Después de abrir el playoff, el piloto Hendrick está bajo presión en Gateway Mas Cipolleti

Some will look at the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway and have concerns about the Hendrick Motorsports contingent.

When Chase Elliott finishes best among their four drivers — all playoff drivers — in 17th, that’s not something that sparks confidence.

“We just struggled all night,” said regular-season champion William Byron after a 21st-place finish. “I thought the short run was a struggle.

William Byron had a disappointing 21st-place finish at Darlington.

“I was hoping we’d be able to pay on the back end and have some long-run pace, but we would just fall off a cliff. … We’ve definitely got some work to do. We’ll go to Gateway and try to be better there.”

Gateway. That truly could be the more telling playoff race, as the NASCAR Cup Series heads there this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway (commonly known as Gateway). The track, a flat 1.25-mile oval, is somewhat comparable to the one-mile Phoenix Raceway, the site of the championship race in nine weeks.

Hendrick drivers who have made the championship race the last three years have seen their title hopes dashed. And that’s because Team Penske has ruled at the fall Phoenix race with Joey Logano winning in 2022 and 2024 and Ryan Blaney capturing the crown in 2023. 

The Hendrick drivers entered the playoffs feeling relatively good, with Kyle Larson having three wins this year, Byron with two, Elliott one and Alex Bowman earning a spot on points.

Larson (+38 above the cutline) and Byron (+25) left Darlington still with somewhat comfortable margins while Elliott (+9) controls his own destiny and Bowman (-19) will need strong runs and possibly some help if he doesn’t win a race.

Kyle Larson still holds a comfortable playoff margin.

As Elliott said prior to the start of the playoffs, making a playoff run means managing a lot of racing.

“You’re talking about 10 races. A lot of racing,” Elliott said. “That’s enough time to be really good for a stretch, to be really bad for a stretch and then get really good again.

“And so I think sometimes it gets lost just how many races and how long 10 weeks is, and how much can change through that period of time. For me personally, it’s what can I do this week to be better when we get to the racetrack on Saturday? And how can my Saturday help us on Sunday?”

Chase Elliott won the Cup in 2020. And he knows that Gateway has not been his best track since Cup began racing there in 2022. At the track, he has finishes of 21st and 13th. He didn’t race there in 2023 because of a suspension.

“I don’t have a key to Gateway,” Elliott said. “I wish I did. Maybe I’ll find one when I get there this time.”

Chase Elliott races through Turn 2 during the running of the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington.

In the hopes of finding the key to Gateway, Larson was among those who did a tire test there during the summer. And the organization hopes his experience will help them at a track where Logano, Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric have won the races there.

“We had a great test at Gateway earlier this year, and that’s kind of led us down a different path with our short-track package here lately — and it seems to be better,” Larson said. “I would say we’re still not anywhere close to Penske, and we’ve gotten closer to Gibbs but we’ve gotten better, which is a plus.

“We still have a few more short tracks to go to kind of fine-tune our package and hopefully hit where we need to at Phoenix.”

The 2021 Cup champion, Larson said Gateway shows who will be good at Phoenix. 

“We’ve been really bad at Gateway but a little bit better at Phoenix,” Larson said. “If we can be good at Gateway in the same ballpark as [Penske and Gibbs]Eso nos dará algo de confianza para ir a Phoenix.

“Basado en la forma en que corrimos en Phoenix a fines del año pasado, y luego en la primavera de este año, sabemos que no tenemos disparos para ganar el campeonato con la configuración que tenemos. Tenemos que ir a trabajar y todavía estamos trabajando con él”.

Los frenos son más pesados en la puerta en comparación con Phoenix, pero los ángulos son similares, dijo Byron. Esperaba que el equipo pudiera tener una buena medida de su programa de rastreo de millas con Gateway y luego un New Hampshire una milla en las primeras cuatro carreras de los playoffs. Ambas canciones no fueron incluidas en los playoffs el año pasado.

“Intentaremos ser mejores en Gateway y aplicar esas cosas a New Hampshire y luego presentarlo Phoenix”, dijo Byron. “Por lo tanto, esas razas serán realmente importantes, no solo el resultado, sino también cosas que aprender de ellas”.

Los conductores no están engreídos de que irán a Phoenix. Y mientras los conductores, como dijo Elliott, se centraron en semana a semana, la organización tuvo que mirar hacia adelante. Saben que competirán allí independientemente del campeonato.

“Realmente luchamos allí [at Phoenix]Pero al mismo tiempo, nosotros, Blunt, solo necesitamos mucho trabajo allí, para atrapar los autos Penske. Son muy rápidos allí “, dijo Bowman.

“Fuimos a trabajar, tratando de mejorar esas cosas. Muchas personas inteligentes volvieron a HMS para trabajar en ello”.

Elliott dijo que esta era una “gran iniciativa” en las paredes de Hendrick para mejorar en rieles más cortos como Richmond, New Hampshire, Phoenix y Gateway.

En Richmond, Elliott fue recortado por un Kyle Busch, arruinando una posible carrera sólida.

“Pensé que era un impulso como Richmond nos dio, pensé que nos estábamos poniendo para tener una buena noche”, dijo Elliott.

“Soy optimista al respecto, y a menudo en cualquier momento como empresa, bajamos la cabeza y enfatizamos algo, creo que habrá mejoras que hacer. Y quiero ir a algunos lugares y ver cuánto”.

Bob Pockrass incluye NASCAR e IndodyCar para Fox Sports. Pasó décadas, incluidos deportes de carreras, incluidos más de 30 Daytona 500, con piezas en ESPN, Noticias de Sports, Magazine de Escena NASCAR y revista News (Daytona Beach). Síguelo en Twitter @Bobpock.

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