NASCAR: Could Hendrick Motorsports make an unexpected shift?

Hendrick Motorsports are in an interesting position for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season when it comes to completing their four-car driver lineup.

Hendrick Motorsports are one of a plethora of teams with at least one pending free agent in their driver lineup for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

In their case, they know that they will have to change things up next year, as one of their two drivers without a deal for next year, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, has announced that he plans to retire after the 2020 season ends.

The 44-year-old El Cajon, California native has admitted that this could change depending on how the 2020 season plays out amid the coronavirus pandemic, but as of now, these plans remain the same.

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Chase Elliott and William Byron are both under contract to compete in the 2021 season, with the former having signed an extension with the team through the 2022 season back in June of 2017 and the latter currently driving on a multi-year deal.

But even since extending his contract by two years back in August of 2018, Alex Bowman has not inked a new deal with Rick Hendrick’s team.

All signs point to Bowman being back with the team in 2021, including the recent addition of a number of sponsors and his dominant victory at Auto Club Speedway before the pandemic brought the season to a screeching halt.

However, he still may need additional funding to officially make it happen, especially after the loss of Nationwide as a primary sponsor after the 2019 season.

That’s where things could get interesting.

When Johnson announced his retirement, NASCAR.com floated the idea of his replacement actually coming from within the team, with Byron moving over to the #48 team from the #24 team, a move that could allow crew chief Chad Knaus to return to the team with which he won 81 races and seven championships with Johnson.

But before Johnson made his announcement, Ally Financial signed a contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports to continue serving as the primary sponsor of the #48 Chevrolet through the 2023 season.

Byron already has several primary sponsorship deals lined up for next year, so a move to the #48 team is pretty much out of the question. Axalta is set to sponsor him for 14 races, Liberty University, his college, is set to sponsor him for 12 and Hertz is set to sponsor him for four.

However, Johnson’s replacement may still come from within.

Retaining Bowman may be as simple as moving him to the #48 team.

As stated, the #88 Chevrolet does already have deals lined up with several sponsors for next year, which would allow some flexibility in terms of naming a fourth driver.

It would obviously make things easier just to pick whoever they want to put him behind the wheel of the already fully sponsored #48 Chevrolet, but that could mean losing Bowman, and stability is key here to avoid an overhaul of half of their driver lineup for the second time in four years.

Brad Keselowski, who currently competes for Team Penske and is slated to become a free agent at the end of the season, is seen as the most likely replacement candidate for Johnson, and he has several sponsorship deals lined up already as well, which would make him a better candidate to drive the #88 Chevrolet than the #48 Chevrolet anyway.

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Hendrick Motorsports are no strangers to shifting things around, so don’t be surprised to see this happen. In 2018, William Byron was set to replace Kasey Kahne behind the wheel of the #5 Chevrolet. While he did technically replace Kahne, he moved to the #24 Chevrolet to replace Chase Elliott, as Elliott switched to the #9 Chevrolet and the #5 Chevrolet was discontinued.

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