5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 30 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Resides: Mooresville, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 5th
No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
23 DOWN, 23 TO GO: After 23 of 26 NASCAR Cup Series regular season races, Kyle Larson sits fifth in the driver standings – 142 points behind leader and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Playoff points will be awarded to the top 10 drivers in the standings following the Aug. 27 Daytona International Speedway event with 15 markers awarded to first place, 10 to second, eight to third, seven to fourth, and so on. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is only 23 points out of second position entering this weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway.
NOT TOO SHABBY: In 15 Cup Series starts at Richmond, Larson has one win (September 2017), three top-five finishes – including a fifth-place result earlier this year – and seven top-10s. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has finished seventh or better in seven of his last 10 starts at the Virginia venue.
OT WIN: In September 2017 at the .75-mile track, Larson held off Martin Truex Jr. and others in overtime to earn his first short-track victory in NASCAR’s premier series. The native of Elk Grove, California, led 53 laps in the event that was extended by four laps due to a late-race caution.
THE LAST TIME: In April 2017 in his most recent NASCAR Xfinity Series start at the Virginia short track, Larson started seventh and led the final 10 circuits en route to victory. Along with that win, the Elk Grove, California, native also has two top-five finishes and three top-10s in five Xfinity Series starts at Richmond.
60 FIRST: The 61st Knoxville Nationals is scheduled for Aug. 10 – 13 at the famed Knoxville Raceway in Iowa. In six Knoxville Nationals A-Main starts, Larson has scored five top-six finishes including his first win in the prestigious event last year. On Monday, the 2021 Cup Series champion won in a sprint car in the Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway. HendrickCars.com appears on Larson’s sprint car, uniform, gloves and helmet.
HOME RUN: At Richmond this weekend, Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team will wear their “home” white uniforms. Home races occur in markets where there are Hendrick Automotive Group dealerships nearby, and the Richmond market is home to four of them. Be sure to follow Hendrick Automotive Group’s social media channels and visit HendrickCars.com to view the complete home and away schedule.
REVVING TO A MILESTONE: The engine shop at Hendrick Motorsports sits five wins away from 500 victories. To date, the company’s engine program is responsible for 336 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, 122 wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, 22 wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and 15 wins in the ARCA Menards Series and K&N Pro Series ranks.
LEADING THE WAY: With eight wins through 23 NASCAR Cup Series races in 2022, Hendrick Motorsports has earned the most victories so far this season. It is the only four-car team to see each of its drivers win a race this season. The organization’s 1,578 laps out front lead all teams in the series by 50 circuits. Teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron rank 1-2 in laps led this year.
SPRING RACE REWIND: In the April event at Richmond Raceway, three Hendrick Motorsports drivers placed inside the top 10 for the first time since 2015 at the venue. Byron led 122 laps and finished third, while Kyle Larson took fifth and Alex Bowman came home eighth.
WINNING AT RICHMOND: The Rick Hendrick-owned organization has 11 victories in the capital city of Virginia. Jimmie Johnson and Terry Labonte each won three times at the .75-mile track, while Jeff Gordon posted two wins. Bowman, Tim Richmond and Joe Nemechek won once at the Virginia short track. The six drivers to visit victory lane are tied for the most by any one team at Richmond.
VIRGINIA VICTORIES: The team’s 38 wins in “The Old Dominion State” are the second-most all time among Cup Series teams and the most it has accumulated in any one state. In addition to 11 victories at Richmond, the company has 27 triumphs at Martinsville Speedway – its most at any one track in the sport’s top series. Byron won the last race in Virginia at the paperclip-shaped track in April of this year and all four drivers in the lineup have Cup Series victories in the state.
TREND SETTERS: In the last eight short-track races (dating back to November 2020 at Martinsville), Hendrick Motorsports has won five times. During that span, each driver in the current lineup won at least once – Elliott in 2020 at Martinsville, Larson in 2021 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Byron in April at Martinsville – with Bowman picking up two wins (Richmond and Martinsville in 2021).
SHORT-TRACK STRENGTH: Hendrick Motorsports’ 55 wins on short tracks is the best mark by 11 wins for an active team in the Cup Series. Fourteen drivers have combined to reach that total with Gordon’s 17 victories atop the board.
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the challenge of Richmond Raceway: “What makes Richmond (Raceway) so difficult is the slow pace and the tires fall off quite a bit with the Next Gen car. It was difficult to pass earlier this year. Qualifying will be important and just taking care of your rear tires on a long run will be key.”
Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the organization’s gains on tracks less than a mile-and-a-half: “We’ve upgraded our short-track program a lot. Our cars were okay at Richmond (Raceway) – we weren’t great. We certainly weren’t that good at Gateway. We really did a lot of work to get better for New Hampshire (Motor Speedway). We did not execute a good race at New Hampshire but we had a lot of car speed and the car had a lot of potential.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
