FORT WORTH, Texas – William Byron will lead the Hendrick Motorsports quartet to the green flag at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
The organization had three of its four playoff drivers qualify inside the top 10 but the driver of the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was the best of them all. Byron will start third thanks to a lap of 188.805 mph in the final round of group qualifying. This marks his third top-four starting spot in the last seven races.
Chase Elliott will start sixth in the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Kyle Larson, who is the defending race winner, lines up ninth in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Alex Bowman qualified 17th in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the 500-mile race at Texas.
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Brad Keselowski grabbed the pole position for Sunday’s race.
In the combined group practice sessions, Bowman placed third, Byron was sixth and Larson came in 10th. The driver of the No. 48 placed second on the 10-consecutive lap average board, Byron was fourth and Elliott was fifth in that category.
With points resetting at the start of the Round of 12, Elliott is back atop the standings and +31 to the cutoff line. Larson is fourth in the standings (+10 to the cutoff line), while Byron is fifth (+6 to the cutoff line). Bowman enters the round in 10th and is just below the cutoff line at -6.
"I think we probably all look at Texas (Motor Speedway) as a good opportunity to hopefully get a win, get locked-in and not have to worry about the next two races," Larson said during a media availability before practice.
The Round of 12 consists of races at Texas, Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. It is widely considered to be the biggest wild-card round of the playoffs.
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"It is an uncomfortable round with Talladega (Superspeedway) being such an unknown and kind of a wild card," Bowman said before Cup cars took to the track. "A lot of things can happen at the (Charlotte Motor Speedway) ROVAL and at this place, a lot of things can happen too. Definitely a tough grouping of race tracks as far as being able to control your own destiny or to work on your race car after you unload.
"It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out, but I think we are in a really good place as a race team and can have a good round here."
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The Rick Hendrick-owned organization has 10 points-paying wins at Texas. Jimmie Johnson accounts for seven of those and he also holds the track record for most all-time Cup Series wins. Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Larson each have one win at the 1.5-mile venue. Over the past 18 points-paying races at the Fort Worth, Texas, facility, the team has a series-best seven wins.
In 17 playoff races at Texas, Hendrick Motorsports has won a Cup Series-best six times. Johnson is responsible for five wins, while Larson’s win last year in the Round of 8 stands as the other victory. In last year’s playoff event, the organization led 93% of the laps (311 of 334) with Byron coming in second to the eventual series champion.
Hendrick Motorsports has fared well on 1.5-mile tracks this season. In the season’s six races at that track type, the team has notched the win three times. In March, Bowman and Byron won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, respectively. Elliott took the victory at Atlanta in July. On top of that, all four drivers – Elliott (second), Bowman (fourth), Larson (sixth) and Byron (seventh) are in the top seven in points scored on that track length.
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The 334-lap race will get underway at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 25, with coverage on USA Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).