Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway is a huge one for Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend.
Martinsville is broadly significant to the Hendrick organization. In 1984, Geoff Bodine won the eighth race of the season there to keep the organization afloat. Drivers for team owner Rick Hendrick have won 28 Cup races at the 0.526-mile short track, a record for an organization at a single venue.
Bodine and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who won four series championships at Hendrick Motorsports, are grand marshals for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Nevertheless, defending race winner Kyle Larson says he doesn’t feel extra pressure to win on Sunday. There have been no pep rallies at the Hendrick campus—because they’re not necessary.
“I wouldn’t say I feel any more pressure to win,” Larson said. “I don’t feel like any of us four drivers (Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron) feel any more pressure to win, but we know what the magnitude of what a win this weekend would be for the company.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
