Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Circuit of The Americas

Circuit of The Americas
Sunday, March 1
2.4-Mile Road Course
3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Austin, Texas
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series race (3 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
 Age: 33 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 32nd (Atlanta)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 21st

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Kyle Larson led eight times for 48 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway last week, scoring eight stage points before an incident cut his day short.
• The Elk Grove, California, native has spent 140 laps inside the top five in 2026, ranking fifth among all drivers.
• The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Circuit of The Americas this week. Larson finished second at COTA in 2021 in the Cup Series, and in 2024 he captured a win at the track in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series.
• The 33-year-old has finished first or second in 27% of his road course starts in the No. 5 car, earning six wins and two runner-up results.
• Larson has six career road course wins, ranking him second among active drivers, just one behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 30 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 11th (Atlanta)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 3rd

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• Chase Elliott remains third in the NASCAR Cup Series standings heading to Circuit of The Americas this weekend.
• The 30-year-old driver is a previous winner at COTA, emerging victorious in the 2021 rain-shortened event. His average finish of 6.25 at the track is fifth best among his competitors.
• Elliott’s seven premier series road course wins leads active drivers and ranks third all-time behind Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight).
• The Dawsonville, Georgia, native’s average finish of 9.27 on road courses ranks second among active Cup Series drivers.
• In the Next Gen era on road courses, Elliott leads all Cup Series drivers with 11 top-five finishes and his 14 top 10s are tied for second most. He ranks third in both laps led (147) and average finish (10.45) on that track type in that span.
• Elliott is 11 laps away from becoming the seventh driver to reach 500 laps led on serpentine tracks in NASCAR’s premier series. In addition, he is only seven laps away from leading 6,000 total laps in the Cup Series.
• Last year on road courses, Elliott earned the fourth-most points (193).

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 28 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 28th (Atlanta)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: T-12th

No. 24 All-Pro Chevrolet

• William Byron once again ran up front in last Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, scoring 16 stage points along the way. However, he was collected in an incident with four laps to go, resulting in a 28th-place finish.
• After two NASCAR Cup Series races in 2026, Byron has run the third-most laps in the top five (147) and the fifth-most in the top 10 (257).
• In his last 13 starts on road courses, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native has one pole award and two runner-up results (second most) to go with a pair of wins, six top-five finishes and nine top 10s, all of which are tied for the second most by a Cup Series driver.
• During the Next Gen era on road courses, Byron has led the fifth-most laps (138) and has the seventh-best average finish of 13.26 across 23 starts. He also has two wins and seven top-five finishes which are both tied for the fourth most, and 11 top 10s.
• Byron picked up a Cup Series win at Circuit of The Americas in 2024. He leads all drivers with 71 laps led and has the fourth-best average finish at 6.2. Statistically, COTA is Byron’s second-best track based on average finish.

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 32 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Week: 23rd (Atlanta)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 32nd

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet finished 23rd after being involved in an on-track incident on lap 224.
• Bowman is one of two drivers that has earned a top-10 finish in all five NASCAR Cup Series events at Circuit of The Americas.
• In his five starts at the track, the driver of the No. 48 has three top-five finishes and holds an average finish of 5.2, the second-best average finish at COTA among Cup Series drivers.
• Bowman’s best finish at COTA came in a runner-up showing in 2022 after a dramatic overtime finish.

17 COREY DAY
Age: 20 (November 28, 2005)
Hometown: Clovis, California
Last Finish: 4th (Atlanta)
Crew Chief: Adam Wall
Standings: 8th

• Corey Day matched a career-best finish with a fourth-place showing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last Saturday.
• The Clovis, California, native will make his first start at Circuit of The Americas this weekend in the No. 17 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet.
• Saturday’s race will mark the third road course start for Day following events at Sonoma Raceway and the Charlotte ROVAL in 2025.
• Kyle Larson put Hendrick Motorsports in victory lane in a NOAPS race at COTA in 2024.

Hendrick Motorsports

 
*Most
**Tied for most

• In the five NASCAR Cup Series events at COTA, Hendrick Motorsports leads all teams in wins (two), poles (two), top fives (10), top 10s (12) and laps led (83). The team has placed at least one driver in the top three in all five of those races and has never had a car finish off the lead lap.
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers have combined to win five of the last 13 Cup Series races at road courses with Kyle Larson and William Byron each winning twice and Alex Bowman once.
• The organization remains the premier series’ standard bearer in wins (320), poles (259), top-five finishes (1,323), top-10 finishes (2,261) and laps led (85,376).

QUOTABLE
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on going to Circuit of The Americas: “It’ll be good to get to COTA (Circuit of The Americas) this weekend and see where our Chevy stacks up on the road courses. We had some solid runs on the road courses last year, just a few circumstances outside of our control that kept us from a solid finish. Racing on COTA’s shorter layout was fun, especially the bypass section. I thought it created more passing opportunities and gave the fans a chance to see even more of the action.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on racing at Circuit of The Americas: “I think the short course suits our cars better. And I thought it put on a better show last year than what we had had in the past there. I thought that was one of the best races of the year. It probably was the best road course race, just from an entertainment standpoint. So, hopefully that holds to be true again. I thought we had a good weekend at that event. Had an OK shot at it. An outside chance there on a late run that we chose to get tires on. So that was fun. And got back up in there in the top five.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on heading to a road course after two races at drafting tracks: “The last couple weeks have been promising but not the results we want. It’s also a bit expected when you look at that style of racing. I’m excited though, to get to our first road course of the season. We’ve worked really hard to not only improve that program but to keep getting better at it each year. COTA especially has been a good one for us, so hopefully we can have a better finish and pick up more points.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on kickstarting the 2026 season at Circuit of The Americas: “Our No. 48 team is ready to get to COTA. We’ve had a tough start to the season with two drafting tracks back-to-back and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ve put together some really solid races at COTA and we’re preparing to do that again to build confidence in our team early in the season.”

Corey Day, driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet, on going to Circuit of The Americas: “I’m excited for COTA. It’ll be the first road course of the season so that will be kind of a good gauge to see where I’m at on my road course ability. It will be fun too, it’s a super fun track. F1 goes there so it’ll be cool to see it all and experience it since I’ve never been before.”