CONCORD, N.C. – The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is nearly half complete. Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway marked the 12th points-paying event of the year.
Hendrick Motorsports is leading the way this season with series-best marks in wins (four), poles (five), top-five finishes (15), top-10s (23), laps led (1,226) and stage wins (nine).
William Byron and Kyle Larson each have two wins, which puts them in a three-way tie for the most victories in the series. Byron (589) and Larson (553) rank one-two in laps led and are part of a four-way tie for the most top-five finishes (five). Byron's six stage wins are tops on the season. Alex Bowman's six top-10 finishes rank second with five other competitors. Despite missing six races, Chase Elliott has top 10s (three) in half of his starts.
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One fact in particular illustrates the team’s fast start to the season. In 2023, there have been three occurrences where an organization has had at least two of the top-three spots in the final running order. All of those have been from Hendrick Motorsports.
Races with multiple drivers finishing in the top three:
March 5 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: Byron-WON, Larson-second and Bowman-third
April 2 at Richmond Raceway: Larson-WON and Josh Berry-second
May 7 at Kansas Speedway: Larson-second and Byron-third
In the 2015 season, Hendrick Motorsports had four races with at least two drivers in the top three over the first 12 races. That mark is the most recent team high in this category.
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In addition, Hendrick Motorsports has placed multiple cars in the top five in five of this year’s 12 races.
Races with multiple drivers finishing in the top five:
March 5 at Las Vegas: Byron-WON, Larson-second and Bowman-third
March 12 at Phoenix Raceway: Byron-WON and Larson-fourth
March 26 at Circuit of The Americas: Bowman-third and Byron-fifth
April 2 at Richmond: Larson-WON and Berry-second
May 7 at Kansas: Larson-second and Byron-third
The Kansas finishes were made even more impressive by all that Larson and Byron had to overcome. While batting for the lead with Tyler Reddick on lap five, Larson was hit and spun. That sent him all the way back to 36th – the last car in the field. Despite the loss of track position, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy rallied to get back to 10th at the end of stage one. He continued his march forward in stage two, taking the lead for the first time on lap 141. Larson was in control for much of the final stage, leading 70 of the 102 laps including the 46 circuits before the checkered flag. Although contact with eventual Kansas race winner Denny Hamlin on the last lap ended his shot at victory, the result was a strong runner-up finish.
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Byron started from the pole but was battling a loose race car in the early going and scraped the wall with the right rear. A pit road speeding penalty required a pass-thru penalty and left him two laps down in stage one. At one point, he found himself three laps down on the day. Thanks to a rash of cautions in stage two, crew chief Rudy Fugle was able to use strategy and wave arounds to get back on the lead lap. In the final stage, Byron methodically worked his way up into the top five and then up to second. On lap 213, he took the lead before Larson got by him on lap 221. While he settled for a third-place result, the comeback to a top-five finish was another indication of just how strong the No. 24 team has been this season.
Next up for Hendrick Motorsports is the track “Too Tough to Tame” at Darlington Raceway. The series’ 13th race of 2023 will take place on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 14, at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
RELATED: See the full 2023 schedule and race results for Hendrick Motorsports