NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
South Point 400
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
October 4, 2026
Larson Keeps Top-Five Streak, Points Lead Alive at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
A valiant last-lap effort by the reigning champion, Kyle Larson, saw the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team lead the manufacturer with a second-place finish in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While it was a challenging day of battling handling issues throughout the first-two stages, it was the final run that saw the team back in race winning contention that ultimately continued their top-five streak in The Chase alive. Officially reaching the halfway point of the title run, Larson will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway with a 40-point lead over Denny Hamlin.
Four Chevrolet-powered machines earned results within the top-10 at the Nevada-based oval with Larson leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammates and fellow Chase title contenders, William Byron and Chase Elliott, in the sixth and seventh positions, respectively, with Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen driving to an impressive oval performance to earn a ninth-place result.
RACE RECAP:
Stage One:
Showing speed early in yesterday’s practice session, Kyle Larson went on to lead Team Chevy in qualifying with a sixth-place starting position for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While maintaining the position for the opening laps of the stage, the points leader made an early report that his Chevrolet was edgy and lacking grip. While fighting the handling issues, Larson fell outside the top-10 as the race approached the first green flag pit cycle that ultimately began on Lap 34. Crew Chief, Cliff Daniels, was the first to call his driver to pit road for a lengthy stop that included a major front-end adjustment to try to help the balance of his Chevrolet. Buried in traffic and one lap down, it was only a 10-lap run before the first caution of the day flew for the No. 38. Varying pit strategies saw Daniels make the call to stay out and take the wave around to lineup 30th for the restart and 31 laps to go in the opening stage. Among the eight teams on the lead lap that chose to stay out included title contender, Daniel Suarez, who ultimately earned a hard fought six-place finish to lead Team Chevy to the end of Stage One.
Stage Two:
Despite a challenging opening stage that resulted in a 23rd-place finish, Larson reported that the first adjustment made an improvement but he was still lacking grip in the rear of his Chevrolet. Now just facing smaller adjustments to continue the progress, it was a standard four-tire and fuel stop that put the No. 5 team in the 18th position for the start of Stage Two. The culmination of a two-position gain in the race off pit road and a pit road penalty for the No. 23 saw Suarez inherit a spot on the front row to lead the field to the green flag for Stage Two. While settled into second for the opening laps of the stage, Suarez kept the Stage One winner, Chase Briscoe, right within reach – managing a three-second margin for a 14-lap run that ended with a caution for debris. While the No. 19 team stayed out, a late call by Crew Chief, Ryan Sparks, brought Suarez to pit road to lead a handful of cars for a two-tire stop. While it was a split strategy throughout the field, all of Chevrolet’s Chase drivers chose to pit for right-side tires, while also putting them in a position on fuel that lent the opportunity to make it to the end of stage. On the alternate strategy, the Stephen Doran-led team opted to capitalize on the track position and forgo the trip to pit road, boosting the No. 97 up to fifth for the restart. Van Gisbergen put on an impressive showing during the green flag run, maintaining a top-six running position despite the disadvantage of older tires. Just past the halfway mark of the stage saw the start of the green flag pit cycle for those that didn’t pit under the caution. The trio of Hendrick Motorsports Chase contenders made the gamble to run the stage out with Chase Elliott cycling up to second and leading Byron (third) and Larson (fourth) for the stretch to the second green-white checkered flag. While those on fresher tires started to make a charge late in the stage, the trio put up a valiant effort to all drive to a points-earning effort.
