Hendrick Motorsports Media Advance: Darlington

PLAYOFFS?! PLAYOFFS?!?!: With two victories, three stage wins and six points for finishing fifth in the regular season point standings, Kyle Larson will start the 10-race playoffs in fourth with 2019 points – 21 markers behind leader and teammate Chase Elliott. In this three-race Round of 16, where four drivers will be eliminated following the Sept. 17 event at Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is 12 points ahead of the cutoff position. Larson will need to win one of the three events or avoid being one of the four lowest playoff drivers on points (who haven’t won in that round) to advance to the Round of 12.

HALF OF ‘EM: Larson won five of the 10 playoff races in 2021 en route to capturing the NASCAR Cup Series championship. He started his title run with a runner-up finish in the opening race at Darlington Raceway in September that included a last-lap “video game-like” maneuver where he rode the turn three and turn four wall in an attempt to overtake the eventual winner.

EGG-CELLENT STATS: In nine Cup Series starts at the South Carolina venue, Larson has five top-five finishes and seven top-10s with an average start and average finish of 8.9 – the second-best average finish all-time amongst drivers with more than two starts. The 2021 Cup Series champion has led in seven of those races for 686 laps – 23 percent of the laps he has completed at the egg-shaped track. Larson has posted runner-up finishes in three of his last four starts at the 1.366-mile track and secured top-three finishes in five of his last seven. In May at Darlington, a mechanical issue on lap 112 after leading 30 laps relegated Larson to a 36th-place result.

FIVER: Larson is tied with Ross Chastain and Elliott for most top-five finishes this season with 10. The trio are two ahead of any other competitor in that statistical category through 26 races in 2022.

A PERFECT 10: On Saturday at Darlington, Larson will drive the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports. The 30-year-old driver has four starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington, finishing in the top 10 in each. He has a 5.8 average finish in those races with his best result of fourth occurring in 2016.

XFINITY AND BEYOND: Larson has competed in two Xfinity races in 2022 – Road America in July and Watkins Glen International in August. At Road America, he won both stages from the pole position before finishing second. Larson started at the rear of the field at Watkins Glen due to unapproved adjustments during pre-race and led the final five laps to claim the win. Overall in his last seven Xfinity starts, the Elk Grove, California, native has five victories and a runner-up result.

RIDING ON THE 5: This weekend’s race will see the name of Kelly Brandt on the right-side window as part Workforce Appreciation Weekend – a partnership with Cup Series teams to showcase the industry’s appreciation of the American Workforce on Labor Day weekend. Brandt has been a Hendrick Certified Master Technician with the Hendrick Automotive Group since 2005 and is currently the technical team lead and service center shop foreman at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet in Charleston, South Carolina. He has competed in the Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown for multiple years and was part of the winning team in 2017.

YOUR CAR NEEDS: This weekend, Larson will drive the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. From the convenience of home, customers can shop nearly 20,000 new, quality pre-owned or certified cars, trucks and SUVs available at HendrickCars.com with no payments until 2023 on pre-owned vehicles for well qualified buyers. The website also makes it easy for customers to find one of Hendrick Automotive Group’s 94 dealership locations nationwide. See dealer for details and exclusions.

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA/Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will be available to members of the media at the Darlington Raceway media center on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 11:15 a.m. local time. Crew chief Alan Gustafson will also be available inside the media center on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 8:30 a.m. local time.

PLAYOFF TIME: The NASCAR Cup Series kicks off its playoffs at Darlington Raceway this Sunday. This marks Chase Elliott’s seventh consecutive playoff appearance in as many seasons he’s raced full-time in the series. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native enters this weekend as the top seed after earning the regular season championship and the 15 bonus points that come along with it. He’s currently 33 points above the cutline entering the Round of 16. In 2020, the 10-race playoffs culminated in a championship for Elliott and the No. 9 team after they won the finale at Phoenix Raceway. He also advanced to the Championship 4 last season, ultimately finishing fourth in the standings. 

REGULAR SEASON RECAP: During the 26-race regular season, Elliott was a force to be reckoned with, capturing four wins during that span – Dover Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway – the most of any driver in the field. In addition, he was tops in the laps led category with 719 circuits at the front of the field and had a series-best average finish of 10.5. 

