Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: WWT Raceway

WWT Raceway
Sunday, Sept. 7
1.25-Mile Oval
3 PM ET
Location: Madison, Illinois
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (Race 28 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 33 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 19th (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 3rd

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet team enters the second race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16 in third place, 38 points above the cutline.
• The Elk Grove, California, native is two top-10 finishes away from 200 for his career and is three away from his 100th with Hendrick Motorsports.
• Larson has the third-best average finish at WWT Raceway (8.67). He’s finished better than he started in all three races at the 1.25-mile oval.
• A fourth-place finish in 2023 by Larson is the best finish by any Hendrick Motorsports driver in three previous events at the track in Madison, Illinois.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 29 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 17th (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 11th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• Chase Elliott enters the second race of NASCAR Cup Series playoffs 11th in the standings. He’s nine points above the cutoff line to advance to the Round of 12.
• This weekend marks the 29-year-old driver’s 350th NASCAR premier series start, all with Hendrick Motorsports. He has made the fourth-most starts for the organization behind Jeff Gordon (805), Jimmie Johnson (686) and Terry Labonte (387).
• Three drivers have previously won in their 350th start, one of them being the 2020 Cup Series champion’s father Bill Elliott in 1992.
• Elliott’s average finish of 12.15 leads all Cup Series drivers in 2025.
• This season on tracks measuring 1 to 1.366 miles in length, Elliott has three top-10 finishes and 246 laps led, with a best result of sixth at Dover Motor Speedway.
• Last year at WWT Raceway, Elliott earned points in each of the first two stages en route to a 13th-place finish, his best effort at the track.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 27 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 21st (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: t-5th

No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet

• After the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16, William Byron is tied for fifth, 25 points above the cutline. He could lock into the next round with a win this weekend at WWT Raceway or by finishing the race 57 points above the 12th-place driver.
• The Charlotte, North Carolina, native continues to have a stellar 2025, leading in most statistical categories including laps led (915), laps run in the top five (2,896) and in the top 10 (4,225).
• In three Cup Series starts at WWT Raceway, Byron has a track-best finish of eighth after leading 30 laps in 2023.

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 32 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Week: 31st (Darlington)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: t-15th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Alex Bowman enters WWT Raceway sitting in a tie for 15th in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings, 19 points below the cutline. This playoff appearance marks the seventh of his career, with his best run coming in 2020 when he reached the Round of 8, finishing sixth.
• Through 27 races in 2025, Bowman has earned 14 top-10 finishes, tied for the second most in the Cup Series and his career best through this point in a season. He has collected six top-five finishes this year, including runner-up results at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Richmond Raceway.
• For this weekend’s race at St. Louis, the featured Best Friends Animal Society partner is the St. Sophia’s Forgotten Felines in Wheaton, Illinois.
• 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. Fans can stop by the Ally Fan Zone to enter the sweepstakes in-person and check out the camper. Fans can also enter at ally.com/sweepstakes/nascar.

Hendrick Motorsports

*Most all time
**Tied for most all time

• The Hendrick Motorsports engine shop reached 550 national series victories at Daytona International Speedway. The organization’s engines have won 19 poles (seven in the NASCAR Cup Series, 12 in the Xfinity Series) and 24 races (six in Cup, 17 in Xfinity and one in the preseason Clash) in 2025 and have powered teams to 40 points paying Cup Series victories in the Next Gen era, the most of any organization.
• Hendrick Motorsports has led 2,355 laps through 27 events this year, accounting for 34% of all circuits completed in the Cup Series and 835 more than any other team.
• With 17, the organization leads the series in stage wins. That total is the second most through a season’s first 27 races all time.
• All four of Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers qualified for the Cup Series playoffs for the fourth time in the last five years and the seventh time overall.

 QUOTABLE /
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on heading to WWT Raceway: “We had a great test at Gateway earlier this year that led us down a different path with our short-track program. We feel we have learned some things that have made that program a little bit better since then. We should be more competitive and at least start the weekend better than we have. If we can be good at Gateway, that will give us some confidence going to Phoenix.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on heading to WWT Raceway: “I haven’t really jived great with Gateway. There’s not many tracks that as a company I feel like we’ve struggled at, but I do think that’s been one of them. Why that is I don’t really know. But I do think that we’ve put a lot of emphasis as a company on trying to get better at those style of race tracks. We have a good opportunity to do that, so hopefully it’s another step in the right direction for us.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on strengths, weaknesses in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs: “I think our strength is just that we’re fast at all the different tracks. So, I think at the same time, though, you never know what everyone else is going to bring and how fast they’re going to be. So, we’ve just got to keep working. We can keep getting better, but that’s our strength. And then I guess the area we can improve is… I don’t know. There’s not a huge glaring area. We could always be faster on pit road. We could always be faster, have a better-balanced car. But I think the underlying theme of the playoffs is just you’ve got to get to the Round of 8, and then you’ve got to start peaking as that round goes. October is the most important time of the year.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on going to WWT Raceway: “I‘m happy for everyone at WWT Raceway. They have worked really hard to get a playoff race and are great to us when we go there. We have not been very good there in the past so, I’m looking forward to trying to be better there. I think we lost the brakes last year, so it looked really bad. (Kyle) Larson tested there a few months back so we will probably lean on them to see what they learned and go from there.”