Final Stage:
The No. 9 pit crew powered their driver to a two-position gain in the race off pit road during the stage break, putting Elliott in fourth to lead the Bowtie brigade to the start of the final stage. With a green flag run building, Elliott maintained a top-five running position while still fighting the handling in the rear of his Chevrolet. Through yet another green flag pit cycle, the trio of Hendrick Motorsports drivers quickly cycled back up into the top-10 for what was building for a long run to the finish. While the first-two stages were a challenge for the No. 5 team, it was the final run of the race that saw the reigning champions back in race winning contention. While hovering around a three-second deficit, Larson quickly closed in on then-race leader, Briscoe, to just one-second with 20 laps to go. Enduring a flurry of lap traffic in the closing laps, Larson made the pass for second with 12 laps to go and quickly went to work on the battle for the lead. Reaching the rear of the No. 19 in lap traffic, Larson made a valiant last-lap effort before going on to cash-in on a strong second-place finish and lead Chevrolet to the checkered flag and the halfway point of The Chase.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
2nd – Kyle Larson
6th – William Byron
7th – Chase Elliott
9th – Shane van Gisbergen
Chevrolet’s season statistics with 30 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
Wins: 8
Poles: 6
Top-Fives: 52
Top 10s: 105
Stage Wins: 21
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase will continue at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Bank of America 400 on Sunday, October 11, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 19th
“Proud of the work from everyone on the No. 3 Toys for Tots Chevrolet team. Our car was better on the long runs, and we struggled all race on the restarts and shorter runs. We kept working at it, but the car was just too loose overall and we lacked grip and downforce. We’ll take our 19th place finish, leave Las Vegas Motor Speedway with plenty of notes for next spring and now get to work for Charlotte next week.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
“It was a fight all day long for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. I was surprised about how far off we were there in that first run. I was just doing all I could to hold onto it and get to the pit stop. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) said it was going to be a lengthy pit stop, but I didn’t know it was going to be that long. We came out a lap down. I think, thankfully, that caution came out and we could take the wave around. I think that really saved us from being stuck a lap down a lot longer. My car got better, but getting track position was just difficult. We just chipped away at it all race long. We had a good green flag pit cycle, and I could tell I was gaining on him (Chase Briscoe, race winner) pretty quickly. I just tried to stay patient, but my tires were getting kind of burnt off by the time I got there. I did what I could to try and win. We did a decent job with it, but I was just trying to push it through (turns) three and four to build some momentum at him and try to get by him down the straightaway. I just got really loose and overcorrected it into the wall. Thankfully, I was able to limp it home. It got exciting, for sure. I wish I could have won in this paint scheme while honoring Kyle because that would have been in very Kyle Busch fashion, but again, it was a great fight by this team.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 6th
“We were just kind of in the back-half of the top-10 throughout most of the day. We just couldn’t really advance past that. And then under the green flag run, we would just get kind of stuck. I thought that during the last run, our No. 24 HP Chevrolet got tighter. We just needed a little bit more.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 7th
“I thought our No. 9 NAPA Chevy was, honestly, pretty good most of the day. We ran long with the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) there and the right-front came apart. For whatever reason, after that, I just kept getting looser and looser. I just kind of faded back a little bit at the end. We took a bunch of fuel and that didn’t help for those runs that went green. But overall, I thought it was a pretty solid day. It’s nice to have two solid days back-to-back for this team. There were some high spots in there. I thought our car did some really good things at different times throughout the day. I had some good feels at different points, and it was definitely something that we can build off of.”
Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 22nd
“Solid day for our BetMGM team. All in all, to leave here with a top-25 is a stepping stone for our group. On the initial run, we were really good and drove forward. Gained over 12 spots in the first stage and put ourselves in a decent spot. As the race went on, our Chevrolet got tight, especially on fire off. Andy (Street, crew chief) and the guys kept working on the balance and got the front end in a good spot, but then we were too loose on the last run at the end. We will keep building as much as possible in these last handful of weeks.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 21st
“It was a up and down day in Vegas, not the result we wanted, but today was just so unpredictable. Staying out, two tires, or four tires were all options and late in those runs was really where it made a difference with tire life. There was a time where we were running in the top 15 for some of the day, then the strategy didn’t come back to us the way we had hoped. Regardless, I feel like it was a step in the right direction with our 1.5-mile program. Special thank you to Fly Alliance for their support this weekend, hopefully we can continue to progress with our intermediate setups next weekend in Charlotte.”
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