Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Alex Bowman led Chevrolet to the checkered-flag with a pair of top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
· Byron drove his No. 24 Axalta Throwback Camaro ZL1 to top-10 finishes in each stage en route to a sixth-place finish – his series-leading eighth top-10 result of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
· Bowman earned an eighth-place finish in his No. 48 Ally Throwback Camaro ZL1 – extending his top-10 streak to three-straight this season.
· At the conclusion of the tripleheader weekend at Darlington Raceway, Chevrolet sits atop the driver’s points standings in all three NASCAR national series with Kyle Larson maintaining the lead in the NASCAR Cup Series’ standings by 30-points; Austin Hill taking the lead in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ standings by three-points; and Christian Eckes moving to the lead of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ standings with a 14-point advantage over second-place.
· With 33 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet continues to pace its manufacturer competitors with 20 victories and a winning percentage of 60.6%. (NASCAR Cup Series – seven wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – six wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – seven wins).
· The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at North Wilkesboro Speedway with the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 19, at 8 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-15:
6th William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Throwback Camaro ZL1
8th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Throwback Camaro ZL1
11th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Busch Light Throwback Camaro ZL1
12th Chase Elliott, No. 9 UniFirst Throwback Camaro ZL1
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Throwback Camaro ZL1
Finished: 6th
Byron on his sixth-place finish at Darlington Raceway:
“We were OK, just pretty tight. We couldn’t really get it to turn much better than what we did, or we would really sacrifice the rear grip. Just kind of a struggled, balance-wise, for us.”
(Ryan) Blaney felt like you kind of pinched Martin (Truex Jr.) and him up too high. What did you see in that situation?
“I don’t know. I felt like I was ahead of them. The exit is really narrow right there. I hate if I did come up a little bit. I was surprised I was even in that spot. I felt like I would never get to the bottom of a three-wide there, but the lane was there into (turn) one and my car turned really good. I got almost clear of Martin (Truex Jr.), and then yeah, I hate that it happened. I don’t want to crash, especially that early in the race, so I didn’t really expect that to happen. I probably could have given a little more room, it just gets really, really tight right there.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Throwback Camaro ZL1
Finished: 8th
Bowman on his eighth-place finish at Darlington Raceway:
“We really struggled all day being super tight. Honestly we were freeing it up, and it just kept getting tighter. I don’t know if the track was tightening up or if we had an issue, but we were just really, really tight all day. We just kind of grounded out; didn’t make any big mistakes and had a really good day on pit road. We never got the race car where we wanted it, but we were still able to come out with a top-10 finish. It was really attrition and other peoples’ mistakes. Never give up, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Throwback Camaro ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage.
Finished: 34th
What was the extent of the damage that essentially ended your day?
“I was struggling. I got really loose at the end of that long run, and William (Byron) caught me. I was just letting him by in (turns) one and two, and I just kind of hung out there. I was trying to be really wide away from him and I just stayed wide for too long; got hung in the marbles and hit the wall. We had bent the toe link or something, and then pitted and was struggling pretty bad. I don’t know which tire shredded, if it was left-rear or right-rear, but a tire shredded and I spun into turn three. Hate that my mistake, not even really trying hard at all, cost us a race. Just a little bit frustrated with myself right now.
All-in-all, we had a good No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy today. I felt like we were running a really good race up to that point, and then just one mistake took us out of it.”
Inside Track Communications PR
