CHEVROLET NCS: Larson Takes Chevrolet to Front-Row Starting Position at Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Sept. 9, 2023) – Team Chevy’s Kyle Larson will take the green-flag from a front-row starting position in tomorrow’s Hollywood Casino 400. The 31-year-old California native posted the third-fastest lap in Round One of Group B qualifying, following up the performance with a lap-time of 30.029 seconds, at 179.826 mph, in the final round to take his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to the second position on the speed chart. Already sealing his fate into the Round of Eight with his triumph at Darlington Raceway last weekend, Larson has added momentum heading into tomorrow’s race with the driver leading Chevrolet to a runner-up finish in the series’ spring appearance at the 1.5-mile Kansas oval.

The 20-minute practice session proved to be a challenge for a few of the Team Chevy playoff drivers. After climbing to the second position on the leaderboard in his practice session, William Byron brought his Chevrolet to pit road to diagnose a potential mechanical issue. The No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 team was able to make repairs to post a qualifying lap, but will be forced to start at the tail of the field for tomorrow’s event. Byron still proved to have the speed to be a contender, taking his Chevrolet to the final round of qualifying and ultimately posting the eighth-fastest lap.

“I was coming off of (turn) four coming down the front straightaway and the wheel just kind of jerked to the left and it felt like I unloaded the wheel, so I knew it was something steering-related,” said Byron. “Unfortunately at first, we couldn’t really find it, and then when we started messing with the wheel sitting on pit road, it was a broken right-front suspension piece. It’s a pretty substantial suspension component. We’ve never had that happen – probably just from running really fast around here. Our Raptor Chevrolet had a lot of pace there. I felt really good about our car.”

Joining Larson and Byron in the final round of qualifying included their Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate Chase Elliott, who took his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 to fourth-place qualifying effort. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon qualified in the sixth and eighth positions, respectively, to give three Chevrolet teams spots in the top-10 of tomorrow’s starting lineup.

The Hollywood Casino 400 – race two of the Round of 16 – will take the green flag tomorrow, September 9, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage of the 400-mile race can be found on the USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.