Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Bristol

5 KYLE LARSON
 Age: 32 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 12th (Watkins Glen)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 9th (-20)

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Kyle Larson is the only driver to have eclipsed the 1,000-laps-led barrier in 2024 with 1,089.
• The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion is 26 points above the elimination cutoff and will advance to the Round of 12 regardless of what any other driver does by earning 34 points at Bristol Motor Speedway. Larson averages 43 points per race at the Tennessee track in the stage era (since 2017) – his best of all tracks with more than four starts.
• The No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM entry is 31 markers ahead in the owners standings.
• Larson is tied for the most stage wins this year with 10 and is one of only two drivers with double-digit stage victories.
• The 32-year-old driver has run a series-high 3,558 laps in the top five in 2024 and his average running position of 10.21 also tops the series.
• The driver of the No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevy has finished in the top 10 in his last five starts at Bristol. Larson’s longest top-10 streak at a track is six (Kansas Speedway and Phoenix Raceway).
• Larson is the only driver to finish in the top five in all three races at Bristol in the Next Gen Car.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
 Age: 28 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 19th (Watkins Glen)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: T-6th (-16)

No. 9 Llumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Chase Elliott heads to Bristol Motor Speedway tied for sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings, 30 points above the elimination line. He would lock into the Round of 12 by earning 30 points in Saturday night’s race, regardless of where any other driver finishes. Elliott averages 34 points per race at Bristol in the stage era (since 2017).
• The 2020 Cup Series champion is currently riding a streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes at Bristol, posting an eighth-place result in the spring.
• While Elliott’s best finish in a points-paying Cup race at the Tennessee short track is second (2022), he scored an All-Star Race victory there in 2020.
• Elliott’s 444 laps led in points-paying Cup events at Bristol is his third-most on active tracks behind Martinsville Speedway (1,104) and Phoenix Raceway (546).
• The driver of the No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet is tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson and two other drivers for the most stage wins at Bristol (three).
• Elliott’s active streak of five top-10 finishes on short tracks tops the series while his points earned on short tracks this season (192) rank third.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
 Age: 26 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 34th (Watkins Glen)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 10th (-21)

No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• After the second race of the Round of 16, William Byron is 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings, 25 points above the cutoff line.
• In three races at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Next Gen car, Byron has run 289 laps in the top five – ninth-most – and 746 laps in the top 10 – eighth-most.
• Byron has earned two wins and collected 146 points in races at short tracks in the Next-Gen era.
• This season, Byron has run within the top five for 1,825 laps – eighth-most – within the top 10 for 3,719 laps – fifth-most – and has an average running position of 13.547 – sixth-best.

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 31 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Week: 18th (Watkins Glen)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: T-3rd (-5)

No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Alex Bowman leads Hendrick Motorsports drivers entering the final race of the Round of 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway, sitting in a tie for third in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, 41 points above the cutoff.
• Bowman leads all drivers in stage points in the playoffs (28) and is the only driver to score points in all four stages thus far. Excluding the Coca-Cola 600 which has three stages, 28 stage points are the most Bowman has earned over a two-race span in his career.
• Bowman will lock into the Round of 12 regardless of what any other driver does by earning 19 points at Bristol, where he averages 24 points per race in the stage era. He has made the Round of 12 in all five of his previous playoff appearances.
• Bowman finished fourth at Bristol in March. He has scored three top fives, four top 10s and led three laps there in his career.
• With eight races remaining in the season, Bowman already has seven top-five finishes, one fewer than his career high of eight, set in 2021. He also has 13 top-10 finishes, placing him in a four-way tie for fourth most and just three behind his most in a season (2021).
• Bowman will join the Chevy Stage display at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Bristol before visiting the Hendrick Motorsports Merchandise hauler at 4:20 to sign autographs for fans with a special wrist band. When merch haulers open this weekend, be one of first 100 purchasers of an Alex Bowman hat, T-shirt, and 1:64 diecast. Purchasers will receive a wristband to return for Bowman’s signing. The 5, 24, 48 merchandise hauler will open at 11 a.m. on Thursday and noon on Friday and Saturday.
• For four years, Bowman and Ally have teamed up to support Best Friends Animal Society and their vast network of partners. Every race weekend, the pair donates $4,800 to help homeless pets. This weekend, the charitable donation will go to Montgomery County Animal Care and Control located in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Hendrick Motorsports

*Most
**Tied for most

• At least three Hendrick Motorsports drivers have finished in the top 10 in the last four races at Bristol Motor Speedway, the longest such streak by any organization at the track in history.
• All four Hendrick Motorsports pit crews rank in the top eight in terms of average time for a four-tire pit stop. That list is topped by the No. 9 over-the-wall squad at 10.83 seconds. Chase Elliott’s crew also turned in the fastest individual four-tire stop of the season with a time of 9.076 seconds at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
• In 78 races at Bristol, Hendrick Motorsports has accumulated 69 top-five showings and 121 top 10s, leading in both categories among NASCAR Cup Series teams all time.
• Hendrick Motorsports has gone to victory lane 58 times in playoff races, 21 more than any other team.

QUOTABLE /

Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on going to Bristol: “I’ll be interested to see how the tire wear is this weekend. We had a pit road penalty, restarted from the rear and still managed tire wear to battle back for a top five earlier this year. I really enjoy this track and this race under the lights, so I am looking forward to Saturday night.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on heading to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend: “I’m super curious because I don’t really know what to expect, right? The spring race was such an oddball from what we had, had. But it really sounds like that people, the higher ups, want that again, that the fans really enjoyed that. And it seemed like, from what I heard at least, they went and had a tire test there here in the last few weeks, and they were trying to recreate that same environment of tire fall off and life and so on and so forth. So, if you throw that into the mix and they successfully achieve that chaos again, that’s going to be pretty nuts, right? Especially this time of year. And truthfully, with this date being moved back another month or so, you could get cool enough temperatures on a Saturday night to maybe achieve that. So, I’m really curious. But like I’ve always said, I think you give teams a second try at something and, you know, if you just take away everything and it was the exact same as it was in the spring, I’d say it probably wouldn’t quite be as chaotic because it’s a second try.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his experience of racing at Bristol Motor Speedway: “I don’t really feel like we’ve ever been the dominant car there. So that’s the goal; try to inch up on that and figure out what we need to be more competitive at Bristol. We’ve had some really good runs, like top threes, but never like leading laps. So yeah, I think going to Bristol, there’s definitely going to be a lot of studying this week to figure out what it is that we need to be a little bit better yet. And then you have the tire, so you’re not really sure what that’s going to do. For us, it would be nice to be under less pressure going there and hopefully have a larger buffer but we can’t change that now. The spring was just a fluke situation. We got put into the wall there and broke the toe link. That was tough. But yeah, I think we’re usually pretty solid there. We’re usually like a top-10 car, we just have to figure out what it takes to have winning speed.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on Bristol Motor Speedway: “It would certainly mean a lot to visit victory lane there. Being 41 (points) good on the (Round of 12) cutline is certainly better than being on the other side of it. Myself and our Ally Racing team just need to get there (Bristol Motor Speedway) and execute and do our jobs. I think we all have this big question mark going into the weekend on what the tire is going to do and if it’s going to look like it did in the spring. That was such a crazy race. I would expect the same again since we haven’t changed anything, but I think we all wonder how that happened in the first place. It will be interesting and with the extra practice and maybe we’ll have more of a heads up on what’s going to happen. I think our No. 48 team is sitting in a good spot.”