NASCAR: After 61 years, the record has finally been broken
By Asher Fair
Kyle Larson’s victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway made Hendrick Motorsports the winningest team of all-time.
Entering the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season’s 13th race at Dover International Speedway three Sundays ago, Hendrick Motorsports had three wins so far in the 2021 season.
William Byron won the third race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February, Kyle Larson won the fourth race of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Alex Bowman won the ninth race at Richmond Raceway.
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The team entered the season with 263 wins after a championship-winning 2020 season with Chase Elliott saw them secure seven checkered flags, with Elliott taking five of them himself and Bowman and Byron each taking one.
So these three wins gave the team 266 victories, good for second place on the all-time list behind Petty Enterprises.
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Petty Enterprises secured a record 268 victories in 2,817 entries from 1949 to 2008, and they had held the all-time record since 1960.
At Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsborough, North Carolina back on Sunday, May 29, 1960, Lee Petty secured his third victory of the season and the 51st victory of his career. This victory was the 53rd victory for Petty Enterprises, and ever since then, they had held the all-time record. Every win from win number 53 through win number 268 with John Andretti at Martinsville Speedway in April 1999 extended that all-time record.
But 61 years and one day later, that record now belongs to Rick Hendrick’s team.
Hendrick Motorsports, which have now fielded 4,333 entries since making their Cup Series debut in 1984, have won three races in a row. Bowman secured them win number 267 at Dover International Speedway, leading the team’s first ever 1-2-3-4 sweep ahead of Larson in second place, Elliott in third and Byron in fourth.
Elliott then led a 1-2 finish ahead of Larson in a rain-shortened inaugural race at Circuit of the Americas, securing the team a record-tying 268th victory, before Larson led a 1-2 finish ahead of Elliott in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, netting him his first crown jewel victory.
Now Hendrick Motorsports have won more races than any team in Cup Series history, and they secured the all-time record of 269 with their third straight 1-2 finish. Three consecutive 1-2 finishes is something that they had never done before in team history.
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How many more wins will Hendrick Motorsports secure in the remaining 21 races of the 36-race 2021 season? The next race on the schedule is the Toyota Save Mart 350, which is set to be broadcast live from Sonoma Raceway on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 6.