DOVER, Del. – Hendrick Motorsports kicked off the Dover Motor Speedway race weekend with a strong qualifying effort, putting three of its teams inside the top 10 in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session.
Kyle Larson landed his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 the third starting spot for Sunday’s race with a speed of 159.631 mph around the 1-mile oval. Larson has qualified inside the top five in seven of the last eight Dover events.
Teammates Chase Elliott (fourth) and Alex Bowman (sixth) were closely behind Larson. After an accident in practice, William Byron did not qualify and will start Sunday’s race from 33rd. Chris Buescher won his first career pole position.
Chevrolets were quick in Dover qualifying, earning five of the top-10 starting slots.
Dover is one of three racetracks where Hendrick Motorsports has posted more than 20 points-paying wins. The team’s 21 victories at the Delaware venue are equal to its total at Charlotte Motor Speedway and surpassed only by its 27 at Martinsville Speedway, which represents the all-time record for wins by any team at a track.
At Dover last May, Hendrick Motorsports swept the top-four finishing positions after leading 382 of the 400 laps – or 95.5%. It was the highest percentage of laps the team had ever led in a single Cup Series race until April 9 of this year when it led 98.5% of the laps at Martinsville (397 of 403).
FOX Sports 1 will broadcast Sunday’s Cup Series race live at 3 p.m. ET. Dover Motor Speedway coverage can also be found on MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.