Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Texas

No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro

MARTINSVILLE MOMENTUM: In last weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team secured a second-place result, contributing to Hendrick Motorsports’ historic 1-2-3 finish at the 0.526-mile track alongside teammates William Byron (first) and Chase Elliott (third). Larson led 86 laps after starting on the pole at “The Paperclip” and earned his NASCAR Cup Series-best fourth stage win. With a race-high 53-point afternoon, he now holds the lead in the Cup Series points standings with a 14-marker advantage over second.

FRONT ROW FIVE: Larson earned consecutive poles (Richmond Raceway and Martinsville), bringing the organization’s pole count to 249 and placing it one pole position shy of another milestone. With two poles through the first eight races of 2024, he leads Hendrick Motorsports in that statistical category and is tied for first in the series.

TEXAS TEMPO: The 31-year-old driver holds a strong record at Texas Motor Speedway, highlighted by a pair of wins in 2021. Larson was victorious in the playoff race to lock in his spot in the Championship 4 ahead of his title win at Phoenix Raceway. He also won the 2021 All-Star Race, one of his three victories at three different tracks in the exhibition event. Since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, Larson ranks first in laps led (118), first in laps run in the top 10 (438) and second in laps run in the top five (262) at the Fort Worth, Texas, track.

CHANNELING CHAMPION ENERGY: Compared to his performance through eight races in his championship-winning season of 2021, Larson has the same amount of wins (one) and top-five finishes (four). He has led more laps (454 in 2024 to 379 in 2021), a better average finish (10.63 in 2024 to 11.00 in 2021), a better average running position (7.90 in 2024 to 8.80 in 2021) and more stage wins (four in 2024 to three in 2021). His 454 laps led lead the series and are the most he has had through eight races. Larson also leads the Cup Series this season in top fives (four), stage wins (four) and laps run in the top five (1,404).

MILE-AND-A-HALF MUSCLE: The Elk Grove, California, native has won two of the last three races on 1.5-mile tracks. En route to those victories, he swept the stages (at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October of 2023 and March of 2024). In the Next Gen era, Larson leads the series in wins (three) and points scored (566) on 1.5-mile tracks. Additionally, he has claimed 31.25% of all stage wins (10 of 32) on 1.5-mile venues in the Next Gen car, with at least one stage win in each of the last five races on that track length. Since joining the organization in 2021, Larson has led 34.19% of laps run (2,399 of 7,017) on 1.5-mile tracks. Seven of his 18 wins at Hendrick Motorsports have come on 1.5-mile tracks.

OPEN TEST IN OPEN WHEEL: Larson took the next step in his Indianapolis 500 preparation this week during an open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the opening two-hour session with Arrow McLaren, he was second on the speed chart. Larson is attempting to become the fifth driver to run “The Double” of the Indy 500 and the Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600. HendrickCars.com is sponsoring the effort, named the #Hendrick1100.

PIT ROAD PRECISION: The No. 5 HendrickCars.com pit crew has this season’s fourth-best average four-tire pit stop time (11.022 seconds). The five-person crew is comprised of Blaine Anderson (front-tire changer), R.J. Barnette (tire carrier), Brandon Harder (fueler), Brandon Johnson (jackman) and Calvin Teague (rear-tire changer).

SATURDAY SIGNING: Larson will be at the Hendrick Motorsports merchandise hauler on Saturday to sign autographs for the first 100 people who purchase any No. 5 1:24 scale die-cast after the merch hauler opens on Friday afternoon. Those individuals who purchase a die-cast will receive a wristband to come back for an autograph.

HENDRICKCARS.COM IS HOME: Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com crew will wear their white “home” firesuits this weekend at Texas. Every HendrickCars.com home race this season will feature a unique hat released the week of the event, exclusively available for purchase at trackside merchandise haulers or to win on HendrickCars.com. Less than 100 of each limited-edition hat will be made available. Check out this weekend’s Texas hat here. The No. 5 team celebrates home races in markets where Hendrick Automotive Group car dealerships are located.

