Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 324 Cup Series races and 15 Cup Series owners and drivers championships to go with three Truck Series owners and drivers titles and one O'Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers crown. Additionally, the team has 32 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race wins, 26 Truck Series race wins, and 7 ARCA Menards Series wins. This page documents the statistical results of Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning with the team's debut in 1984.
Cars Car No. 5 history
Geoff Bodine (1984–1989)
The No. 5 debuted in 1984 under the banner "All Star Racing" with five employees, rented equipment, and two cars, with the highest-paid person's wages at only $500/week. Initially, the team had planned to field a car for seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty with funding from country music business mogul C. K. Spurlock, but the deal failed to materialize. Afterwards, Hendrick attempted to hire Tim Richmond, then Dale Earnhardt, but did not. As a result, the team signed former Rookie of the Year Geoff Bodine to drive the unsponsored No. 5 Chevy Monte Carlo for 1984. Although the original plan was a partial season, Bodine agreed to drive for the team, believing in the potential of the organization. After a slow start seven races into the season, Hendrick informed Bodine and crew chief Harry Hyde that he planned to shut down the team due to funding trouble. Instead, Bodine and the team won at Martinsville, leading to sponsorship from Northwestern Security Life; on March 30, 2014, the 30-year anniversary of the win, Hendrick stated, "We owe Martinsville so much. If we hadn't won that race, then literally the next Monday we were going to shut it down." The team won two more times and finished ninth in points. Levi Garrett came on to sponsor the No. 5 Chevy in 1985 as part of a multi-year deal. Despite not winning a race that year, Bodine earned three poles and improved to fifth in points. The team briefly became a two-car operation when Dick Brooks drove the No. 1 Exxon Chevy at Charlotte, in what proved to be Brooks' last NASCAR race.
Hendrick expanded into a multi-car team full-time in 1986, with Bodine and Tim Richmond as drivers. Bodine won twice, including the 1986 Daytona 500, in the No. 5 and posted an eighth-place finish in points. His younger brother, Brett, raced as a teammate in the World 600 that year. Bodine went winless again in 1987, finishing thirteenth in points. Bodine won one race and finishing in the Top 10 of the point standings each of the next two years before leaving for Junior Johnson & Associates in 1990.
Ricky Rudd (1990–1993)
Ricky Rudd took Bodine's place, winning once at Watkins Glen International, and finishing seventh in points. For 1991, the team received sponsorship from Tide as part of the car's merger with Darrell Waltrip's old team. Winning one race that year, Rudd finished a career high second in points behind champion Dale Earnhardt. On the final lap of that year's race at Sonoma, second-place Rudd spun out leader Davey Allison on the last turn and went on to win. NASCAR penalized the team for rough driving and awarded Allison the win. Rudd won once each of the next two years. Dissatisfied with the distribution of resources within HMS's multiple teams, Rudd left to form Rudd Performance Motorsports, taking Tide with him.
Terry Labonte (1994–2004)
Rudd's replacement was 1984 Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte. The car received sponsorship from Kellogg's and their Corn flakes brand. Labonte won three races each in 1994 and 1995, and defeated teammate Jeff Gordon for the 1996 Winston Cup championship by 37 points. Labonte won one race each of the next three seasons. The 2000 season was a very difficult year for the team as two long streaks that defined Labonte's career came to an end. In the Pepsi 400, Labonte crashed his car and broke his leg. After an accident at New Hampshire damaged his inner ear, Labonte was not capable of driving, and he ended up missing two races, bringing his streak of most consecutive races to an abrupt end. Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday Jr. subbed for Labonte. His six-year winning streak was also broken as he failed to visit victory lane that year.
At the end of the 2000 season Labonte's team switched to Kellogg's Frosted Flakes brand for its primary sponsorship. After a couple of low-key years, Labonte finished tenth in the points in 2003. He also revisited victory lane after a four-year drought by winning the Southern 500 at Darlington, the last Southern 500 to be held during the Labor Day weekend until 2015. After slipping to twenty-sixth in points in 2004, Labonte announced his semi-retirement. He would drive a limited schedule for two years in the No. 44 car before leaving HMS after the 2006 season. Labonte scored 12 victories with Hendrick Motorsports, to go along with his championship in 1996.
Kyle Busch (2005–2007)
Hendrick tabbed development driver Kyle Busch, the younger brother of Kurt Busch, as Labonte's replacement for the 2005 season. Over the season, Busch earned 2 wins, 9 top fives and 13 top tens and finished 20th in the season standings. He easily won the 2005 Rookie of the year battle and made history when he took the checkered flag in the Sony HD 500 at Fontana for his first win, becoming the youngest driver at the time to ever win a Cup Series race at the age of 20 years, 4 months, and 2 days. Busch would win later that year at Phoenix. In 2006, Kyle won once and qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, ultimately finishing 10th in points, with 1 win, 10 top fives and 18 top tens. In 2007, Busch grabbed a win at the Food City 500, the inaugural race for the Car of Tomorrow and finished 5th in the final standings, with 1 win, 11 top fives and 20 top tens. On June 13, 2007 Hendrick announced that Kyle Busch would not return to drive the No. 5 car in 2008.
Casey Mears (2008) & Mark Martin (2009–2011)
On September 4, 2007 it was announced that Casey Mears would drive the No. 5 in 2008. On June 22, 2008, ESPN.com reported that Mark Martin would leave Dale Earnhardt, Inc. to replace Casey Mears in the No. 5 car for the 2009 season. On Friday, July 4 at Daytona, Hendrick and Martin announced that Martin had agreed to a two-year contract in the No. 5 car.
Mark Martin scored his first win with Hendrick Motorsports at Phoenix on April 18, 2009. He became the third oldest winner and fourth driver over the age of 50 to win a Cup Series race. The win was also the 36th victory and 400th top 10 of Martin's career. Martin won four more races in 2009, Darlington, Michigan, Chicagoland, and New Hampshire. He also won seven pole positions and finished second in the point standings to teammate Jimmie Johnson. On September 18, 2009, Hendrick announced that Martin had extended his contract through the 2011 season and would race full-time with GoDaddy.com as a primary sponsor.
In 2010, Martin struggled, ending the season 13th in the point standings with no wins and only one pole position, which came in the Daytona 500. His season best finish of second came in October at Martinsville. Lance McGrew took over as crew chief for the No. 5 in 2011 as Gustafson moved to Jeff Gordon's team. Farmers Insurance Group and Quaker State joined as sponsors of the team for a few races. Martin struggled through most of the season with McGrew, not showing signs of his earlier Hendrick success. Teammate Jimmie Johnson drove the No. 5 car in the All-Star Race to promote a discount deal with Lowe's (Martin moved over to the No. 25 for the evening). Martin ended the year 22nd in points, having won two pole positions, the second races at both Daytona and Talladega. The team scored only two top fives all season, a second at Dover and a fourth at Michigan.
Kasey Kahne (2012–2017)
Kasey Kahne and his crew chief Kenny Francis were picked up from Red Bull Racing Team to run the No. 5 in 2012. Farmers and Quaker State returned, with Farmers increasing its sponsorship to 22 races. GoDaddy.com left for Tommy Baldwin Racing/Stewart–Haas Racing to sponsor Danica Patrick, but Time Warner Cable and Great Clips signed on as replacements. After a poor start to the season, Kahne rebounded immensely and picked up a win in the Coca-Cola 600. He won again at New Hampshire in July and made the 2012 Chase, finishing a career-best 4th in standings. Kahne also won four pole positions throughout the season.
Kahne won twice in 2013, at Bristol in March and Pocono in August, and again qualified for the Chase in 2013. However, he fell toward the bottom of the Chase standings and ended up finishing 12th in points. The team struggled immensely in 2014, and it did not appear that Kahne would qualify for the 2014 Chase until a last-minute win at Atlanta in late August locked him into the Chase field. Kahne was eliminated from the Chase following the October Talladega race (as a result of a new Chase format) and finished 15th in the final point standings. Kahne then struggled in 2015 & 2016 as he barely missed the Chase field and failed to reach victory lane in both seasons. On July 23, 2017 Kahne held off Brad Keselowski in an overtime finish that ended under caution to win the 2017 Brickyard 400 for his 18th (& final) overall career victory, 102 races after his 2014 Atlanta victory. The race was also the reason that the NASCAR sanctioning body eliminated the Overtime Line.
On August 20, 2017, Hendrick Motorsports announced that William Byron would take over the No. 5 in 2018, with Darian Grubb as crew chief. Twenty days later, the team announced a number change from No. 5 to No. 24 in 2018, with Chase Elliott's team renumbered from No. 24 to No. 9. Kahne was locked into the Chase field in 2017 with his Brickyard 400 victory but was eliminated after the first round and finishing 15th in the final point standings. Following Kahne's departure, the No. 5 would remain dormant for the next three seasons.
Kyle Larson (2021–present)
On October 28, 2020, it was announced that Kyle Larson would join Hendrick Motorsports for the 2021 season driving the No. 5 car, which replaced the No. 88. The controversy surrounding Larson scared away many sponsors, leading Hendrick to sponsor the driver through his auto dealership company Hendrick Automotive Group, via HendrickCars.com and Nationsguard. Larson would also gain sponsorship from Valvoline, Freightliner, Cincinnati Inc., Metrotech Automotive and Tarlton & Sons. Larson won the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas in his fourth start with the team. After three straight second-place finishes at Darlington, Dover, and Circuit of the Americas in May, Larson followed with back-to-back-to-back wins in the Coca-Cola 600, Toyota/Save Mart 350 and the Ally 400. Larson won his fifth race at the 2021 Go Bowling at The Glen, resulting in him tying for the points lead with Denny Hamlin. Following the 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Larson clinched the Regular Season Championship. Larson won the Bristol Night Race to advance to the Round of 12. He went on to win three straight races at the Charlotte ROVAL Race (advancing to the Round of 8), Texas (clinching a spot in the Championship 4) and Kansas. At Phoenix in the Season Finale 500, Larson won the race (his 10th of the season) to secure his first Cup Series Championship. Larson's championship ended a 25-year championship drought for the No. 5 car, when Terry Labonte won the then-called Winston Cup Championship in 1996.