Expect Hendrick Motorsports' Hot Start to Continue at Martinsville

The four-car Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team has enjoyed an incredible start, even by their lofty standards, to the 2025 season. After a sweep of the top two positions in last Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman, the team now holds the top three spots in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, and four of the top six, overall.

While this isn't uncharted territory for the 14-time NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning organization, the team hadn't held the top three positions in the NASCAR Cup Series standings since July 2014.

Essentially, what Hendrick Motorsports has accomplished early in the 2025 campaign is staggering, especially by today's standards of parity in the Next Gen Car era. And the team isn't looking like it'll be taking its foot off of the throat of the competition any time soon as this weekend's Cook Out 400 will be held at Martinsville Speedway, a track that the legendary race team has owned over the years.

In the Spring event at Martinsville Speedway a season ago, Hendrick Motorsports swept the top three positions in a race, where its cars were dressed in ruby-red paint schemes in honor of the organization's 40th anniversary season. As William Byron led the charge across the finish line in the event, Alex Bowman would come home in eighth, which meant all four Hendrick Motorsports cars also finished inside of the top 10 that day.

While they were incredible at Martinsville last Spring, Hendrick Motorsports' dominance at Martinsville Speedway goes back quite a bit further than that event last year.

In all, Hendrick Motorsports has amassed 29 NASCAR Cup Series wins at Martinsville Speedway, including the team's first-ever race win, which was accomplished by Geoff Bodine in 1984.

Since Bodine's victory in 1984, nine different drivers have scored a win at the 0.526-mile paperclip in Virginia. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon are tied for the all-time Hendrick Motorsports lead with nine wins at Martinsville Speedway.

Also on the list of the nine Hendrick Motorsports drivers, who have collected a Martinsville Grandfather Clock, are all four of Hendrick Motorsports' current drivers -- William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, and Chase Elliott.

Hendrick Motorsports Drivers Career Stats at Martinsville

Chase Elliott

19 starts, 1 win, 7 top 5s, 12 top 10s, 12.1 average finish (fourth-best)

William Byron

14 starts, 2 wins, 5 top 5s, 8 top 10s, 13.3 average finish

Kyle Larson

20 starts, 1 win, 6 top 5s, 8 top 10s, 16.1 average finish

Alex Bowman

17 starts, 1 win, 1 top 5, 5 top 10s, 18.5 average finish

Needless to say, there's a greater than not chance that the Hendrick Motorsports organization continues building upon what has already been an impressive start to the 2025 season this weekend in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images