By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
When it comes to Hendrick Motorsports, stories seem to write themselves.
In their 40th anniversary season in the Cup Series, HMS took that milestone to heart by winning the pole and then sweeping the top three in Sunday’s overtime race at Martinsville Speedway.
Kyle Larson, who was running third before a late caution led to an overtime finish, was unable to maneuver around teammate William Byron and came home second on the day.
Meanwhile, Byron scored his third victory of 2024 and Chase Elliott rounded out the 1-2-3 sweep in third. The fourth HMS car of Alex Bowman finished eighth.
“I am really, really happy for the Hendrick family, everybody who has been involved with this company since the beginning,” Larson said. “There were 1,500 people here off Turn 2 from Hendrick Motorsports and their families today.”
SEE: PHOTO GALLERY SUNDAY AT MARTINSVILLE
With a two-lap shootout on the table, Larson knew that goal No. 1 was the preserve the team sweep.
“On a day like today — I was surprised how physical it looked up in front of me,” he said of Elliott and Larson on the front row. “I was very shocked. I was selfishly they were going to wash up the track some more and let me get in the battle.
“I think we all understood what this day meant to the company. We were going to race hard but fairly and that’s what we saw. I knew the four of us were going to have a shot at a good run.”
Despite the confidence entering the weekend, Larson is delightfully surprised to see the entire team show up on Sunday.
“I didn’t know we’d run 1-2-3. That is just really special,” he said. “I’m happy for William, he did a really good job executing that green-flag cycle and carving his way through the guys in front of him to get the lead.”
Perhaps the key difference between Byron and Larson was the short-pit executed by the No. 24 team, who beat the lead-lap cars to pit road during the final green-flag cycle and overtook multiple cars and took off with the race lead.
“Because he had the one or so lap [advantage] on tires, his tires were just that much more ready than ours were for the first 10 laps,” he said. “He was really able to be aggressive in those laps to make his moves and move forward.
“Short-pitting us really benefited him.”