“Kyle and Alex constantly talk about sprint car or midget stuff on the plane,” HMS President Jeff Andrews talks about how their drivers are now open to race at other events
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Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman
Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) is one of the most renowned stock-car racing teams out there now with their many triumphant achievements and their vision and passion for the sport. The team was founded by the name All-Star Racing in 1984 by Rick Hendrick and since then there was no looking back for the team as they have dominated the sport for many years now and have also won the 2020 and 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Championships.
The HMS team currently fields four teams in the Cup Series, the No.5 of Kyle Larson, No.9 of Chase Elliott, No.24 of William Byron, and No.48 of Alex Bowman, and surprisingly, the owner Rick Hendrick who was not a fan of his drivers participating in any other racing events apart from any of the three NASCAR National Series, he seemed to be okay with Kyle Larson and his fellow teammates doing so and has also supported them along with Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon.
The main reason was that the HMS owner Rick Hendrick had his focus on the NASCAR events and he didn’t want his drivers to come across any uncertain events while racing in the series of their interests and ruin the NASCAR chances for the team, the team’s President Jeff Andrews speaks about how that has changed over the years and with Larson and Bowman stepping up to race in their favorite dirt races and while Elliott and Byron showing interest in other events, the team is diversifying itself.
“I absolutely think it’s important to do that,” says HMS President Jeff Andrews about his team’s drivers taking part in other racing events
HMS President and General Manager Jeff Andrews spoke out about the significance and the interests of their team’s drivers to take part in various racing events apart from NASCAR and he also praises team owner Rick Hendrick and Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon for standing along with Kyle Larson and encouraging him with his interest in dirt track racing given his exceptional skills behind the wheels and so does his teammate Alex Bowman with a similar fondness for various races.
“I absolutely think it’s important to do that, I commend Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon for supporting Kyle and his initiatives. Obviously, he’s one of the most talented sprint car drivers around right now. Alex has obviously always had an interest in his midget programs and different things. Alex and Kyle both left Gateway after our debrief and were headed to race together,” said HMS President Jeff Andrews.
He further added saying that the two drivers always speak about sprint car racing and other racing series while on the plane and that Chase Elliott also gets involved in the conversation while William Byron has his liking in late model car racing, and added that all this has changed the team for good and made their team even stronger as a whole with all their racers sharing their fondness for other racing series dreams.
“Outside of just the experience of those guys racing and the hand and eye coordination things, there’s been a bond that’s happened there between all of four of our guys with their outside racing endeavors, Kyle and Alex constantly talk about sprint car or midget stuff on the plane. And to see Chase get involved. William’s been running late model stuff and winning,” added HMS President Jeff Andrews.
He concluded by saying that it is really beneficial for the team as well as the drivers as they can enhance their skills and get to know a lot more about racing in other cars and that the team is also excited to support them and they didn’t do that last year because of various reasons and they doubted if there would be any advantage with the Next-Gen car and went ahead anyway and their efforts didn’t go in vain and they finally found their purpose with it.
“It’s a good experience for them. It builds confidence for them, and we’re happy to support that whenever they want to do it. We were uncertain at the end of last year of what the benefit of that would be with Next Gen and the relevance to that type of vehicle in the Xfinity Series, we went out and ran a few races and obviously seemed to bear some pretty good fruit for those guys. They felt like there was value in doing that,” concluded HMS President Jeff Andrews.
Now that the HMS drivers are being encouraged to participate in other racing events apart from NASCAR, will we see them take part in other iconic races like the IndyCar Series?
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