LAS VEGAS ā Kyle Larson and William Byron will line up on the front two rows for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Larson and Byron are the two most recent winners at the 1.5-mile track.
Larson's lap of 184.225 mph in the final round of qualifying put the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the front row with the second spot on the grid. Las Vegas has been one of the 2021 Cup Series champion's best tracks throughout his career. In his six starts at the Nevada facility with Hendrick Motorsports, the Elk Grove, California, native has two wins, two runner-up finishes, four stage wins, 421 laps led and an average finish of 8.5. For his Cup career, he has seven top-five finishes, 11 top-10s and an average finish of 9.9 in 15 starts. In Larson's playoff race win last October, he started second and led a race-high 133 laps en route to the victory.
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"Iām happy to be on the front row but I would like to be on the pole," Larson said. "My race car in practice felt really good. I felt like we were one of two or three best cars in our set. The wind was definitely a factor for balance off of (turn) two and into (turn) three, but I think it is going to be a little less windy tomorrow, so hopefully things will feel a bit more normal."
Byron's lap of 183.911 mph in the last round of group qualifying placed the No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 fourth on the starting grid. The 2024 DAYTONA 500 champion is the defending race winner and has started inside the top four in the last four Las Vegas races. In 12 Cup Series starts at Vegas, Byron has a win, two top-five finishes, five top-10s and 256 laps led. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native has an average finish of 6.5 in his last four races at this track and has scored the most points (174) in that stretch, which includes his overtime victory the previous spring, where he led 176 laps.
Byron and Larson were the top cars for the organization in practice, placing eighth and ninth on the speed chart. However, Larson and Byron ranked first and second in 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-lap consecutive averages.
Chase Elliott just missed advancing to the final round of qualifying and will start 11th in the No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. In 13 starts at Las Vegas, the 2020 Cup Series champion has three top-five finishes, five top-10s and three stage wins. His best result at the Nevada track came in the 2021 playoff race when he finished second. In practice, Elliott was sixth on the 10-lap average board.
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Alex Bowman is set to take the grid from the 23rd position in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Bowman has a win here (in 2022) and finished third in last spring's race. In 13 total starts at Vegas, he has three top-five finishes, four top-10s and a stage win.
Joey Logano took the pole position for the second time in three weeks.
Hendrick Motorsports has won the last three spring races among its series-best nine victories at Las Vegas. Jimmie Johnson's four victories are a team-high, while Larson has two wins. Bowman, Byron and team vice chairman Jeff Gordon each have one win. The five drivers to win at the Nevada venue are the most by one team. Those victories have contributed to their series-leading 44 wins on the West Coast.
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The Rick Hendrick-owned team swept the races at the 1.5-mile track in 2023. In last year's spring race, Byron, Larson and Bowman took the top three spots in the finishing order. The trio combined to lead 241 of the 271 laps in the event. This race was also one of three occurrences in its storied history where the team swept the top three spots in an event (the DAYTONA 500 in 1997 and the top-four sweep at Dover Motor Speedway in 2021 are the others). Larson won the playoff race to earn a spot in the Championship 4. In those events, Hendrick Motorsports led 69.70% of the laps run (375 of 538). Both race winners (Byron in the spring and Larson in the fall) swept the stages en route to their victories.
The next stage win for Hendrick Motorsports will be its 100th in the Cup Series. Ten of those stage wins have come in the last eight races at Las Vegas. Entering this event, Hendrick Motorsports is 202 laps away from 80,000 circuits out front in the Cup Series.
Tune in to watch the quartet of Larson, Elliott, Byron and Bowman try to make it four spring victories in a row at Las Vegas. Catch the action on Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).