5 KYLE LARSON
Age: 31 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Resides: Mooresville, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 1st
No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
POLE STRING: Last Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson won his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole position and the 250th for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR’s premier series. The 31-year-old driver will look to become the first driver since 2004 to win four straight this Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. If he accomplishes that feat, Larson will join Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon in winning four poles in a row for the organization.
OUT FRONT: Larson has led at least one lap in seven of the nine races this season for a total of 531 – 136 more laps out front than the nearest competitor. His laps led in 2024 are the most ever by the Elk Grove, California, native through nine races in a season. Larson’s 531 laps led are the most by a Hendrick Motorsports driver at this point in a year since Gordon led 538 at the same point in 2007. When Larson set the Cup Series record for most laps led (2,581) during a 36-race schedule in 2021, he paced the field only 379 times through nine events.
STAGE RIGHT: The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has won the first stage in the last three Cup races. In fact, Larson’s five stage victories are tops this season. With his win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, the 2021 Cup Series champion has earned 10 playoff points toward the 2024 playoffs.
5 IN FIVE: Larson has run the most laps in the top five this season (1,514) and is tied for the most top-five finishes (four). He has also been atop the point standings after four different races in 2024. If he retains the lead after Sunday’s race at Talladega, Larson will become the first driver this year to lead the standings after three consecutive races.
POINTS MADE: Since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, Larson has earned the fourth-most points at the Alabama track (124). In the first Next Gen event at the 2.66-mile track, he led 32 laps (his most at a drafting-style track) and finished a career-best fourth at the facility.
HENDRICKCARS.COM IS HOME: This Sunday’s race at Talladega is a home race for the HendrickCars.com team. The Birmingham/Hoover, Alabama, area has three Hendrick Automotive Group dealerships. Respectively, the No. 5 driver and crew can be found in their white firesuits this weekend. For every HendrickCars.com home race this season, there is a unique hat released the week of the race and only available for sale on the trackside merchandise haulers or available to win on HendrickCars.com. Less than 100 of each limited-edition hat will be available to the public. This week’s Alabama-themed hat will be revealed Thursday and can be seen here.
WE’RE HIRING: Hendrick Automotive Group is hiring more than 300 technicians at its dealerships throughout the country. Positions are open for all skill levels and offer tuition and training reimbursement. Interested people can apply at HendrickCars.com.
FABULOUS 40: In 2024, Hendrick Motorsports is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Among the categories that the organization holds the NASCAR Cup Series record for are all-time wins (306), poles (250), laps led (80,569) and championships (14). With Chase Elliott’s win at Texas Motor Speedway, the team has won at least five races a year in 22 of the last 24 seasons. It is also the second time the team has won at least five of the first nine races in a season (2007 was the other occurrence).
FROM THE POLE: Hendrick Motorsports is the first team to reach 250 pole positions in the Cup Series. The milestone was hit last Saturday with Kyle Larson’s pole at Texas, his third in a row and the team’s fourth consecutive top starting spot in the 2024 season. Across 31 tracks, 20 drivers have won poles for the squad including all four of the team’s current drivers. Team vice chairman Jeff Gordon’s 81 pole positions are the most by a driver in the organization’s history and Daytona International Speedway tops the track list at 23 pole positions.
WINNING TRIO: With five wins among Elliott, Larson and William Byron in 2024, the Rick Hendrick-owned team has had three of its drivers win within the first nine races. The organization also achieved this in 2007 (six wins), 2009 (three wins), 2021 (three wins) and 2022 (four wins). Hendrick Motorsports accounts for five of the 10 instances where a team has seen three of its drivers win in the opening nine races.
TALLYING TOP FIVES: In the last five races in the 2024 season, at least two drivers from the squad have finished in the top five. At Texas, Elliott finished first and Byron placed third. At Martinsville Speedway, it was the Byron-Larson-Elliott trio in a 1-2-3 finish. At Richmond Raceway, Larson placed third and Elliott was fifth. Byron won and Alex Bowman was fourth at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Bowman and Larson finished fourth and fifth at Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively. This is the organization’s longest streak since a seven-race stretch from Darlington Raceway to Pocono Raceway in the 2021 season.
PIT POWER: Based on Racing Insights data, all four Hendrick Motorsports pit crews rank in the top seven among Cup Series teams for the fastest average four-tire pit stop. The No. 9 pit crew tops the board (10.724 seconds), followed by the No. 24 pit crew in third (10.874 seconds) and the No. 5 pit crew in fourth (10.890 seconds). The No. 48 pit crew is seventh (11.196 seconds).
VICTORY FORMATION: Gordon’s six wins at Talladega Superspeedway top the organization’s list, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Elliott’s two triumphs each. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader and Brian Vickers each have one victory at Talladega while driving for the organization. The seven drivers to win at this track are the most for one team.
DRAFTING DARLINGS: The Concord, North Carolina-based team has 33 wins on drafting tracks, which is the highest total in the series and 13 more than the next-best teams. The drafting tracks on the circuit are 2.66-mile Talladega, 2.5-mile Daytona and 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway (since its reprofiling for the 2022 season). In addition to its 14 victories at Talladega, the team has 16 wins at Daytona and three triumphs at Atlanta.
NEXT GEN NOTES: Since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, Byron has the most wins (three) on drafting tracks and Elliott ranks second (with two). They are the only drivers with multiple victories on that track type in NASCAR’s current stock car used in Cup Series competition. In addition to winning this year’s DAYTONA 500, Byron went to victory lane at Atlanta in March of 2022 and July of 2023. Elliott scored wins at Atlanta in July of 2022 and Talladega in October of 2022.
TO THE POINTS: Over the past four races at Talladega (all in the Next Gen era), Hendrick Motorsports has three of the top four drivers in points scored. Elliott leads all drivers (189 points) by 33 markers, Byron ranks third (154) and Larson is fourth (124).
SETTING THE STAGE: In the last 10 races at Talladega (dating back to 2019), all four of the team’s drivers are in the top seven in stage points earned. Elliott ranks first (107), Byron is second (80), Bowman is sixth (63) and Larson is seventh (55).
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his mindset for superspeedway racing: “Superspeedway racing is one of those things that, I don’t know that we all love to do it all the time, but it’s something that I’ve tried to embrace and I’ve tried to try to get better at and put time into. I think it’s easy to look at those events and just kind of skip over them and be like, ah, you know, it’s just a superspeedway race. But they do offer a race win and they offer a lot of points and all those things are still on the line. So, I’ve tried to put emphasis on them. I enjoy going over there (to Talladega Superspeedway). It’s close to home for me.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the opportunities to score points at Talladega: “There’s obviously three laps that pay points, so you’re going to want to be as high as you can get for all three of those. You want to get as many stage points as you can. You want to finish as high as you can and ultimately win stages and win the race. Everybody’s going to try to do the same thing and there’s going to be some different ways to get there. It could depend on how you qualify or where you start, how your car is and what opportunities you have. I don’t think there’s a set roadmap to success, but certainly everybody’s going to try to get as many points as they can.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
