CONCORD, N.C. – The No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro will be in action this weekend for its second start of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
Kyle Larson will drive the car in the first of two starts for the 2021 Cup Series champion in the ride. In his Xfinity Series career, Larson has 14 victories. Since the company returned to action on the Xfinity side of things in 2022, the 31-year-old driver has made four starts in the series in the No. 17. Two of those starts have come at road courses (Road America in 2022 and Sonoma Raceway in 2023), where he won the pole position both times and led a combined 84 laps (of 127) en route to a second- and third-place finish, respectively in each event.
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At COTA, Larson has a runner-up finish in three NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Austin, Texas, road course. He looks forward to the additional seat time he will get ahead of the Cup race at the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course.
"I expect it to help. It is not going to hurt," Larson said of the extra seat time with the Xfinity Series start at COTA. "When I've run COTA in the past, the laps are so long there and with practice time, you only get about 6, 7, 8 laps. I never feel ready for qualifying or the race there. I'm learning throughout the race. I get to a comfortable spot and we're settled in at that point. Hopefully, the Xfinity car (with practice and qualifying on Friday afternoon) will allow me to be more prepared for Saturday when we are practicing and qualifying the Cup car."
Greg Ives will be the crew chief for the effort. In Ives' time at Hendrick Motorsports affiliate JR Motorsports, he won the 2014 Xfinity Series championship with Chase Elliott and earned five race wins. The veteran crew chief earned a runner-up finish with William Byron in last year's Xfinity event at COTA. On the Cup side of things with Alex Bowman, he has two top-five finishes (a second-place result in 2022 and a third-place run in 2023) and three top-10s in three starts.
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The No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevy will be in action for 10 races this season. Byron will run four races, with No. 24 lead engineer Brandon McSwain as the crew chief. Larson and Elliott will run two events apiece, while Bowman and Boris Said will each run one race. Ives will be the crew chief for those six races.
Since returning to the Xfinity Series in 2022, Hendrick Motorsports has had three pole awards, three runner-up results, six top-five finishes, seven top-10s, and 139 laps led in 11 starts. In its history, the company has earned one Xfinity Series championship (2003) and 26 race wins.
"I can't believe we have gone this long without a win in that car because it is always upfront battling for the win," Larson said. "I know we will be solid and I know we will have a good opportunity. I just need to execute better than I have in the 17."
Larson will be on track on Friday for practice at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 6 p.m. ET. The 46-lap Xfinity Series race will occur on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. All these events will be televised on FS1, with the race airing on PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).