2014 Team Spotlight Review: Hendrick Motorsports

Hendrick Motorsports 2014 Review

By Richard Tix

Season Preview

2014 Season Stats

Wins: 13

Top 5: 40

Top 10: 74

Poles: 4

HMS had another kind of season you would expect out of the top Cup team. 13 total wins and 40 top 5's is nothing to look down on. Actually HMS ended up getting great bounce back season's from Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr and it all started off with a Daytona 500 win to start the season.

However, at the end of the season HMS came up short of winning another Sprint Cup title. In fact, not a single driver from HMS made the Finale at Homestead even though they went in as favorites besides Team Penske (and Harvick). 

All in all the team has a lot of good things to look back at in 2014 but will be looking for its first Championship in the New Chase Era.

Jeff Gordon

• Its been said by many (and heck, on this blog a ton) that Jeff Gordon entered 2014 with a ton of rumors, some about retirement. Yet, he came back as strong as ever this past season and put all of that to rest. He was a title favorite that came up short in 2014. He ended the year with 4 wins, 14 top 10's, 23 top 10's, 3 poles, and finishing 6th in points

Dale Earnhardt Jr

• Starting off 2014 by winning his second career Daytona 500 was a dream start to 2014. After the announcement of Steve Letarte leaving at the end of the season the momentum started to roll that maybe this could be a special season for the pair. In the end they came up short on the storybook ending to Steve's CC career with Jr. Jr still ended with 4 wins, 12 top 5's, 20 top 10's, and finishing 8th in points.

Jimmie Johnson

• 2014 was a down year for JJ in JJ terms, for most drivers it was still a quality year. The most surprising fact was that he finished 11th in the standings and wasn't really a huge threat during the Chase which is what we as fans have come to expect. He still finished the year with a more than respectable 4 wins, 11 top 5's, 20 top 10's, and 1 pole. 

Kasey Kahne

• 2014 wasn't Kahnes year, that is for sure when it comes to racing. All in all he just wasn't consistent, yet in the end he made the Chase which is the big picture. The bigger picture going forward will be making the final in Homestead and Kasey will get every chance to do that with his new extension with HMS. He finished 2014 with 1 win, 3 top 5's, and 11 top 10's while finishing 15th in points.

Previous Team Spotlight: Team Penske