Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Bristol

Bristol Motor Speedway
Sunday, April 13, 2025
0.533-Mile Oval
3 PM ET
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (9 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 32 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 37th (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 6th

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Kyle Larson led 462 of 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway in September of last season, the most laps ever led by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in a NASCAR Cup Series race. He’s led 1,351 circuits at Bristol in his career, his most at any track.
• In his last 11 starts at Bristol, Larson has 10 top-10 finishes and has finished in the top five in all five starts with Hendrick Motorsports. With five-straight top 10s at Bristol, he’s tied for the longest active streak.
• Larson’s career average finish of 11th at Bristol is tied for fifth best among drivers with seven or more starts alongside teammate Chase Elliott.
• Since the start of 2017, Larson leads the field in top fives (seven), top 10s (10), laps led (1,261), average finish (5.27) and stage wins (five) at the Tennessee short track.
• The 32-year-old enters this weekend with four consecutive top 10s at short tracks, tied for the second-longest active streak behind Elliott (eight). Larson’s 341 points earned at short tracks since the start of last season are the most in the Cup Series.
• Larson’s 64 stage victories are second all-time and just two behind the record, owned by Martin Truex Jr.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 29 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 8th (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 4th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway where Chase Elliott has a string of four straight top-10 finishes, including a runner-up effort last fall.
• In 2020, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native won the All-Star Race at Bristol. It was the only time the exhibition event was held at the Tennessee short track.
• Elliott is tied with teammate Kyle Larson for the fifth-best average finish at Bristol all-time (seven or more starts) at 11.0. They are the two highest active drivers in the category.
• The 29-year-old has finished in the top 10 in the last eight Cup short-track races – a career best for the driver and the longest active streak.
• Across those eight short-track races, Elliott has an average starting position of 4.63 and an average finish of 4.5 with two runner-up finishes and 251 laps led. He’s also earned the third-most points (321).
• Elliott’s average finish of 11.13 in 2025 is fourth best in the series. He is one of only three drivers to have finished all eight races on the lead lap. No driver has more top-10 finishes than Elliott this season.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 27 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 2nd (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 1st

No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet

• This past weekend at Darlington Raceway, William Byron captured his second NASCAR Cup Series pole award of the season with the fastest qualifying time in the Next Gen era (28.77 seconds) at the 1.366-mile oval. He went on to sweep both stages and lead 243 consecutive laps, his most in a single race. After green-flag pit stops in the final stage and an overtime attempt, Byron scored a runner-up finish.
• So far in 2025, Byron has an average starting position of 7.63, an average running position of 8.55 and an average finish of 9.5, all best of the Cup Series field. He has also collected a series-leading 90 stage points this season.
• In addition, he has run 1,029 laps in the top five, 1,407 laps in the top 10 and led 354 laps in 2025, all best in the field. This is the third time in four seasons that he has led 350 or more laps through the first eight races of the year.
• In his Cup Series career at Bristol Motor Speedway, Byron has 11 starts with two top-five finishes and four top 10s.

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 31 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Week: 35th (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 10th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Heading into this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Alex Bowman sits 10th in the points standings, 88 markers behind leader and teammate, William Byron.
• Over the past nine years, Bowman has made 15 starts at “The World’s Fastest Half Mile.” He has earned three top-five finishes and five top 10s.
• In 2024, Bowman earned the pole for the fall race with a 15.14-second lap time, 0.003 seconds better than Byron.
• For the Best Friends Animal Society programming, Ally and Bowman will be partnering with Dyersburg-Dyer County Humane Society, located in Bristol, Tennessee, as the selected shelter for this weekend.
• Ally and HendrickCars.com are teaming up again to give fans the chance to win prizes with this year’s “Open Road Sweepstakes.” Fans can win VIP experiences at various races throughout the season and one lucky winner will hit the open road in a Chevy Silverado LT Trail Boss with an Airstream camper. To enter, fans can stop by the Ally Fan Zone and check out the camper. To enter online, visit ally.com/sweepstakes/nascar. 

Hendrick Motorsports

*Most all time
**Tied for most all time

• Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader in NASCAR Cup Series top-five finishes (71) and top 10s (124) at Bristol Motor Speedway. The organization earned its 13th win at the 0.533-mile oval in September as Kyle Larson dominated en route to a victory.
• In that fall race, Hendrick Motorsports combined to lead 496 of 500 circuits, its highest percentage of laps led in a Cup Series event. Larson led 462 of them and Alex Bowman, who started from the pole, led 34.
• So far in 2025, the organization’s drivers have combined for 20 top-10 showings, the most ever for the company through eight races.
• Dating back to 2024, at least one Hendrick Motorsports driver has finished in the top five in 16 consecutive races, the team’s fourth-longest such streak. The organization has also had a top-five finisher in the last five events at Bristol, the best active streak in the Cup Series. In each of those five races, three Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished in the top 10.

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Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on Bristol Motor Speedway: “To me, it’s the closest style to a dirt sprint car race, although it’s a lot longer. Just the intensity, the aggression, the fast-paced style of that race I’m comfortable with. I just love that track. I look forward to going there. So yeah, Bristol has been a place where I’ve led tons of laps at before and won a lot of stages but have kind of fallen off at the ends of the races. But since joining Hendrick (Motorsports), we’ve been good all race long and that was fun to dominate that race this last year.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on Bristol Motor Speedway: “I love Bristol. It’s probably, to me, the best track on the circuit. It’s a great environment to race in and always a lot of excitement. The track is cool and it’s banked up … but the environment is always what comes to mind there. Just a lot of excitement and very intimate with it being so small.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on when to assess legitimate championship contenders: “Yeah, I’d say get to July probably and kind of figure out who’s close in points. I think the last few years, we’ve kind of seen that guys within 40 points can kind of make a charge and win the regular season. So honestly, for us, it’s just you’ve got to put a lot of stage wins together. You’ve got to put a lot of race wins together. So yeah, it’s whoever’s going to break out and win multiple races. Obviously (Christopher) Bell’s already done that, but they’ve been kind of up and down, inconsistent. So yeah, I think it’s whoever gets a lot of stage points, stage wins, and then race wins … whoever kind of starts racking them up.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on Bristol Motor Speedway: “Bristol in the spring, we qualified really bad, but we turned it around in the race and finished fourth. Then in the fall, we qualified on the pole and finished in the top 10. All in all, Bristol was decent to us last year. Track position there is super important so hopefully, we can grab a solid starting spot and have a decent finish to turn our bad luck around from the past two races.”