CONCORD, N.C. - Sunday evening's scheduled 400 circuits around Charlotte Motor Speedway turned into 249 after rain brought an early end to the sport's longest race. In the end, William Byron led the Hendrick Motorsports quartet with a third-place finish.
RELATED: Larson completes first Indianapolis 500
Starting from the runner-up position in his home race, Byron would keep in touch with race leader Ty Gibbs for much of the opening segment. Late in this first stage, the driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet found a way around Gibbs and drove away from the competition for his first stage victory of the season.
As the race progressed, Byron ran constantly inside the top-five spots, highlighted by a daring three-wide pass in the tri-oval to move him up to third. The move came just before weather came into the Charlotte area and forced the race's cancellation.
Chase Elliott earned his seventh top-10 finish of 2024 with a seventh-place finish on Sunday. Elliott showed speed in the second stage when he drove to the point position on a restart and paced the field for a brief time before Byron was able to pass him using fresher tires. Now sitting fourth in the regular season standings, Elliott is only 17 markers out of the points lead and is looking to win the award for the first time since 2022.
Following Elliott was Alex Bowman in the ninth position. The result extends the team's run of form during the first half of the season. Through 14 races, Bowman has earned nine top-10 results and dating back to Talladega Superspeedway's main event in April, the team has yet to finish outside of the top 10. Bowman currently sits eighth in the regular season standings.
Justin Allgaier stepped into the No. 5 HendrickCars.com entry on Sunday night while Kyle Larson was competing in the Indianapolis 500. While the original plan was to have Larson drive the car after arriving in Charlotte, inclement weather caused the race to be called early without Larson getting to race. For Allgaier, it would be his third NASCAR Cup Series start in the Next Gen era. Despite taking the first stage to get up to speed, Allgaier impressed with a 13th-place finish at Charlotte.
RELATED: Elliott wins in the Xfinity Series at Charlotte
Next weekend, Hendrick Motorsports heads to WWT Raceway for the track's lone date on the 2024 Cup Series schedule. Tune in Sunday, June 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).