekend as a major reality check after the team struggled badly against the competition and finished 30th. Overall, the Hendrick camp managed two wins, both coming from Chase Elliott, while Larson and Byron remained winless at the end of the regular season.

The problem was not simply a lack of effort. Hendrick had to learn how to extract speed from Chevrolet’s updated body design. The new aerodynamic package changed how the cars generated and maintained downforce, forcing teams to reconsider setups that had worked for years.

Drivers have also struggled to maintain front-end grip as races progress. That has made it harder for the cars to rotate through corners during longer runs, creating another challenge for teams attempting to balance speed with tire wear.

The issue has not been limited to Hendrick, either. Other Chevrolet organizations, including Trackhouse Racing, have also struggled to consistently match Toyota and Ford. NASCAR’s own midseason analysis noted that Chevrolet teams were still working to understand how to maximize speed from the new cars.

Yet Byron does not believe Hendrick has lost its identity.

“I would say that the culture has always been good. It’s always been positive,” he said. The driver emphasized that the team continues to arrive at every track believing it can win.

That mentality could become crucial now. Three Hendrick drivers are entering The Chase, giving the organization another opportunity to turn a disappointing regular season into a championship run.

Team Penske’s turnaround could offer Hendrick a blueprint

Hendrick Motorsports may not need to look far for proof that a difficult regular season can still be turned around. Team Penske endured its own struggles earlier in 2026, with Austin Cindric and Joey Logano fighting near the Chase cutline while Ryan Blaney carried much of the organization’s strength. In July, Penske was in an unfamiliar position, with Logano sitting 18th and Cindric 15th in the standings.

The situation eventually changed. Logano responded to his struggles with a dominant victory at North Wilkesboro, leading 323 of 450 laps. He then followed it up with a win at Richmond. As a result, Logano managed to climb to the 9th spot in the drivers’ standings by the end of the regular season.

Overall, both Cindric and Logano made it to the Chase along with Blaney.

That turnaround did not come from ignoring the problems. Penske spent the difficult stretch examining where its cars were falling short and continued working through the issues. Even during the early-season skid, Cindric insisted the organization had enough experience to avoid panicking and keep pushing forward.

That could be an encouraging example for Hendrick as The Chase begins. The Chevrolet organization has spent much of 2026 trying to understand its updated body design, but Byron believes the team has finally started addressing the right areas.

Hendrick now has three drivers in The Chase, giving it 10 races to turn that progress into results. If Penske’s summer resurgence is any indication, a difficult regular season does not necessarily define what comes next. Hendrick simply needs to make sure its recent work produces the same kind of breakthrough when the championship points begin to matter most.