YOUR CAR NEEDS: The Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, market has three Hendrick Automotive Group dealerships (Hendrick Volkswagon Frisco, Honda Cars of McKinney and BMW of McKinney). Not located in the Fort Worth area? Customers can pick from any of Hendrick Automotive Group’s 93 dealerships nationwide and shop from the convenience of their homes by visiting HendrickCars.com. The website offers searches by category, make, model and vehicle packages from the nearly 30,000 new, high-quality pre-owned and certified cars, trucks and SUVs

No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

MEMORABLE MARTINSVILLE: Last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Chase Elliott was part of a historic 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick Motorsports, which came on the 40th anniversary weekend celebration of the organization’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory in 1984. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 had his best race statistically so far this season with a 126.7 driver rating. Elliott qualified third for the scheduled 400-lap race and finished the first two stages inside the top five – third and fourth, respectively. The Hendrick Motorsports driver took the lead in the final stage, pacing the field for 64 laps en route to a third-place result. It was his second consecutive top-five run.

SOMETHING’S COOKING: Sunday will mark the Cup Series’ ninth race of the 2024 season. Across the first eight races, Elliott completed all but one of the 2,429 laps in competition. Additionally, he has the fourth-best average running position (10.90) and has spent the fourth-most laps both inside the top five (762) and the top 10 (1,320). Elliott has led 87 laps this season, including the 80,000th for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series. In 2024, Elliott and the No. 9 team continue to be fast in qualifying, earning five consecutive top-10 starting positions and six total on the year. With two top-five finishes and three top-10s, Elliott sits sixth in the Cup Series points standings.

LONE STAR STATS: Elliott has made 13 premier series starts at Texas Motor Speedway. The 28-year-old driver garnered two top-five finishes, six top-10s and led 89 laps in those starts. Since the introduction of the Next Gen Cup Series car in 2022, Elliott has spent the fourth-most laps inside the top 10 (367) at the Fort Worth, Texas, track. The six-time National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver also has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the 1.5-mile track, the site of his first career Xfinity Series victory in April of 2014. In fact, Elliott finished eighth or better in those five starts.

1.5-MILERS: Elliott will make his 80th start on a 1.5-mile track in the Cup Series this weekend at Texas. In his previous 79 races on tracks of that length, he has two victories (Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2020 and Kansas Speedway in 2018), collected 22 top-five finishes – eight of which are runner-up results – 38 top-10s and led 1,041 laps.

AG at TMS: Alan Gustafson, No. 9 team crew chief, is set to call his 36th Texas Cup Series race on Sunday in his 20th season atop the pit box. In his previous 35 starts at the track, the Ormond Beach, Florida, native has eight top-five finishes, 17 top-10s and 393 laps led. His best finish of second came in 2014 with NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon.

DYNAMIC DUO: Elliott and Gustafson are in their ninth season together and are currently the longest active driver and crew chief combo in the Cup Series garage. The duo is ranked second among active pairings with 18 points-paying victories. Gustafson and Elliott earned their first Cup Series title in 2020 and the team captured the regular-season championship in 2022.

FOUR TIRES FAST: Through eight Cup Series races in 2024, the No. 9 pit crew ranks second in average four-tire pit stop time (10.848 seconds). On March 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the five-person team knocked out the fourth-fastest four-tire stop of the season with a time of 9.479 seconds. The No. 9 crew is comprised of Chad Avrit (rear-tire changer), Jared Erspamer (tire carrier), John Gianninoto (fueler), Nick O’Dell (tire changer) and T.J. Semke (jackman).

WHEN CHASE WINS, YOU WIN: Fans can visit Hooters on Mondays after Cup Series races this season and ask their server for free fried pickles (with a drink purchase) when Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team finishes in the top 10. If the No. 9 team wins, customers receive 10 free wings with any 10-wing purchase. Get more details at hooters.com/racing. Don’t miss the No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on track this weekend.

No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will be available to members of the media in the Texas Motor Speedway media center on Saturday, April 13, at 8:45 a.m. local time.

C(LOCKED) IN ANOTHER ONE: After qualifying 18th at Martinsville Speedway, William Byron wasted no time powering his No. 24 Axalta 40th Anniversary Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the field, finishing the opening stage in eighth. Byron maintained his top-10 running position in stage two, picking up another eighth-place result. During the final stage, crew chief Rudy Fugle timed the green-flag pit sequence right, putting the No. 24 in position to battle for the lead once the cycle was complete. Even with a green-white-checkered overtime attempt, Byron held off his Hendrick Motorsports teammates to pick up his third win of the season, headlining a 1-2-3 finish for the organization on its 40th anniversary weekend.

