What set the foundation for Hendrick Motorsports’ current success in NASCAR

Hendrick's ‘open book’ approach to data-sharing has been key to its current success in the NASCAR Cup Series, according to Kyle Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels.

Hendrick Motorsports is the most successful team of all time in the Cup Series, boasting 316 race wins and 14 titles.

This year, all four Hendrick drivers sit inside the top eight in the standings, with Kyle Larson leading the way from teammate William Byron after scoring his third victory of the season in Kansas last weekend.

While other teams on the grid have also enjoyed plenty of success, Hendrick has been able to provide a car with which all four of its drivers can consistently fight at the front.

Daniels believes this is down to the philosophy established by team owner Rick Hendrick in 2017, when he made it clear that all four crews would work together as one large group.

In practice, this involves open communication between all drivers and their respective crews, with data openly being shared within the team.
 
“To me, it all goes back to I think it was 2017, Mr. Hendrick demanded that we weren’t going to have the building split with two teams in different buildings and put us all together,” explained Daniels.

“We say it a lot, and it’s one thing to say but it’s another thing to practice how closely all four teams really do work. There’s no hidden notes. There’s no secret notebook.

“Everything is shared really out in the open with our engineering corps, with the crew chief group. All of our meetings are together. We do everything as a combination of the four teams. There’s never any specific meeting or conversation that just happens between a couple groups.
 
“If we’re going to talk engineering or setup theory, it’s going to be with all four teams present in the same room.

“That’s just Mr. Hendrick’s vision of how he wanted the company to be led, and I think he saw that, that the communication, the teamwork, all the cliche things but they’re so important to live out, if that came into fruition, you’d see what you see today, where I would argue we could run 1 through 4 with the speed of what some of those guys looked like earlier in the day.”