It had been a long since Hendrick Motorsports had enjoyed a victory.
Chase Elliott‘s win Sunday at Watkins Glen marked the end of a 37-race winless streak for the team, which began with Kasey Kahne‘s win in the Brickyard 400 more than a year ago.
Elliott’s victory was a triumph on multiple levels. It was Elliott’s first Cup win, coming in his 99th start, and it was Hendrick’s 250th Cup win.
It was also the team’s first win at WGI since 2001.
On NASCAR America, Parker Kligerman and Landon Cassill discussed what Sunday’s race means for Hendrick going forward.
“We’ve seen this over the last couple of weeks that there’s just a hint that things are turning around for Hendrick Motorsports in a lot of ways,” Kligerman said.
Behind Elliott, rookie William Byron placed eighth, Alex Bowman placed 14th and Jimmie Johnson finished 30th after he was second in Stage 1 and was involved in a wreck with 11 laps to go.
“I think we saw a lot of performance out of this team overall,” Kligerman said. “We’ve talked about how much the driver matters at Watkins Glen. But the thing is compared to a place like Sonoma … it’s such a fast road course that there are things you will apply on ovals. If you have speed on ovals, that’s going to show up at Watkins Glen. I think that’s why when you see the speed they brought there this past weekend I get a little bit of confidence about their future.”
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