DARLINGTON STATS: Sunday marks Elliott’s 12th start at Darlington in the Cup Series. In his previous 11 races at the 1.366-mile oval, he has collected three top-five finishes and five top-10s. His best finish of fourth came in the first of the track’s three races in 2020. Earlier this year, Elliott finished fifth at the South Carolina track after starting at the back of the pack due to moving to a backup car. Outside of the Cup Series, the 26-year-old driver has made three Darlington starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, earning a win at the track during his rookie season in 2014.

ALAN THE CHAMP: Veteran crew chief Alan Gustafson has one Cup Series championship under his belt, which he earned with Elliott and the No. 9 team in 2020. The 2022 season marks his 15th appearance in the Cup Series playoffs, second all-time to only Hendrick Motorsports’ Chad Knaus (17). Gustafson has 12 victories earned during the playoffs – six with Elliott – which is also second to Knaus on the all-time list among crew chiefs. 

GUSTAFSON AT DARLINGTON: Gustafson is set to call his 22nd Darlington race in the Cup Series. In his previous 21 starts at the track with five different drivers (Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Elliott), Gustafson has accumulated one win (2009 with Martin), five top-five finishes and nine top-10s with 222 laps led. 

DESI9N TO DRIVE: As part of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the Chase Elliott Foundation has joined forces again with NAPA and Hendrick Motorsports for the sixth edition of its “DESI9N TO DRIVE” art collaboration with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. For this weekend’s Cup Series race at Darlington, Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and race uniform will feature a design that was sketched and submitted by 16-year-old Dani (Gamel) Cuevas who was diagnosed with Leukemia at age 13. Cuevas’ design showcases the facility dogs that helped her cope with cancer treatment and therapy during many visits to Children’s before becoming cancer free late last year. Elements of Elliott’s racing uniform are being auctioned off via The NASCAR Foundation’s auction page. The auction closes on Thursday, Sept. 8. 

ON BOARD THE NO. 9: At Darlington, the No. 9 will have the names of Kara Klein and facility dog Reggie on the right-side window for the industry-wide Workforce Appreciation campaign. Klein has been at Children’s for 14 years; first as a certified child life specialist and now as the Canines For Kids senior program coordinator. Klein has been a handler with the program since 2010. In April, she became the handler for Reggie and together they work to help motivate patients on some of their hardest days. 

PLAYOFF CONTENDER: With the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs set to kick off this Sunday, this will be William Byron’s fourth appearance in the 10-race battle for the championship. The driver of the No. 24 heads into this year’s playoffs seeded in the fifth position – his highest ranking yet in the reseeded points standings. In the upcoming 10 races, the Cup Series has run on six of those tracks already this season and Byron has one win (Martinsville Speedway) and an average finish of 11.33 – the best average finish of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates in those six races. 

UP FRONT: Byron has led the second-most laps so far this season with 612 behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who has led 719. Those 612 laps led by Byron are not only his most in a single Cup Series season but came across 13 races – the seventh-most races led by a driver this year.

DARLINGTON DEETS: With eight previous Cup Series starts at Darlington Raceway, Byron is looking to capitalize on his previously strong showings. Despite running well in most of his starts at the 1.366-mile track, Byron’s results don’t accurately represent the strength he had shown. While he has a track-best finish of fourth (May 2021), Byron has two top-five finishes and two top-10s. However, earlier this year, the 24-year-old driver was poised to take home the win at “The Lady in Black” until being moved out of the way for the victory with two laps to go, resulting in a 13th-place finish. In fact, in that race, he had a 6.11 average running position – his fifth-best race of the 2022 season (based on that statistic). Byron also has one NASCAR Xfinity Series start at the venue, where he qualified sixth and raced to a fifth-place result as well. 

THE FUGLE FILES: When the Cup Series returns to Darlington on Sunday, it will mark the fourth trip to the South Carolina track for crew chief Rudy Fugle at the top level of NASCAR. Earlier this year, Fugle and the No. 24 team started ninth and were leading before being moved out of the way for the win with two laps to go, resulting in a 13th-place finish. Last season, Fugle called the shots for Byron at Darlington twice, starting fifth and racing to a fourth-place result in the spring and in the fall, where the team was running within the top 10 before a flat tire ended the team’s race early. Prior to last season, Fugle had only three previous starts at Darlington Raceway – two in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.  

