HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Kyle Larson will lead the Hendrick Motorsports quartet to the green flag at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will roll off in the fifth position (166.103 mph).
Regardless of this weekend's outcome and the results of next weekend's Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway, Larson will race for a title in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway. The 31-year-old driver won the opening race of the round at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to automatically advance to the Championship 4. Despite the lack of pressure on Larson, Miami has been one of his best tracks, as shown by a dominating victory in 2022.
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One of Larson's keys to success at Homestead-Miami has been his ability to run the high line, right against the fence. That ability is crucial to make speed as the track is known for being tough on tires. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion believes that the driver makes "a little bit more" of a difference at this venue.
"You have to be comfortable against the wall and I know there’s a lot of drivers that aren’t that comfortable against it," Larson said during a morning media availability at the track.
"It just seems like the Next Gen car is a little bit easier to run up against the wall. It was a big advantage last year on the long run and hopefully we’ve gotten our car better on the short run, but still really good on the long run like we were last year."
For the middle leg of the Round of 8, William Byron will start seventh (165.853 mph) after making the final round of qualifying. Heading into tomorrow afternoon's main event, the No. 24 Liberty University team holds a nine-point margin over the projected cutline. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native will look to earn his second victory win at the South Florida facility and lock his team into the Championship 4.
Alex Bowman will take the green flag in 12th position at Homestead-Miami. The No. 48 Ally Racing team will sport a fan-designed paint scheme in partnership with Koker's Garage. The 400-mile event will be Bowman's first race at the 1.5-mile circuit in the Next Gen race car.
Chase Elliott is set to line up 16th in the No. 9 Hooters Chevy for Sunday's race. Despite a challenging afternoon at Las Vegas last Sunday, the team still has a shot to advance to the Championship 4 for the owner title. The team enters this race 61 points below the elimination line with two races remaining in the round.
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Martin Truex Jr. took the pole position for Sunday's 267-lapper at Homestead-Miami.
For practice, the track temperature slowly built up from Group A to Group B as the morning also grew warmer. While the single-lap speed didn't place in the top 10, the long-run speed showed up in a big way on the 10-lap consecutive average board. Bowman placed second, Larson was third and Byron was eighth in that statistical category. Larson was at the top of the charts for the best 15-lap consecutive average.
In total, the Rick Hendrick-led group has won four races in Miami. Current vice chairman Jeff Gordon won the final race of the 2012 season at the track while Jimmie Johnson scored the win in 2016, a victory that earned him his seventh and final Cup Series championship. Byron (2021) and Larson (2022) account for the other two victories for Hendrick Motorsports.
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Tune in to catch all of the action from Homestead-Miami on Sunday, October 22, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).