Denny Hamlin gave an interesting analogy on his podcast. For him, a car’s performance scales in two phases. The first phase is the initial speed on Saturday, whereas the second phase is the car’s development before the final phase. Hendrick Motorsports star William Byron seems to believe the same, as is visible in his latest interview about his team’s performance. And as HMS is not quite hitting its usual standards, his explanation also comes across as an attempt to mask the team’s underwhelming results.

William Byron downplays Chevy struggles at HMS

The NASCAR community is increasingly starting to suspect that something is wrong with Chevy. They are among the least competitive cars on the grid. While the Toyota drivers are collecting all the trophies, the Chevy cars are nowhere to be found. It has been six race weekends, and the most successful team, Hendrick Motorsports, doesn’t have a single victory.

With drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron, it feels nearly impossible that Rick Hendrick is facing such an issue within the team. Although for William Byron, it does not feel like a big deal yet.

“Yeah, I think we are executing well on race days. I feel like our pit stops have been pretty solid; could be quicker on pit road. I feel like our starting balance on Saturday has been off. And I think that’s been throwing us a curveball, particularly at Phoenix and Darlington with the short-track package.”

The short-track package is one of the biggest factors that is becoming a hurdle for Chevy. While Byron acknowledges these struggles, he believes that it is only because his team can’t set up the car well after Saturday.

“I think we need to do a better job on balance on Saturday so that we are not guessing so much for Sundays. Some of that could be obviously the new body, but also just tire changes and things of that nature. Need to do a better job of kind of utilizing our tools in getting closer so that we are not guessing so much. 

“So, yeah, that’s kind of how I see it. You know, if we have smoother Saturdays, we qualify better, and we don’t have so many question marks going on Sunday; we will probably have a better weekend.”

His words echo Denny Hamlin’s breakdown of a team’s performance during a weekend. He believes, “The 50/50 rule is 50% of your success is going to be dictated by what the team brings to the racetrack. The other 50% is going to be dictated by what changes you make between Saturday and Sunday.”

Since Byron’s team is unable to wrap its head around the balance of the car on Saturday, it is unable to extract the best performance from its machines. So technically, they are failing ‘Phase 2,’ i.e., reaching the ceiling with the other 50%.

However, Byron thinks that their team is still producing good results. He tries to ignore the short-track package failures to bring forth some of the better finishes by the team on other weekends.

“Feel like that was an adjustment; felt like Vegas went pretty much according to plan, and we had a lot of strength there. We saw three of our cars be in the top 5 for really most of the race, and we had a shot to win that race. Still just a touch short of the 11 cars there, but then yeah, you have the superspeedways; the road course was kind of similar to Phoenix in that sense that we were a little bit off on balance.”

His reasoning does have a lot of depth to it. While Hendrick Motorsports drivers stay back, the Spire Motorsports drivers are contending for wins on multiple occasions. This shows that the 2026 Chevy body might not be the sole reason behind their failures.

While they try to deal with their persistent issues, Martinsville can bring them a lot of hope.

Hendrick Motorsports seek jumpstart at Martinsville

For Hendrick Motorsports, Martinsville Speedway is not just another random NASCAR track. They have 30 wins at this racetrack in their history. It makes the most successful team at Martinsville. So when they hit the tarmac this weekend, Rick Hendrick will be hoping that their past success helps them with the car setup.

Byron says his team is unable to adjust the balance on Saturdays. But considering a track where they have been insanely successful, Hendrick Motorsports might not find it too difficult to set up the cars. After all, they can draw inspiration from the previous championships and victories. William Byron is the defending winner at the racetrack.

Last year, Byron’s victory at the ‘Paper Clip’ helped him push his team into the championship four race. He has won at the track thrice in his career with two victories in the spring race. Hence, he is one of the leading contenders for victory despite his earlier struggles this season. His teammates are in the same boat.

Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson are on a streak of top-5 finishes at Martinsville Speedway. They have one victory each to their name at the racetrack. With their previous finishes and Byron’s victories giving the team positive momentum, there is no doubt that Hendrick Motorsports has a chance to turn around their difficult start to the 2026 season at the ‘Paperclip.’