“Take a deep breath, exhale, and look around you. We’re a great team, and we’re gonna get it done.” Rick Hendrick had said this to his employees in an interview before the Chase opener in Darlington in September. Looking back now, it almost sounds like an obvious thing to say. His star driver, Kyle Larson, practically has one hand on the Cup Series title. But when Hendrick delivered those words, confidence was in short supply across the organization. And for good reason. Hendrick Motorsports was coming off a deeply disappointing regular season.

Just two wins across 26 races, both courtesy of Chase Elliott. The team was struggling to find the right handling balance with its Chevrolets, while Toyota’s dominance raised concerns that the manufacturer could run away with the championship. Hendrick had every reason to be frustrated. However, he offered them a different perspective, as Jeff Andrews, President of Hendrick Motorsports, recently explained.

“He had a key conversation with us that I think took a lot of pressure off of a lot of us, our crew chiefs and our leadership team, to just go out and do your very best, and leave the track every week knowing you’ve done your very best. And, you know, certainly those wise words from him. And every single day we come in here and drive onto this complex, we want to make him happy,” Andrews told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

HMS built its reputation on winning. Its 325 Cup Series victories and 15 championships over four decades didn’t come from kind words or complacency. Everyone who joins this legendary organization understands what’s expected of them, and nothing short of the very best will do. It was clear that 2026 was not going remotely the way they had hoped. Andrews even admitted that internal discussions had considered the possibility of finishing the year with just two victories.

But Hendrick did not care. At least, publicly. He knew that only three of his four drivers would be part of the postseason, with Alex Bowman (who will retire after 2027) missing out. He wanted to avoid internal friction and asked his team members to rely on their 40-year-plus championship pedigree and work together.

“I think I’ve worked 40 years to get here with these guys working together and sharing and being one team with four cars, and I sure don’t want to see anything disrupt that,” he said in a SiriusXM interview before the Chase opener in Darlington.

Rick Hendrick wanted them to focus on the process, execute their responsibilities, and leave each race knowing they had done everything possible. Very importantly, he told them that it didn’t matter if they didn’t end up winning the championship in 2026. The message was: there’s always a next year.

Regardless, Andrews acknowledged that the organization knew it was not making its owner happy. For a serial winner like Hendrick, mediocrity was not acceptable, even if it was for just a season. But the way the 77-year-old spoke to them, with a personal touch, reminding them that they are all family, helped remove the pressure.

Instead of allowing the criticism to divide them, the organization decided to pull together. Andrews said employees understood the expectations attached to the Hendrick name and believed in one another’s ability to turn things around. They also made a conscious decision to ignore the noise outside the company. And the changes began showing results on the track once the Chase got underway.

Larson, in particular, found a level of performance that had eluded him throughout the regular season, ending a 51-race winless streak. He broke through at Gateway and followed it up with another victory in Kansas. His consistency across the opening six Chase races put him firmly in the championship conversation. He finished sixth or better in each of those six events, recording an average finish of 2.83.

His latest victory at Talladega last Sunday only strengthened his position. Larson fought back from 11th on the final lap to win the YellaWood 500, beating Hendrick teammate William Byron by just 0.041 seconds. The result gave him a 73-point advantage over Denny Hamlin with only two races remaining.

Earlier in the season, when the Chevrolets were struggling to match the Toyotas’ performance, Larson had declared that he wasn’t concerned about his rivals’ raw pace. He, too, trusted the organization he was representing, and that faith has paid off. He can now secure the championship at Martinsville this weekend by earning just 59 points, regardless of how the other drivers finish.

There is also a striking parallel with what happened to the organization a year earlier. Larson’s 2025 championship campaign was hardly a smooth ride. He collected three victories in the opening 12 races, but the summer brought a noticeable drop in performance.

Over a nine-race stretch, he managed only two top-five finishes and three top-10s. Crew chief Cliff Daniels later described the team as being “down and sideways” before it regrouped and delivered when the championship was on the line. Larson ultimately won the 2025 title at Phoenix, overcoming Hamlin in the closing stages of the race by picking the right strategy call. That comeback served as a reminder that a difficult stretch does not necessarily define an entire championship campaign.

Andrews, meanwhile, remains uninterested in letting the team become comfortable with its recent progress. The HMS president emphasized that there would be no protecting the lead or switching to a conservative approach. The organization still had races to execute, and every lap mattered. He wanted the drivers and crews to keep doing their jobs rather than becoming distracted by championship calculations.

That brings the story back to Hendrick’s original message. The owner had asked his people to give their best, not carry the burden of delivering an immediate result every weekend.

Now, with Larson closing in on another championship opportunity, Andrews and the rest of the organization have a chance to show what that belief can produce. The pressure has not disappeared, but the team is no longer letting it dictate its performance.