“Each driver has his limits. My limit is a little further than others.” This was the success mantra of Ayrton Senna. His words perfectly capture the never-ending battle for innovation in motorsports. However, more than any other racing series, NASCAR has long thrived on teams and manufacturers pushing the absolute edge of performance. With the difference between win and loss often coming down to thousandths of a second, finding an advantage within NASCAR’s strict regulations is an art form.
As the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season begins, teams are once again looking for new ways to extract the best from their car. Hendrick Motorsports has been pushing the boundaries of innovation and precision for decades. The winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history has unveiled an advanced lab to fine-tune and test their cars before hitting the track.
Hendrick Motorsports’ bold investment in future technology!
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Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) is the most successful team in NASCAR history. They have 14 championships, 311 wins, and more than 78,000 laps led to their name. But rather than being complacent, Rick Hendrick is using advanced technology to keep his team in the lead. Days ahead of the Daytona showdown, HMS officially inaugurated its new Hexagon Lab. Notably, this facility is built under a long-term partnership between HMS and 31-billion-dollar big tech giant Hexagon.
The state-of-the-art facility is designed to maximize performance while staying just inside NASCAR’s tight regulations. The facility will allow Hendrick Motorsports to test and measure every component of their race cars with extreme precision. Notably, in 2023, Hexagon inked a decade-long deal with Rick Hendrick’s team to provide metrology hardware and software. This partnership is very important for HMS, as NASCAR’s Next Gen car, introduced in 2022, has made customization almost impossible.
As all teams use identical chassis and parts from single-source suppliers, it’s important to stay innovative with tweaks and changes. Speaking about their role Roy Crump, HMS Quality Supervisor said, “We took all these components and started measuring every part to better understand what we were looking at. We knew we needed to determine a way to combine and measure parts virtually, and that’s where Hexagon came in. Hexagon has helped us bring better products to the racetrack.”
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Meanwhile, Rick Hendrick isn’t just upgrading technology but also expanding his motorsports empire. Days before the inauguration of the new lab, Rick had announced the separation of Hendrick Motorsports Technical Solutions from HMS. The tech entity which provides engineering and manufacturing services for government and commercial programs, is now a standalone entity with a new 160,000-square-foot headquarters.
Additionally, Scott Lampe, a veteran Hendrick Motorsports executive, has been named President of Advanced Manufacturing. His role will focus on leveraging technology to keep Hendrick Motorsports ahead of the competition. These moves show that Hendrick is not just adapting to NASCAR’s new era but trying to shape it.
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This is a developing story.