One of the big questions for the post COVID-19 break was if Hendrick Motorsports‘ speed would remain. Following Sunday’s race at the Darlington Raceway, our question was answered with a resounding, yes.

It was a stellar start of Sunday’s race for the organization. While Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick ran 1-2 for the first 39 laps of the race, on the Lap 40 restart, the HMS camp came alive. Jimmie Johnson moved up to second on the first lap back to green while Alex Bowman followed him up to third a lap later. By Lap 45, they were running 1-2 with Bowman getting by Johnson and Keselowski for the top spot and the seven-time champion in Johnson falling in line to second. They’d remain that way until William Byron moved up into third on Lap 55 giving HMS a 1-2-3 running order. Johnson, then passed Bowman for the lead on Lap 81 and was well on his way into winning his first stage of the 2020 season. Unfortunately, Johnson got to greedy in Turn 2 and got into the back of Chris Buescher while trying to lap him on the final lap of Stage 1. Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet would slam the inside wall hard, ending his day with a 38th place result.

Byron, would win the stage while Bowman and Chase Elliott finished second and 10th respectively. Unfortunately, that was the start of problems for HMS. Elliott, was speeding on pit road on the caution under the stage break and would have to restart at the back of the field. Byron, then had a loose wheel and didn’t know it as he lost control of his No. 24 Chevrolet in Turn 3 on Lap 109 and got into the wall as a result. He fell to 34th, three laps down after.

Bowman and Elliott would still carry the banner for the team in giving HMS two cars in the top five at Darlington for the first time since 2014. The speed is there still as we have to wonder what would have happened if Johnson and Byron didn’t have their troubles early.

Second place finisher Bowman says the unique situation of the coronavirus and everyone being shut down is a main reason as to why no one had a chance to catching their speed in the interim.

“Yeah, I felt great the way we started the season,” Bowman said. “Unloading in Las Vegas, I think we saw our racecars were going to be really strong.  To continue that after we got shut down and firing everything back up, to continue the strength that we had means a lot.

“I think it was an interesting time period, right?  Guys couldn’t really be in their shops developing new stuff.  You weren’t allowed to be in the wind tunnel, simulators, all that stuff.  Everybody is still at home working on their notebooks, trying to piece together what they can do to make their racecars better.

“In a sense it didn’t really give people maybe the complete opportunity to catch up, but it at least gave them some opportunity.  I think for everybody at HMS to stay on top of things, improve our racecars, I think we didn’t just come back with what we had in Vegas and Fontana, I think we came back with something better.  We need to keep working on it because everybody around us is constantly getting better, as well.

“It’s really different than how we started the season the last two years.  I feel like our cars, the biggest thing, when we’re off a little bit, we’re not running 20th any more.  If we have a bad run, we fall back to eighth.

“I think that shows a lot about the strength of HMS right now.  We’re just going to keep gaining on it.”