INDIANAPOLIS - Saturday afternoon saw three of the four drivers from Hendrick Motorsports earn top-five starting positions for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Leading the charge was the No. 9 entry of Chase Elliott, who will roll off from the third position. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native briefly held the top spot in qualifying before Tyler Reddick, the final car to qualify, earned pole position. However, tomorrow's goal for the team early in the race will be earning stage points. While his 143 stage points are the seventh-best among full-time competitors, Elliott will need to continue to prioritize these valuable markers if he wishes to hoist the regular season championship trophy after Darlington Raceway's regular season finale.
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Following Elliott was his teammate William Byron in the fourth position. Byron, who entered the weekend with the second-best average starting position at 9.67, improved on this mark with another top-five qualifying effort. The driver of the No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet will aim to win for the 12th time in his career on Sunday.
Starting behind the all Hendrick Motorsports second row will be Kyle Larson in the fifth position. The driver of the No. 5 entry will aim to build off of his eight top-five finishes and 10 top-10 results by adding a Brickyard 400 crown to his resume. He'll also aim to extend his lead in the stage point category having already earned 218 so far this season.
Alex Bowman narrowly missed out on the final round of qualifying and will roll off from the 13th position for Sunday afternoon's main event. Bowman, who was the quickest of all four Hendrick Motorsports cars in practice, found success last weekend at a comparable track in Pocono Raceway with a third-place finish. The No. 48 Ally Racing team will have their sights set on a second victory in 2024 on Sunday.
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As for Hendrick Motorsports, all four drivers have gone to victory lane at least once in the last 33 races. In fact, at least one of the team's four drivers have finished inside the top 10 in 32 of the most recent 33 events. The result? All four drivers are locked into the 2024 playoffs and sit inside the top-10 spots in the regular season standings.
Catch all of the action from Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m. ET with coverage on NBC, IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
