Jeff Gordon explains Hendrick's next move as Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman still winless

With two drivers locked in and two drivers on the bubble, Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports have decisions to make. Both Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott find themselves without a win and with the NASCAR regular season schedule winding down. So, is there worry among the organization?

For now, Jeff Gordon isn’t panicking. He has two talented drivers that have won races in the past. They have crew chiefs and crew members that know what it takes to win. They just have to line everything up on the same weekend and get it done. New Hampshire is the next race up.

While talking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Gordon wasn’t quite ready to hit the alarm at Hendrick…yet.

“Yeah, I think right now it’s just about putting the fastest race cars on the track for all of our guys and putting a complete race together. I think we know what our race teams and our drivers and our crew chiefs are capable of when things fall in place. So, I’ve got complete faith they can do this coming up weekend or the weekend after that or the weekend after that. But there’s not been conversations, yet, where we start going, ‘Okay guys now we gotta start helping out the 48 or the 9 we gotta get them into the playoffs.’ I know the crew chiefs and the way they communicate they’re talking about it a little bit here and there but we have not gone into meetings and strategized on how we’re going to do that just yet. We might be a few races away from those conversations starting.”

With two drivers currently below the cutline, will attention and resources get shifted to the No. 9 and No. 48 teams for the final seven races of the regular season?

❌ @JeffGordonWeb says not yet.

More from @TeamHendrick’s Vice Chairman on #TMDNASCAR → https://t.co/qesEcbI9Hq pic.twitter.com/7hiHtAHd1E

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 13, 2023

For now, Hendrick Motorsports is going to go about business as usual. Check back in a few weeks if a win or two has not materialized.

Jeff Gordon knows that wins are important

If you go back and look at Chase Elliott’s comments about getting a win or making the playoffs on points, it is clear what Hendrick Motorsports’ opinion is. If you can’t get a win now, what makes you think you can in the playoffs? Elliott has said it, and Jeff Gordon has as well.

“I know that we want to get wins,” Gordon said in the post-race press conference. “It’s sort of one of those situations where if you don’t feel like you’re capable of winning, how far are you really going to go in the playoffs?”

So, what can we expect moving forward from Elliott and Alex Bowman? These are two drivers that you would have almost written into the playoffs at the start of the season. Bowman was the most consistent driver in the Cup Series for the first month of the year.

Getting back to that 2022 form or to the early season form of 2023 is easier said than done. While Bowman and Elliott missed races due to injury, other drivers kept running simulations and races and honing their skills.