RICHMOND, Va. – Chase Elliott’s starting spot of fourth led the way in qualifying for Hendrick Motorsports at Richmond Raceway.
Elliott’s lap of 113.503 mph earned the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 a position in row two for Sunday’s race. This marks the best starting spot of the season for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion. In 14 starts at the Virginia short track, he has five top-five finishes and six top-10s. Over the past six races in 2023, the 27-year-old driver has the best average finish at 7.83. With five regular-season races left, Elliott is 56 points outside the provisional playoff cutoff line.
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William Byron will start sixth in the No. 24 Liberty University Chevy. This is his 10th starting spot within the top-six positions in 2023. In the spring race at Richmond, Byron led a race-high 117 laps before late-race contact with Christopher Bell relegated him to a 24th-place finish.
The 25-year-old driver is 30 points behind Martin Truex Jr. for the regular-season points lead but is just focused on his week-to-week results and process.
"It’s really important but we can’t get too focused on the result of the regular season points," Byron said during a media availability on Saturday at Richmond. "We obviously want those points, but our process has been like it is to this point, and if we start focusing on that carrot out in front of us too much, it’s going to get us off track.
"… We’ve just got to focus on trying to knock off results that are going to get us 40- to 50-point days. Those would be really good."
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Kyle Larson lines up 14th in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The 2021 Cup Series champion turns 31 on Monday and earned his first win of the season at Richmond in the spring. In his last four starts at the 0.75-mile track, Larson has three top-six finishes.
Alex Bowman takes the grid from the 15th spot in the No. 48 Ally Chevy. The 30-year-old driver won at this track in 2021 and has four top-10 finishes in his last six starts there. He enters this event 46 markers below the provisional playoff cutoff line.
Tyler Reddick is on the pole for the 400-lap event from the capital city of Virginia.
Byron and Elliott swept the top-two spots in the practice session. Byron’s lap of 117.101 mph topped the board and he was also the top driver on the best 10 consecutive lap averages. Elliott had the fifth-best 10 consecutive lap average. Of note, the No. 9 entry failed pre-race inspection twice. That means that the team lost its pit selection for this race and car chief Matt Barndt was ejected.
PHOTOS: Short-track success stands as a hallmark of Hendrick Motorsports
In its storied history, Hendrick Motorsports has tallied 12 wins at Richmond. Jimmie Johnson and Terry Labonte lead the way with three victories apiece, followed by Jeff Gordon with two. Bowman, Larson, Joe Nemechek and Tim Richmond each have one win at the 0.75-mile track. The seven different drivers to win at this track are the most by a single organization.
Hendrick Motorsports leads all active Cup Series teams with 57 points-paying victories on short tracks, which is 12 more than the next-closest team. Gordon leads all drivers in team history with 17 short-track wins. Team owner Rick Hendrick grew up in Palmer Springs, Virginia, and his teams have won 40 Cup Series races in his home state. Hendrick Motorsports has gone to victory lane in Virginia at least one time in 28 different seasons, including each of the past four. The most recent 11 races in Virginia have seen one of his cars emerge victorious on six occasions with all four active drivers winning.
Tune in to watch the race at the "action track" of Richmond on Sunday, July 30, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).