THREE-PEAT: This is the first time in Byron’s NASCAR Cup Series career that he has won three times within the first eight races of the season and the first time a driver has accomplished this feat since 2019. Over the last 30 years, it has only been done 10 times with Hendrick Motorsports drivers accounting for six instances. Of the previous five times a driver went on to win the championship in a season where they won three of the first eight races, four of them were for the Rick Hendrick-owned team. (Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon in 1995 and 1997 and Jimmie Johnson in 2007 and 2010 both won titles in the years they won three of the first eight races.)

24 IN ’24: Adding another win to his 2024 stats, Byron continues to be nothing short of impressive. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native has one pole award, three wins (leads the series), three top-five finishes (tied for third-most) and five top-10s (tied for the most) this season. He’s also led 149 laps – sixth-most among the field – and has moved up to fourth in the 2024 Cup Series points standings.

WHAT’S IN A NUMBER: With his win at Martinsville, Byron continues to extend the history and legacy of the No. 24. The iconic car number ranks third on the all-time list with 106 Cup Series wins, trailing only the No. 43 (200 wins) and the No. 11 (233 wins). All of Byron’s 13 premier series wins have come in the No. 24, while Gordon accounts for 93 wins. The No. 24 also has 11 wins at the paperclip-shaped track, moving to the third-most by a car number over the No. 48 (10). To top it off, his win on Sunday moves him to the fifth-most wins by a Hendrick Motorsports driver (13 in 224 starts).

NEXT GEN DUO: Since the introduction of the Next Gen Cup Series car in 2022, Byron and Fugle have a series-leading 11 wins. The duo leads Hendrick Motorsports teammates driver Kyle Larson (eight wins) and crew chief Cliff Daniels (seven wins). Fugle and Byron now rank fourth for the most wins by an active driver and crew chief pairing with 12 wins total.

1.5-MILE MAGIC: Byron is no stranger to success on mile-and-a-half tracks during his Cup Series career. Since the start of 2021 (not counting races on Atlanta Motor Speedway after its reprofiling for 2022), he has had three wins, two runner-up finishes, nine top-fives and 17 top-10s in 24 races on 1.5-mile tracks. In fact, in the Next Gen car, Byron has two wins and collected 564 points on mile-and-a-half tracks – second in both categories to Larson. He also has four consecutive top-10 finishes on 1.5-mile tracks – the longest active streak by a driver.

TEXAS TOUGH: Byron will return to Texas Motor Speedway as the defending winner after his fall triumph in 2023, which also brought Hendrick Motorsports its 300th Cup Series win. He has one runner-up result in nine starts, two top-five finishes and five top-10s. Byron’s three consecutive top-10 runs at Texas are the second-longest active streak on the 1.5-mile oval. The 26-year-old driver has five additional national starts at Texas, with one win and an average finish of 3.50 in two NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts and a 6.00 average finish in three NASCAR Xfinity Series races.

FUGLE HAS ‘NO LIMITS’: Sunday marks Fugle’s fourth Cup Series points-paying event at Texas. In his three previous Cup Series starts, the Livonia, New York, native has one win (September of 2023), two top-five finishes and three top-10s. Fugle has 18 additional national series starts atop the pit box at Texas, where he has visited victory lane at the “No Limits” track five times in the Truck Series – the most for him at any track on the circuit – most recently in 2019 where he swept both races. Byron’s June 2016 triumph is one of those five victories. In his 15 Truck Series starts, Fugle’s drivers have also racked up seven top-five finishes, 11 top-10s and 493 laps led.

PIT ROAD PROWESS: After eight races in the 2024 season, the No. 24 pit crew continues their success from last year. The five-person crew currently ranks third in average four-tire pit stop time at 10.945 seconds. The No. 24 pit crew consists of Spencer Bishop (jackman), Jeff Cordero (front-tire changer), Orane Ossowski (rear-tire changer), Ryan Patton (tire carrier) and Landon Walker (fueler).

LIBERTY U IS BACK: Byron will sport Liberty University on board his No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Sunday’s race. Featuring a white base with navy flames and red accents, the Liberty University No. 24 will be sure to stand out on track. Liberty University has a long history with Byron starting in 2014 in the late model ranks. Liberty University has been Training Champions for Christ since it was founded in 1971. Located in the mountains of Central Virginia, Liberty is a liberal arts institution with 17 colleges and schools that offers more than 600 degree programs from the certificate to the doctoral level, on campus and online. Working on an undergraduate degree in strategic communication, Byron is in his junior year at Liberty University through its online program. For a better look at Byron’s Liberty University paint scheme, click here.