Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Las Vegas

Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, March 15
1.5-Mile Tri-Oval
4 p.m. ET
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series race (5 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 33 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 3rd (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 10th

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM team started from the second position. Despite falling back as far as 26th, Larson rebounded to finish third, his best finish of the 2026 season and his first top five.
• The 33-year-old leads all drivers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with 819 laps led and eight stage wins. His average finish of ninth is the best among drivers with more than four starts at the track.
• Since arriving at Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, Larson has led 30% of all laps run at Las Vegas (792 of 2,681).
• The Elk Grove, California, native has 16 stage wins on 1.5-mile tracks in the Next Gen car, no other driver has more than nine. In addition, he has six victories on intermediate tracks in the Next Gen car, also the most among all drivers.
• Larson will drive the No. 88 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Later that evening, he will drive a sprint car in High Limit Racing’s season-opening weekend at the complex’s dirt track.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 30 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 23rd (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 4th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• Chase Elliott heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.
• Elliott is one of nine drivers to finish on the lead lap through four races this year. His average finish of 11.25 ranks third.
• Last season, the 30-year-old driver ranked fourth in points earned on 1.5-mile tracks.
• In the Next Gen era, Elliott has two wins on 1.5-mile tracks. Most recently, he made a last lap pass for the win at Kansas Speedway last fall.
• He has eight top-10 finishes in the last 13 races on mile-and-a-half tracks.
• Elliott’s best Cup Series finish at Las Vegas is second, coming in the fall of 2021. In this race last spring, Elliott earned points in the first stage en route to a 10th-place finish.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 28 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 7th (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 11th

No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet

• Qualifying ninth at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday, William Byron ran inside the top 10 until suffering a flat tire under caution in stage two. However, he was able to fight back to score a seventh-place finish, his first top 10 of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
• The 28-year-old’s average running position of 11.64 this season is sixth best in the field.
• In 16 starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Byron has one win (spring 2023), four top-five finishes, eight top 10s and 337 laps led.
• In the Next Gen era on 1.5-mile tracks, Byron has an average finish of 9.82, best among all drivers. He has also led 886 laps which is second best to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.
• In that same timeframe at Las Vegas, Byron has led the second-most laps (266) and has the fourth-best average finish (10.0).
• The Charlotte, North Carolina, native has led laps at Las Vegas in each of the last six events and 10 of the last 11.

48 JUSTIN ALLGAIER
Age: 39 (June 6, 1986)
Hometown: Riverton, Illinois
Last Week: 33rd (Phoenix, Anthony Alfredo driving)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 36th (owner’s points)

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, will not compete in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as he continues to recover from vertigo.
• Making his second Cup Series start of the 2026 season, NASCAR O’Reilly Series champion (2024) Justin Allgaier will fill in for Bowman.
• Allgaier has made 23 starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the NOAPS, earning one win (spring 2025), 13 top fives and 20 top-10 finishes. He has scored nine consecutive top 10s at the track in the Saturday series, tying him for the longest active streak.
• Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Allgaier’s win in the NOAPS made him the first driver to win in 10 consecutive seasons in series history.
• Bowman and the No. 48 team won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series spring race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• The No. 48 team holds the longest active top-10 streak at Las Vegas with three. In the Next Gen car at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, the team has an average finish of 10.86, fifth best in the series.

17 COREY DAY
Age: 20 (November 28, 2005)
Hometown: Clovis, California
Last Finish: 9th (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Adam Wall
Standings: 8th

• Corey Day enters this weekend’s NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway coming off a top-10 showing at Phoenix Raceway in his most recent event. The ninth-place finish marked his third-consecutive top 10, following a fourth-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway and a fifth place at Circuit of The Americas.
• Through 15 career starts on pavement, Day has recorded three top-five finishes and five top 10s while continuing to gain experience on various types of tracks.
• In his only NOAPS start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October 2025, Day advanced from 19th to 4th, earning his first career top-five finish.
• In addition to fielding the No. 17 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet this weekend, the Clovis, California, native will also be running a sprint car in the High Limit Series.

Hendrick Motorsports

*Most
**Tied for most

• Hendrick Motorsports enters this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the facility’s all-time leader in wins (10), top fives (37), top 10s (64), laps led (2,682) and stage wins (15).
• Out of 16 stages at the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the Next Gen era, Hendrick Motorsports has combined to win 10 of them. At least two of the organization’s cars have finished in the top 10 in the last six Las Vegas races.
• Since the beginning of 2025, the organization has led over half of the laps run on 1.5-mile race tracks (1,029 of 2,012, 51%).
• The Hendrick Motorsports engine department enters the weekend with 558 victories across all three national NASCAR touring series including three straight in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series.
• Hendrick Motorsports remains the premier series’ all-time standard bearer in wins (320), poles (250), top-five finishes (1,324), top 10s (2,265), laps led (85,437) and championships (15).

QUOTABLE /
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on returning to Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Las Vegas is always a track I look forward to because it’s our first real chance in the season to see where we stack up on a mile-and-a-half. With the new Chevy body, there’s still a lot we’re learning, so getting laps at a place like Vegas will be really valuable for our No. 5 team.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “I’m really curious to get to Vegas and see where we’re at. I said at the beginning of the season with this new body that this track would probably be the first really good gauge. The results don’t really show it from last season, but I felt like we had pretty good pace (at Las Vegas) and had made some gains. Hopefully we’re able to continue that this weekend.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “It wasn’t an easy day in Phoenix, but I’m proud of the effort my No. 24 team put in. To battle back from a flat tire and damage to finish seventh shows our strength as a group. Now we’re heading to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and we’ve always had a lot of speed there. Hopefully that’s the case again this weekend and we can really start to stack some big point days.”

Justin Allgaier, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on filling in for Alex Bowman at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “First and foremost, I wish Alex (Bowman) a continued and speedy recovery so that he can get back behind the wheel as soon as he can. I’m thankful to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for this opportunity to fill in, as well as to everyone at JR Motorsports. I feel confident we can go out and have a solid day and make Alex and everyone on this No. 48 Ally team proud.”

Corey Day, driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet, on returning to Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “I’m super excited to get back to Vegas. This will be a fun weekend for me, running a sprint car and then the NOAPS car in the same weekend. We were really, really good at Vegas in the fall, hopefully we’ll bring a faster – or as fast – car and have a lot of fun. I definitely have more knowledge of the track so it’s one I have had circled for a while now.”