Hendrick Motorsports has a strong four-car team that would be expected to perform week in and week out, but the 2026 NASCAR season just hasn’t gone their way. 

Reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson has led 637 laps this season, with only Denny Hamlin having led more laps in the 21 races so far, and yet Hendrick Motorsports has just two wins, both courtesy of Chase Elliott.

Kevin Harvick was speaking about the expectations around HMS on the latest episode of the "Speed" podcast and said,

“I haven’t watched a race where I’m like Kyle Larson is just like kicking their a** today. I think that’s the part that has been really, and that's the expectations they have.”

Harvick pointed out on the podcast that the team is currently looking to ensure that they have speed. Still, the expectations on Hendrick are that, with the likes of Cup Champions Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, as well as stars William Byron and Alex Bowman, they would be putting on a more dominant showing.

The criticisms of HMS lacking come specifically after the North Wilkesboro race because not a single Hendrick Chevrolet finished in the top 10. William Byron was the highest-finishing HMS driver in 12th while Kyle Larson finished in 15th.

Alex Bowman finished 26th after an incident, but Chase Elliott had possibly the worst result. Although the 2020 Cup champ finished 17th, he lost the semi-final of the In-Season Challenge against Todd Gilliland, who advanced to the finals after finishing eighth. 

Harvick says Hendrick Motorsports' issues begin with car design

Kevin Harvick took the time to explain exactly what he thinks is going wrong with HMS in the Cup series, and he didn’t just speculate. The 2014 Cup champion gave his thoughts along the lines that the team’s leadership has been speaking.

On the aforementioned podcast, he said, “I think when they designed this new race car, on paper, it looked like it had more downforce, less drag, and then the rules changed. I think that balance that they’re looking for in the race car they just haven’t figured it out.”

Several teams have had to make changes to their cars because of the package changes being introduced by NASCAR for different tracks.

Harvick said, “This is from them, not us speculating. This is from Jeff(Andrews, GM and President, HMS) and the drivers and all the people at Hendrick Motorsports to be able to get the race car so it’s drivable every week."

While Harvick was clear that the issues lie with balance or the lack of it, hearing that HMS is looking to make their car just consistently drivable shows how far off the team is from the expectations that surround them.

Do you think HMS can find the right balance before the Chase begins? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yash Kotak