Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Las Vegas

Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, Oct. 4
1.5-Mile Tri-Oval
5:30 p.m. ET
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (Race 31 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 34 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Race: 1st (Kansas)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 1st

No. 5 HendrickCars.com Kyle Busch Tribute Chevrolet  

• Last week at Kansas Speedway, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team led 235 of 267 laps, winning both stages and recording the fastest lap of the race en route to their second win of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase and a maximum-points day.
• Larson’s average finish of 2.25 through the first four races of The Chase is the best of any driver through the first four races of any postseason since The Chase was introduced in 2004.
• The Elk Grove, California, native is the only driver to finish in the top five in all four Chase races. No other driver has finished in the top 10 in all four races.
• So far in 2026, the No. 5 pit crew ranks first by Racing Insights’ metric.
• The 34-year-old leads all drivers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with 881 laps led and eight stage wins. His average finish of 8.9 is best among all drivers with more than four starts at the track.
• At the six tracks remaining on the schedule, Larson has tallied eight combined wins, including victories at every stop except Talladega Superspeedway.
• Larson has finished in the top two in six of his 11 Las Vegas starts with the No. 5 car, including three victories.
• When Larson takes the wheel at Las Vegas, his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet will pay tribute to the late Kyle Busch with a special throwback paint scheme. The design honors Busch’s 2007 Bristol Motor Speedway win with Hendrick Motorsports by recreating the blue, red and neon-yellow color palette from one of his most iconic No. 5 paint schemes. Name rails will add a personal touch to the tribute, with Busch’s signature prominently displayed above the passenger-side window and “Tiny Kyle,” a playful nickname Busch gave Larson, on the opposite side.  

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 30 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last Race: 8th (Kansas)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 13th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• With his eighth-place result at Kansas Speedway last weekend, Chase Elliott earned his 200th top-10 finish in the NASCAR Cup Series. He also surpassed Terry Labonte to become the driver with the third-most premier series starts for Hendrick Motorsports (388).
• Of the six remaining tracks the Cup Series will visit this season, Elliott has won on four of them a combined six times.
• On 1.5-mile tracks this season, the 30-year-old has the fourth-best average finish (11.2). He’s earned four top-10 finishes on that track type this season, including a victory at Texas Motor Speedway in May.
• In the Next Gen era at 1.5-mile facilities, Elliott is tied for the fourth-most victories (three).
• In the spring of this year, Elliott earned a runner-up finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, matching his previous best Cup Series finish at the track (fall 2021).  

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 28 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Race: 7th (Kansas)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 12th

 No. 24 HP Chevrolet  

• With a seventh-place finish at Kansas Speedway, William Byron continued a streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes, moving him up to 12th in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase standings.
• In the Next Gen era on 1.5-mile tracks, Byron has an average finish of 9.2. best of all drivers. He has also led the third-most laps (1,006).
• In the last nine races on mile-and-a-half tracks, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native has eight top-10 finishes including being one of only two drivers who have finished top 10 in all six such races this season.
• On 1.5-milers so far in 2026, Byron has the second-most stage wins (three) and the second-best average finish (6.3)
• In 17 starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Byron has one win (spring 2023), five top-five finishes and nine top 10s with 363 laps led.
• In the last four races at Las Vegas, Byron has three finishes of fourth or better. He’s also led laps in the last seven races and 11 of the last 12 at the Nevada track. His current streak is tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson for the third-longest consecutive streak of races with a lap led at Vegas.  

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 33 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Race: 18th (Kansas)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 28th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• In his last three NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Alex Bowman has finished in the top 10 with one fifth-place and two seventh-place finishes.
• Bowman has also earned a win at the 1.5-mile tri-oval (spring 2022) and is one of three active Hendrick Motorsports drivers with wins at Las Vegas (Kyle Larson, William Byron).
• The 33-year-old has finished in the top 10 in 11 of his last 17 starts on 1.5 mile tracks.  

