Despite Chase Elliott’s win at Martinsville, Hendrick Motorsports is buckling in for the bumpy season ahead. The NASCAR team has been running the Chevrolet Camaro, which has been posing a lot of challenges.  

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Chad Naus, the Team Hendrick Vice President of Competition, spoke about the challenges the team has been facing in figuring out the car.

He said, “We are working hard on it. It's difficult not to crack when you have the testing restrictions that we do right? We don't get to go to the race track and test a whole lot definitely, as an organization.

We don't get to use a whole lot of wind tunnel time because of the restrictions and hours that NASCAR puts out there, so it's a hard one. The car is going to be great. It's gonna take a bit of time still, and I don't think we are quite there yet.”

The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was introduced in November 2025. The car features a longer hood dome, an updated front grille, and redefined rocker panels.

The main issue being faced by the Chevrolet fielded NASCAR teams is that of aerodynamics. The teams are yet to strike the right balance.

Will the Chevrolet fielded teams bounce back?

In the conversation, Chad Naus also shed light on the changing of the rules and cars added to the challenges and also spoke about how they have been trying to get where they want to be.

He said, “The rules changing at the same time as the car changes makes it difficult with higher horsepower, and you know the changing of the aerodynamic packages and some of these bigger short tracks, you know, we call them the Darlingtons and the Dovers, and in places like that, so it's going to take a pinch of us to get there, but we are gaining on it.”

Chevrolet remained winless through the first five races of the 2026 season. The usually dominant team was nowhere to be seen until Hendrick Motorsports’s Chase Elliott ended the drought at Martinsville.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi