Hendrick team call helped set Bowman, Larson up for success at Vegas
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
LAS VEGAS — Jeff Gordon admitted that he was a little nervous during the final laps Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
An equity owner at Hendrick Motorsports who oversees the operations of the team, the four-time Cup champion watched as Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson went door-to-door a week after Larson and Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott had contact while battling for the lead.
This time, Larson had no contact with a teammate. And Bowman won.
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Alex Bowman pulls off last corner pass on Kyle Larson to win in wild overtime finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Pretty much everyone at Hendrick could be happy with this one. No drama came with the win, and that is an important step as the team tries to keep as positive a dynamic as possible when teammates race against one another.
"[Bowman] was making me nervous," Gordon said. "Two guys side by side, going through the corners. I was like, 'Oh, God, oh, God.’"
Quipped Bowman crew chief Greg Ives: "We almost had to have another talk."
The "talk" Ives was referring to was the one that team owner Rick Hendrick called with his four drivers and crew chiefs — a talk that could have impacted the results Sunday.
Whether it impacted the way the drivers competed on the final laps at Las Vegas is difficult to determine, but the talk did put additional focus on the fact that teammates Larson, Bowman and William Byron were 1-2-3 for the two-lap overtime restart.
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Bob Pockrass shares his "Fast Thoughts" on Kyle Busch's near win that slipped away at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The drivers played nicely with one another. Oh, they raced hard. But the contact from a week earlier was nowhere to be found.
Last week, Elliott had choice words for Larson on his in-car radio following the contact that ruined Elliott’s chances for the win — contact Larson later admitted was his mistake, as he didn’t know Elliott was beside him at the time.
Elliott stayed out with a damaged car and ended up breaking a piece and spinning, nearly costing Larson the victory.
That contact and the way those events evolved put Hendrick in the position to have that call with his drivers and crew chiefs. He rarely calls such a meeting; Larson said it was his first since joining HMS in 2021.
"The talk was a big wake-up call," Bowman said. "Obviously, when Mr. H calls a meeting like that, it gets your attention. It's always going to.
"Anytime Mr. H talks, he's got your attention, but especially in a situation like that."
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Alex Bowman says the Rick Hendrick talk with drivers last week was "a big wakeup call," but he isn’t sure that it impacted the way the Hendrick teammates raced the final laps at Vegas.
The goal was to not have teammates upset with each other to the point that it could have an impact on the racetrack. The drivers probably understood that message before the meeting even began.
"Obviously, the boss wants to have everybody be as successful as possible," Elliott said. "And he's always understanding, and he gets it.
"He's been around long enough. He knows how it works. I felt like it was a good meeting."
How does it work? Well, Gordon knows from his race and championship fights (and, at times, frustrations) with teammate Jimmie Johnson.
"When I came to Hendrick Motorsports, it was ‘Race hard, but don't wreck your teammates,’" Gordon said. "That's what you do.
"You want to go race your teammates for wins and settle it among yourselves. ... The conversation that Rick had with us was really more pertaining to what happened at the end of that race last week — those similar types of scenarios, blocking [and] also working through, when things like that happen, how you work through it internally."
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Jeff Gordon says the Rick Hendrick chat with the drivers last week was more about last week's events, blocking and how to handle things internally.
Gordon said the conversation had to happen so that any lingering frustration wouldn’t fester.
"It was all four drivers, all four crew chiefs, getting the clarity about how we intend to compete with one another in the closing laps of a race," he said.
"It wasn't that we didn't want Chase to go try to take them three-wide to win the race. You got to go try to win the race. You’ve just got to have as much awareness of your teammates in those situations to not cause damage and hope that you can just go settle it in a way where guys are both battling all the way."
That is what happened Sunday, as Larson and Bowman appeared to race as hard as possible and settled it between them.
Larson said he wouldn't have raced the final two laps any different if he hadn't been racing a teammate.
"I did everything that I would have done if we didn’t have a meeting, probably," Larson said. "I was side-drafting him as hard as I could.
"I would have never wanted to make contact with him before, either. But I guess it weighs on you, being only seven days away from me getting into a teammate."
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Kyle Larson on whether the talk Rick Hendrick had with the drivers was in his mind on the final laps at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bowman said he didn’t see any hesitation from Larson in the final laps.
"I don't know that there was really something Kyle could have done any differently or even if he was trying to be dirty about anything. He was super tight on my door, side drafting me as hard as he could," Bowman said. "He just ended up getting tight in [Turns] 3 and 4."
Is everything good in Hendrickland? Probably. Elliott is still a little frustrated (or a lot frustrated) from that Fontana finish, but he will focus on what’s ahead.
"Even if the drivers had a little riff on the track, we're going to figure it out, we're going to have these teams go out there and compete each week to be in the top four," Ives said.
"Whoever wins that race, we're just as proud. ... That's how we operate. That's how Mr. H likes it."
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Thinking out loud
Ty Gibbs won at Las Vegas after an eventful Xfinity Series race in which he got into the back of Ryan Sieg, nearly wrecked Landon Cassill, avoided a retaliation attempt from Sieg and then rallied for the victory.
The 19-year-old grandson of Joe Gibbs knows he will upset some drivers along the way. That’s the nature of racing for wins. And it’s good to be aggressive.
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Watch the full highlights from Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Ty Gibbs held off Noah Gragson on a late race restart to win his first race of the season.
In the Xfinity Series, drivers are learning, so mistakes happen, such as the one that raised the ire of Sieg, whose family team doesn’t have the resources of Joe Gibbs Racing. Apologizing, as Gibbs did, is good to do, but if something happens often, it will turn into an "If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have done it" situation.
Gibbs needs to be careful. The nature of NASCAR racing on the national stage requires knowing when to give and when to take. The more quickly he can learn that, the better.
Stat of the day
Hendrick Motorsports (Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman) has won seven of the past eight races dating back to last year. The only exception is Austin Cindric in the Daytona 500.
Going back to last year: Charlotte road course-Larson, Texas-Larson, Kansas-Larson, Martinsville-Bowman, Phoenix-Larson, Daytona-Cindric, Fontana-Larson and then Las Vegas-Bowman.
They said it
"It wasn’t meant to be. Not our day. See you next week." — Kyle Busch
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!