DOVER, Del. – William Byron will lead the Hendrick Motorsports quartet to green for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway.
Byron's lap of 161.486 mph in the final round of qualifying earned the driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 the third starting spot. This is his second-best qualifying result of the season. The 26-year-old comes into the weekend with a series-best three wins and five straight top-10 finishes. He has three top-five finishes and four top-10s at Dover in nine starts. Last spring, he led a race-high 193 laps en route to matching his track-best result of fourth.
RELATED: Everything to know for the race at Dover
In practice, Byron led Group A and was third overall (158.954 mph). He topped the board on both the consecutive 10- and 15-lap averages.
Alex Bowman lines up ninth in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for his fourth top-10 starting spot of the season. Bowman, who turned 31 on Thursday, will be making his 300th Cup Series start this weekend. He is coming off a fifth-place run at Talladega Superspeedway, which placed him in a tie with five others for the series lead in top-five finishes (with four). Bowman has one win (May of 2021) at Dover and five top-five finishes, his most at any track. All those top-fives have come in his last six starts there, although he missed last year's race due to injury.
"It's just a place where I enjoy going," Bowman said of Dover during a Saturday morning media availability. "I feel like I bring a little something to the table and know what I want and know what I need in my race car to be successful here. It's a place that I'm pretty confident going to."
RELATED: Check out this weekend's paint schemes
Kyle Larson will take the grid from the 21st position in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. In 15 starts at Dover, he has one win (October of 2019), seven top-five finishes and 11 top-10s. Larson's 899 laps led at the 1-mile track are his most at any facility in his Cup Series career. The 31-year-old driver's 8.6 average finish is the best among active drivers at the Delaware track and second-best among drivers with at least two starts here.
Chase Elliott is slated to start from the 29th position in the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. During practice, he was eighth on the speed chart and sixth in the best 10-lap average. The "Monster Mile" is one of four Cup Series tracks where Elliott has won twice (October of 2018 and May of 2022). In 13 starts there, he has nine top-five finishes, which are his most at any track. The 28-year-old driver's 9.8 average finish is second-best among full-time drivers in Sunday's field and fifth-best all-time among drivers with at least two starts at Dover.
Kyle Busch will lead the field to green for Sunday's race.
Dover Motor Speedway is one of three racetracks where Hendrick Motorsports has posted more than 20 points-paying wins. The team's 22 victories at the Delaware venue is one more than its total at Charlotte Motor Speedway and surpassed only by its 29 at Martinsville Speedway, representing the record for wins by any team at a track. The team has won 28.57% (22 of 77) of the Cup Series races at Dover and led 7,549 laps (second only to its total at Martinsville). No other team has won more than 10 Cup Series races at the 1-mile track.
PHOTOS: See every Hendrick Motorsports win at Dover
Seven different drivers have contributed to Hendrick Motorsports' Dover win total: Jimmie Johnson (11 victories), team vice chairman Jeff Gordon (five), Elliott (two), Bowman, Geoff Bodine, Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader (one each). Bowman's victory in 2021 was historic for the team as the organization swept the top-four positions for the only time in its history.
The Rick Hendrick-owned team has had a driver finish in the top 10 at Dover in 24 straight races, the longest top-10 streak at the track by one organization.
Watch the team look to add to its Dover trophy collection in Sunday's 400-lap race at 2 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).