VALVOLINE RETURNS: Valvoline will be the primary sponsor of Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Darlington this weekend. This will be the third race that the Valvoline colors will be onboard Byron’s No. 24, with a fourth race coming at his hometown track for the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Valvoline Inc. (NYSE: VVV) is a leading worldwide marketer and supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services, with sales in more than 140 countries. Established in 1866, the company’s heritage spans more than 150 years, during which time it has developed powerful brand recognition across multiple product and service channels. Valvoline ranks as the No. 3 passenger car motor oil brand in the DIY market by volume. To learn more, visit www.valvoline.com. 

HONORING ‘JUNGLE’: For Sunday’s race at Darlington, the No. 24 will have a special passenger riding above the right-side window – Jim “Jungle” Gilbert – as a part of the Workforce Appreciation campaign that the industry is recognizing this weekend. Known as “Jungle” by his colleagues, Gilbert was a member of the NASCAR industry from 1989 to 2022 before having to retire due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Spending his career as a transporter driver, Gilbert worked at Hendrick Motorsports on the No. 5 team with driver Kasey Kahne before moving to the No. 24 team with Byron. He was also involved with wheel force testing while with the company. 

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE OF MIND: While the fueler on the No. 24 team hails from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Landon Walker also has significant ties to the southernmost Carolina state, having played football at Clemson University. The former college offensive tackle earned a scholarship to Clemson in 2007 after being named an All-American offensive lineman in his hometown at East Wilkes High School. While playing at Clemson, Walker recorded 3,131 snaps with 49 starts at tackle through four seasons at the university. In 2011, Walker was named team captain, the same season Clemson went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The college football standout was then recruited by Hendrick Motorsports in 2012 and earned a position as the starting fueler for the former No. 5 (now No. 24) team in 2015.

HOW WE GOT HERE: Alex Bowman will make his fifth consecutive appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs – all with Hendrick Motorsports – when the elimination-style format gets underway Sunday at Darlington Raceway. He punched his ticket to this year’s postseason with a win in the third race of the 2022 Cup Series season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the regular season, Bowman tallied three top-five finishes and 10 top-10s, placing him 15th in the playoff standings. 

NOT TOO SHABBY: In his previous 10 starts at the South Carolina track, Bowman has one top-five finish – a runner-up result in May 2020 where he qualified second and led 41 laps in the 293-lap event – and two top-10s. The No. 48 driver has also completed 3,243 of 3,296 laps at the egg-shaped track – or 98.4 percent.

THE SHOWMAN: Since the start of the 2021 Cup Series season, Bowman has the third-most wins of all drivers with five. He took home hardware at Richmond Raceway (April 2021), Dover Motor Speedway (May 2021), Pocono Raceway (June 2021), Martinsville Speedway (October 2021), and Las Vegas (March 2022). The 29-year-old only trails Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott (6) and Kyle Larson (12).

QUITE THE PAIR: Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives have the fifth-most wins of all active driver-crew chief parings with seven. The duo is ranked right behind Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, and his crew chief Cliff Daniels (12). Last week, Ives announced that he would be stepping away from the pit box at the end of the 2022 season. 

IVES AT DARLINGTON: Ives is no stranger to success at “The Lady in Black,” notching one top-five finish and three top-10s in his 11 starts at the 1.366-mile track in the Cup Series. The 42-year-old crew chief also has two starts atop the pit box in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he took home a win with Elliott in April 2014 and a seventh-place result in May 2013 with Regan Smith. 

WORKFORCE APPRECIATION: The No. 48 will have the name of Richard “Shannon” Meadows on the right-side window for the Workforce Appreciation Weekend at Darlington. Meadows joined Ally in 2011 to start up Ally’s Growth channel. In October of 2020, he moved to be part of Ally’s new opportunities team and was recently promoted to the Senior underwriter position. A visit to the Darlington spring race helped him fall in love with the track and the sport. 

SAVE THEM ALL: Each week of the season, Bowman and primary sponsor Ally have joined forces to contribute $4,800 to Best Friends Animal Society. If Bowman wins, the donation increases to $10,000. To date, a total of $134,800 has been donated to Best Friends Animal Society and its network partners in each race market the Cup Series visits.

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