DARLINGTON, S.C. – Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson will make up the third row for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway and lead the team's quartet of drivers to the green flag.
RELATED: See the throwback paint schemes for Darlington
Byron will start fifth in the No. 24 Axalta Throwback Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, following a lap of 169.397 mph in the final round of qualifying. This is his fifth top-six starting spot of the season. In the group practice session, he was fifth fastest (168.186 mph) and placed eighth on the 10-lap consecutive average board. The 26-year-old is the defending race winner at Darlington and has four top-five finishes and five top-10s in 11 starts at the 1.366-mile track. He was the only driver to finish in the top five in both races last season at the track "Too Tough to Tame." Byron's throwback paint scheme is a node to the 2009 "Firestorm" paint scheme run by team vice chairman and four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon.
Entering this weekend, Byron is tied for the series lead in wins with three but admitted in a pre-practice availability that the team is searching for more consistency.
"We just have to be a little more consistent, but we have the pace," Byron said of how he would assess the first third of his season. "I feel like that's what you're striving for – to have pace to win races. We're not consistently putting the weekends together in terms of balance and execution.
"Luckily, it's early in the season. I feel super fresh this year and ready to attack the summer stretch and just start putting some of that consistency together."
Larson starts from the sixth position in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Throwback Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after a lap of 169.374 mph in the final round of qualifying. This is the seventh top-six starting spot for the 31-year-old driver in 2024. In the group practice session, Larson was third on the 10-lap consecutive average chart and topped the board for the 15-lap consecutive average category. In 12 starts at Darlington, Larson has one win (September of 2023), six top-five finishes, eight top-10s and 770 laps led. The 2021 Cup Series champion's 9.4 average finish is the second-best among active drivers. His paint scheme is a nod to Terry Labonte's classic paint scheme, in which he drove the No. 5 car to the 1996 Cup Series championship for Hendrick Motorsports.
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Alex Bowman lines up 18th in the No. 48 Ally Throwback Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Bowman's throwback scheme is a nod to the livery of the early seasons for the seven-time championship-winning duo of driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus. In 12 starts at Darlington, the 31-year-old driver has one top-five finish and three top-10s, with a best finish of second in NASCAR's return to racing in 2020.
Chase Elliott will start 31st in the No. 9 UniFirst Throwback Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Elliott's car is a throwback to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race-winning No. 88 paint scheme in the 2014 DAYTONA 500. In 14 starts at Darlington, the 2020 Cup Series champ has four top-five finishes and seven top-10s. He is one of six drivers who finished in the top 10 in both races there last year, with his track-best result of third coming in the spring race. In practice, the 28-year-old driver was sixth for the best 10-lap consecutive average.
Tyler Reddick will lead the field to green in Sunday's 293-lap race.
PHOTOS: See every Hendrick Motorsports win at Darlington Raceway
Hendrick Motorsports' 16 Cup Series wins at Darlington are the most all-time by a team. Gordon's seven wins account for nearly half of the total. Johnson posted three wins at the 1.366-mile track, including the organization's200th Cup Series win in 2012. Byron, Larson, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd each tallied one trip to victory lane for the team at the track "Too Tough to Tame." With Byron's spring victory and Larson's playoff win in 2023, the team swept the premier series events at the South Carolina track for the first time since 2004. Larson's win also marked the 500th national series win for the Hendrick Motorsports engine department.
In last year's spring race at Darlington, Byron secured the 100th victory for the iconic No. 24 Chevrolet, while Elliott finished third. Larson was battling for the lead with less than 15 laps to go in regulation before contact with another competitor took him out of contention. Bowman missed this race due to injury.
Catch the action at Darlington on Sunday, May 12, at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
