DOVER, Del. – Hendrick Motorsports enjoyed a strong group practice session at Dover Motor Speedway on Saturday before rain canceled qualifying.
Kyle Larson, William Byron and Chase Elliott placed second, third and fourth in practice, respectively. Of the four drivers to run 10 consecutive laps, Josh Berry posted the best 10-lap average.
With qualifying washed out, the starting lineup was set by NASCAR’s metric formula. Byron will start eighth in the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Elliott, who is the defending race winner, will line up 10th in the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Larson is set to start 18th in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Berry will take the grid from 23rd in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Kyle Busch will lead the field to green for the 11th race of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Byron has two top-five finishes in his last three starts at the "Monster Mile." Larson won at this track in 2019 and has the best average finish (6.9) at the 1-mile track of all-time among drivers with more than two starts. At Dover, Elliott won last year's race for his second win at the track and has nine top-nine finishes in 12 starts.
"We’ve had some really solid runs on the Cup front; last year probably being one of our better runs, maybe our best run," Elliott said during a media availability on Saturday morning. "It’s been fortunate that this place has been a solid track for us over the last few years. I hope that continues."
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Berry is filling in for Alex Bowman, who is sidelined for the next three-to-four weeks after suffering a fractured vertebra in a sprint car accident in Iowa on Tuesday. Bowman was off to a solid start in 2023, leading the series in average finish at 10.30. He headlined the organization’s historic top-four finishing positions sweep in 2021 and had five top-five finishes in his last six races at Dover. One of Berry’s five wins with Hendrick Motorsports affiliate JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series came at Dover in 2022.
The team’s 22 victories at Dover are only surpassed by its 28 wins at Martinsville Speedway, which represents the all-time record for wins by any team at a track. In total, the team has won 29% (22 of 76) of the Cup Series races at the Delaware venue and has led 7,353 laps (second only to its total at Martinsville). No other team has posted more than nine wins at the 1-mile venue.
PHOTOS: See every Hendrick Motorsports race winner at Dover
Seven different drivers have contributed to Hendrick Motorsports’ win total at Dover. Jimmie Johnson leads the way 11 victories, followed by Jeff Gordon with five wins and Elliott’s earned two triumphs. Bowman, Geoff Bodine, Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd each have one win at the 1-mile track.
The 14-time Cup Series championship-winning organization has two win streaks of at least three races at the concrete track. There was a four-race win streak from September 2013 to May 2015 and a three-race run from September 1995 to September 1996. Entering Sunday's race, the squad has won the last two races at the facility with Bowman (in 2021) and Elliott (in 2022).
Tune in to watch 400 laps of action from Dover on Monday, May 1, at 12 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.