17 COREY DAY
Age: 20 (November 28, 2005)
Hometown: Clovis, California
Last Race: 5th (Bristol)
Crew Chief: Adam Wall
Standings: 6th

• The NASCAR O’Reilly Series returns from a one-week break this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Corey Day remains in contention for the NOAPS championship, currently sitting sixth in The Chase standings, 92 points behind the leader after moving up two positions following his fifth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• In five starts on 1.5-mile tracks during the 2026 season, Day has recorded an average starting position of 5.8, his best on any track type.
• Day returns to Las Vegas for his third NOAPS start. He earned an eighth-place finish at the facility this spring and recorded his best series finish at the time with a fourth-place result last October.
• In his March start at the track, the Clovis, California, native led his first nine NOAPS laps. Since then, he has added 187 laps led, bringing his total to 196 in his first full-time season on pavement.  

Hendrick Motorsports  

*Most
**Tied for most

• The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the fifth race of The Chase. Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader in wins (10), top fives (39), stage wins (16) and laps led (2,770) at the 1.5-mile tri-oval and its 67 top 10s are tied for the most.
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers have combined to win five of the last 11 races at Las Vegas with Kyle Larson winning three times and William Byron and Alex Bowman once each. Its 16 combined stage wins are the most by any team at any track.
• Among the 10 tracks in The Chase, Hendrick Motorsports has piled up 136 victories including 21 in the Next Gen era. The organization leads the field in postseason wins (64) and has won at least one race in The Chase/Playoffs in 23 of 24 seasons. That includes multiple victories in each of the last seven years.
• With Larson now atop The Chase standings, a Hendrick Motorsports driver has led the series in points in each of the last seven seasons.
• The Hendrick Motorsports engine department enters the weekend with 582 victories across all three national NASCAR touring series including 21 of 27 events in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series this season.
• Hendrick Motorsports remains the Cup Series’ all-time standard bearer in wins (324), poles (259), top-five finishes (1,350), top 10s (2,308), laps led (86,979) and championships (15).  

QUOTABLE
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on his Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme and momentum heading to Las Vegas: “I’m super excited to get to honor Kyle Busch this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a scheme that he ran at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s a beautiful paint scheme, too. Hopefully, we can have a good day. Vegas has been a good track for us in the past, and after the run we had at Kansas [Speedway], we’ve been building our intermediate program to be better and better. Hopefully, we can go there, execute another good weekend, qualify well and score a lot of points.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on this weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Really, for us right now, we just need to start stringing together some consistent solid finishes. We made some progress at Kansas [Speedway] last week and it was nice to get back up inside the top 10. At Las Vegas [Motor Speedway] in the spring, we had a really solid day, and it felt good to be in contention for the win at a track that hadn’t really been a strong one for us. Hopefully we can go there and put together another strong run and just keep building some momentum through this final stretch.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on two more 1.5-mile tracks ahead: “[Last week at] Kansas [Speedway] was OK. We struggled to find that last little bit for handling, and with no practice again, it took most of the race to try things. It was a solid day, but we need to do more if we really want to make a jump up in points. We have two more mile-and-a-half tracks coming up that we’re good at, so this is our chance.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Las Vegas [Motor Speedway] is one of my favorite racetracks. Selfishly, I like that we typically run well there, but I feel like it puts on a good show; it’s exciting and has a lot of chaotic restarts. We’ve had a tough couple weeks. We need to get back to finishing where we know our team is capable of finishing and [Las] Vegas is a good place for our Ally 48 team to do that.”

Corey Day, driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet, on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “[Las] Vegas [Motor Speedway] is probably my favorite track we go to all year. I run pretty well at the 1.5-mile tracks, so I’m really looking forward to getting back there. It was nice to have a weekend off to reset, but I’m ready to get back with my No. 17 HendrickCars.com team and keep fighting through The Chase.”