NASCAR insider reveals Hendrick Motorsports spent a year preparing for Phoenix

Team Penske continued their dominance at Phoenix Raceway with a third straight NASCAR Cup Series title over the weekend, and it has Hendrick Motorsports and other teams wondering what they can do different moving forward.

William Byron simply didn’t have the car needed to compete with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, and neither did Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing. According to Jeff Gluck, Hendrick spent a whole year preparing for Phoenix, and the result was less than desired. He’s wondering what’s next for one of the sport’s legendary teams.

“I saved this quote, because I thought this was pretty fascinating. So, this was (Kyle Larson’s crew chief) Cliff Daniels in September, to just talk about — talking about the emphasis, and how much Hendrick was working to avoid what we just saw,” the NASCAR analyst said, via the latest episode of The Teardown. “He said, ‘Phoenix, for Hendrick Motorsports, started the day after Phoenix a year ago.’ I would say probably the same for Chevrolet, as well. He basically said, ‘The day after that race last year, we started coming up with plans, and those have continued to build. Specifically for us, we know we’re going to prepare really hard on the race ahead of us, and then for the next three weeks ahead.’ Talking about the Phoenix car, the Phoenix prep, Phoenix car details, setup details, strategy — all the things that have been a year long in the making.

“So, I asked Jeff Gordon about this after the race, because it’s got to be totally demoralizing in some ways, where all of Hendrick was focused on like, ‘Alright, Phoenix. We’ve seen how much this matters. We’ve seen how important this is. What are we gonna do? How are we gonna win this?’ Ultimately, again, Penske still shows up and is able to do what they did. Jeff Gordon said that when you look at the SMT data — I don’t have his exact quote here in front of me, this is just a little bit ago. He basically said that the way that their cars turn around the corner, they can get to the gas faster. It’s just something that the Hendrick’s cars don’t necessarily have. They’ve just gotta figure it out. But this was year three of the Next Gen, he was saying, and so he said, ‘Our hands are tied a little bit, in terms of what we can come up with.’ So, they’re gonna get back to work.

“They’re gonna try. But again, like, I mean, you can say, ‘Well, what if Kyle Larson was in it?’ Kyle Larson wasn’t gonna win the championship today. You know, I don’t think. I mean, a Hendrick car wasn’t gonna win. The Penske cars, they came with the best stuff. They’re great at Phoenix.”

While Hendrick has been able to win championships at Phoenix in the past, it’s evident there’s something Team Penske has figured out when it comes to the Next Gen at the Arizona-based track. It’s led to three consecutive titles, as their cars have been unbeatable when it’s time to crown a champion.

Alas, perhaps Hendrick Motorsports and the rest of the field can find something to battle Team Penske with in the future. It was obvious they didn’t have it this past weekend though.