Kyle Larson led Chevrolet to the checkered-flag in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway – scoring a runner-up finish in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1.
· For the third consecutive race, Chevrolet earned 50 percent of the top-10 finishing positions – represented by four different Chevrolet organizations including Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson in second, Chase Elliott in fifth and Alex Bowman in eighth; Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch in fourth; and Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric in ninth.
· With 28 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet has a winning percentage of 60.7% with 17 victories (NASCAR Cup Series – six wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – five wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – six wins).
· Five drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations collected top-10 points in both stages including Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (5th, 1st), Alex Bowman (8th; 2nd) and Chase Elliott (9th, 5th); Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (7th; 6th); and JTG Daugherty’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (10th, 9th).
· With 11 points-paying races complete, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team continues to lead in the driver’s points standings – holding a 15-point advantage over second-place Martin Truex Jr.
· The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the AdventHealth 400 on Sunday, May 5, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL!
Finished: 2nd
WAS THERE AN AREA WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GAINING GROUND LATE?
“Not really. It’s so easy as the leader to shut off the air to the guy behind you at a track like Dover, especially where it’s low on grip as the run progresses. I knew I was going to have an uphill battle once I lost the lead on that restart. I felt like if I had gotten the lead, I could have maintained my run like I did in the second stage and hold those guys off. It was a good day to get a lot of points and all that, but I would have loved to win obviously.”
HOW IS THE PASSING AT DOVER COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS? IS IT MORE ENJOYABLE?
“It’s a little bit easier to pass here than some of the others. It’s just as hard to pass the leader, for sure. Like I said, it’s just so easy for them to maneuver their car and shut off the air behind him. Yeah, he (Denny Hamlin) with it. I don’t think he did anything special, but he was able to run in the middle of the racetrack and close me off on the top. If I ever pulled to the bottom, he could pull down and shut off my air. It’s just a product of the car and all that. We did what we could. I just wish I wouldn’t have given up the lead.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 FICO Camaro ZL1
Finished: 4th
“I felt like today was a good day overall. There are still things to clean up but I’m proud of a top-five effort. It felt like if we would have restarted third, I might have been able to keep pace maybe somewhere closer to the front. But starting where I did and having to race the 10 was difficult. I hate it for our guys that we didn’t get a better finish, but the FICO Camaro was good. Just struggled a bit on the long, long run.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
Finished: 5th
“I was really happy with our car, honestly. A couple of moves here or there… I needed to just get myself a little further forward. But I’m really happy with the NAPA Chevy. We had a really solid day and it was fun. It’s always fun when you can pass your way to the front.”
IS THIS A FUN TRACK BECAUSE OF ITS PASSING CAPABILITY?
“It’s not always like that so let’s be careful. But it was today.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
Finished: 8th
In the middle stages of the race, this No. 48 car was extremely fast. Was it all just about track position there at the end?
“Yeah, I mean both front fenders are broke too from the deal on pit road, so I’m sure that didn’t help anything. We were really fast in the middle segment of the race. We were probably just a little too tight on the top. I couldn’t rotate the bottom like I wanted to, but I was too free on entry to really free the car up. I could make a lot of pace up top, but it just hurt the tires pretty bad.
All-in-all, it was an OK day for our No. 48 Ally Chevy team. Eighth-place here (at Dover Motor Speedway) is pretty bad for me, but it was still a good points day and a step in the right direction. It’s a little more consistency than we’ve seen, so hopefully we can keep plugging away at it.”
Daniel Hemric, No. 31 Poppy Bank Camaro ZL1
Finished: 9th
“It was a long day. We gave up a lot of track position early. Just probably got us too loose, in general, in practice going into the race with not really knowing what to expect out of this car. We fell back and were kind of stuck back there. The team made a great call to just keep us in the game. We stayed out a little longer there on that last green-flag cycle stop – it was kind of like an early Christmas present to us. It got us back on the lead lap.
It was just really rewarding for all of us on the No. 31 Poppy Banky Chevy team to put us inside the top-10 and be able to run there. We know our pace was there, it’s just a matter of getting track position. That’s the name of the game here. Overall, I’m proud of everyone on the No. 31 Poppy Bank Chevy team.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1
Finished: 27th
“Unfortunately it was a rough day for us on the No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy team. We fought hard. I had a tire that felt like it was going down in the first stage, and we got two laps down and could never recover from it. We’ll look at what our teammate did – the No. 8 (Kyle Busch) was obviously really good. We’ll try and work off of that and come back stronger. It was a tough day, but we’ve got to go to Kansas (Speedway) and fight.”
William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage.
Finished: 33rd
“I didn’t see much. We were rolling on the bottom and something happened up top. The No. 23 (Bubba Wallace) got spun across the track, and we were there. We had a good No. 24 Liberty University Chevy early but couldn’t get through traffic very well out front. Once we got in the back, we were terrible in traffic. We didn’t have the balance today.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hungry Jack Camaro ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage.
Finished: 35th
“Our day was really, really good. Our No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevy was good. We were running right around the top-10 all day, which was nice. It looked like the No. 4 (Josh Berry) just cut down underneath a lapper, got us in the right-front and spun us around.
Overall, our Chevy was really, really good. We needed a run like that, but we needed to finish it off. We’ll regroup and get ready for Kansas (Speedway) next weekend.”
Inside Track Communications
