Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Atlanta

NEXT RACE
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sunday, July 12
1.54-Mile Quad-Oval
7 p.m. ET
Location: Hampton, Georgia
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (Race 20 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 33 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Race: 34th (Chicagoland)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 6th

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Kyle Larson has led at least one lap in each of the last seven NASCAR Cup Series races, marking his second-longest such streak. His longest was a string of 15 races, spanning the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
• The 33-year-old is just five laps led away from surpassing 11,000 for his career. He would become one of only 20 drivers in history to reach that milestone.
• With eight top-five finishes this season, Larson ranks third, just two behind the series leaders with 10.
• As the circuit shifts back to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend, Larson has recorded four top-five finishes on drafting tracks during his Cup Series career, with three coming in the last 10 races.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 30 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last Race: 11th (Chicagoland)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 5th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts/CHOA Chevrolet

• Chase Elliott heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend as the defending winner of the summer NASCAR Cup Series race at his home track. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native led 41 laps en route to victory last June. Atlanta is one of eight tracks where Elliott has multiple Cup wins. His first victory there came in July 2022.
• The 30-year-old has the best average finish (9.38), the second-best average running position (10.96) and has led the fourth-most laps (177) on Atlanta’s current configuration.
• Elliott is tied for the second-most wins (three) and has led the fifth-most laps (270) on drafting tracks in the Next Gen era. This season on drafting tracks, Elliott has the third-best average finish (6.3), has earned the third-most points (116) and is tied for the third-most stage points (24).
• In the last seven drafting-track races, the 2020 Cup Series champion leads the series with four top-five finishes. His five top 10s are tied for the most.
• This weekend marks the return of the Chase Elliott Foundation’s Desi9n to Drive program in conjunction with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and NAPA Auto Parts. Elliott’s baseball-themed paint scheme and uniform for the Atlanta race features designs by two CHOA patients. Fans can support the cause by entering an online sweepstakes with a grand prize of a VIP fly-away trip for two to a NASCAR Cup Series race to meet Elliott. For more information, visit www.desi9ntodrive.org.
• In the third round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, No. 4 Elliott will go up against 12th-seeded Chase Briscoe. Elliott has finished ahead of Briscoe seven times at Atlanta since its reconfiguration.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 28 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Race: 4th (Chicagoland)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 12th

No. 24 HP Chevrolet

• In the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to Chicagoland Speedway, Byron qualified 10th but propelled himself to the front early on, leading 94 laps and winning both stage one and stage two. He also ran 213 of 267 laps in the top five. With a long green-flag run to the end, Byron crossed the finish line in fourth.
• In 43 starts on drafting tracks, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native, has five wins (two at Atlanta Motor Speedway and three at Daytona International Speedway). Four of those came in the Next Gen era, most by any driver. That’s also tied with Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson for second most by a Hendrick Motorsports driver behind vice chairman Jeff Gordon (12). His two Atlanta wins are tied for the third most in the organization’s history.
• In nine races at the reconfigured Atlanta (since 2022), the 28-year-old driver has led the third-most laps (179), has the fourth-best average running position (12.8), and has two wins, tied for the most.
• Advancing on to the next round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, No. 11 Byron finds himself up against third-seeded Ryan Blaney. With three races in 2026 on drafting tracks, Byron has bettered Blaney twice.

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 33 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Race: 5th (Chicagoland)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 29th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Alex Bowman finished fifth, earning his third top-five finish of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Two of his four top-10 finishes of the year have come in the last two races.
• Bowman has finished runner-up at a drafting track twice, finishing second to teammates in both instances (William Byron, 2024 DAYTONA 500 and Chase Elliott, 2019 Talladega Superspeedway). Those races account for his best finish on this style track. Since the start of 2025, Bowman is tied for third-most top-10 finishes (four) on drafting tracks.
• In nine starts on the new configuration of Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bowman has earned two top fives and three top 10s with a best finish of third.
• Bowman advanced into the third round of the NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge after finishing ahead of Austin Cindric at Chicagoland. This weekend at Atlanta, the 33-year-old will go head-to-head with No. 25 Todd Gilliand. Bowman, the tournament’s 32nd seed, has finished better than Gilliand in 17 races on drafting tracks since 2022.

17 COREY DAY
Age: 20 (November 28, 2005)
Hometown: Clovis, California
Last Race: 19th (Chicagoland)
Crew Chief: Adam Wall
Standings: 3rd

• Through his three career NASCAR O’Reilly Series starts on drafting tracks, Corey Day has compiled an average finish of 10.7, his best at any track type.
• The 20-year-old’s most recent start on a drafting track came in April at Talladega Superspeedway, where he earned his first NOAPS victory.
• The Clovis, California, native returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway for his second NOAPS start on the 1.54-mile quad-oval. In his series debut at the venue in February, Day qualified ninth and earned a fourth-place finish.
• At Atlanta, the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy has recorded five top-five finishes, six top 10s and 275 laps led.

Hendrick Motorsports

*Most
**Tied for most

• The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for the second time in 2026. The organization is the all-time leader at the venue in wins (18), top fives (69), top 10s (108) and laps led (3,822).
• Currently, Hendrick Motorsports is riding a streak of five straight races with at least one car in the top five, the longest active streak in the series.
• The Hendrick Motorsports engine department enters the weekend with 574 victories across all three national NASCAR touring series, including 15 of 20 events in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series this season.
• Hendrick Motorsports remains the Cup Series’ all-time standard bearer in wins (322), poles (259), top-five finishes (1,342), top 10s (2,292), laps led (86,411) and championships (15).

QUOTABLE
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on returning to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second time in 2026: “It’s always beneficial to return to a track for a second race in the same season because you can build on what you learned the first time around, especially having the new Chevy body. We’re optimistic about the speed we showed as an organization there in the spring and it would be good to win on a drafting-style track.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on Desi9n to Drive returning this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway: “A lot of good, positive energy with the program again this year. And, obviously, last year going as well as it did, it’s kind of hard to top that. So, we’ll try our best to run it back.

“From my perspective, it seems like more and more people are learning about it. It just continues to make it more fun for me, right? It’s easier to talk about and as you bring awareness to everything that we’ve done with CHOA (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta) and then obviously the NAPA partnership and what they’ve meant to the program itself, too. Super proud of the whole effort and I hope that as time goes, we can keep growing it and just keep making it better.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on a strong run at Chicagoland Speedway and what lies ahead at Atlanta: “While it was frustrating not to win, last weekend was definitely back on pace to where we should be. There’s still a little bit more left to gain though. Thankfully Atlanta (Motor Speedway) is the first track we’re returning to this year where we already have some notes with the new Chevy body so that’s also a plus. We’ve always run well at Atlanta, it’s just about surviving and being in a good place at the end.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on Atlanta Motor Speedway: “Not crashing is probably top of the list for Atlanta; we had a tough day there in the spring. I feel like you have to pay a speedway [drafting track] tax; to get good finishes, you have to have bad finishes. We had two bad finishes to start the season, and then we finished third at Talladega [Superspeedway], so they still owe us a good finish. We’ve been getting things pointed in the right direction over the last two weeks and we’re ready to continue that this weekend.”

Corey Day, driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet, on returning to Atlanta Motor Speedway: “We had a strong run at Atlanta earlier this year, so I’m excited to get back there. It’s nice getting to some of these tracks for a second time because I know what to expect. I can spend less time figuring the place out and more time focusing on racing. I have a better feel for where I can push the No. 17 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet, and I think that’ll help our team this weekend.”