Hendrick Motorsports couldn’t find a path to victory Sunday at Dover, but it was a great day of racing. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott both started outside the top 20 but finished in the top five. At the end of the 400-lap monster mile, Larson maintained the lead at the top of the points standings, with Elliott in third place. Larson started the race in 21st place in the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro. He refused to laze around and found his way into the top ten as early as lap 53. On lap 107, he moved into the top five and finished stage one in fifth place. Crew chief Cliff Daniels did a great job getting Larson into the pits before the rest of the team.
Larson ultimately won Stage 2. Since then, a long cat-and-mouse game has unfolded between Larson and Denny Hamlin. Thanks to a quicker pit stop, a better restart, and an aero block advantage, Hamlin managed to pull away and stay in position. “We tried different angles and speeds. “Nothing created enough speed to get us so close that we couldn’t do anything,” Larson said after the race. He ultimately finished in second place, just 0.256 seconds behind Hamlin.
The result was second place this year. He led 39 laps throughout the race and achieved a total score of 570, the highest on the grid in 2024. Chase Elliott had a similar performance, second only to the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro.
The 2020 Cup Series champion started the season in 29th place, further behind Larson. He broke into the top 10 on lap 70 and finished the first stage in 9th place. Although he suffered an early scare when his car hit a wall, he kept going and stayed within the top 10 in the second stage, finishing fifth behind Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch. Where he finished his stage of the race.
How did William Byron and Alex Bowman fare at Dover? Byron started the race in 3rd place. He briefly took the lead in the first stage, but ultimately finished in second place. Midway through the second stage, he complained that it was “a little too tight in the middle (of Turns 3 and 4).” He then pitted on lap 183.
Tragedy occurred when his car fell off the jack before the stop was complete, causing him to lose significant time on the road. Toward the end, he was involved in a multi-car accident involving Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, and Zane Smith. Chaos finished the day in 33rd place. As a result, his streak of top 10s ended at five races. Alex Bowman had a better day than Byron. He started the race in 9th place and finished in 8th place.
He was fast in the middle of the race, but towards the end his car started to lose its balance. “It was still a good day of points and a step in the right direction,” he said after his fourth straight top-10 finish at Dover. “I’m a little more consistent than before, so I want to keep working on it.” Rick Hendrick’s next event is Kansas Speedway. The 12th match of this season will be held on May 5th.
