Larson earns top-five starting spot in Miami

Homestead, Fla. – Kyle Larson will lead the Hendrick Motorsports quartet to the green flag at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will roll off in the fifth position. 

Regardless of this weekend’s outcome and the final results of next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway, Larson will race for a title in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway. Despite the lack of pressure on Larson, Miami has been one of his best tracks, shown by a dominating victory in 2022. 

RELATED: Byron, Larson look to recreate Miami magic

For the middle leg of the Round of 8, William Byron will start 7th after making the final round of qualifying in Miami. Headed into tomorrow afternoon’s main event, the No. 24 Liberty University team holds a 9-point margin over the projected cutline. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native will look to earn his second-career win at the South Florida facility and lock his team into the Championship 4. 

Alex Bowman will take the green flag in 12th position at Homestead-Miami. New for this weekend, the No. 48 Ally Racing team will sport a fan-designed paint scheme in partnership with Koker’s Garage. The 400-mile event will by Bowman’s first race at the 1.5-mile circuit in the Next Gen race car. 

Starting 16th will be Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Hooters Chevy for Sunday’s main event after just missing out on the final round of qualifying. Despite a challenging afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend, the team still has a shot to advance to the Championship 4 for the owner title.  

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For practice, the track temperature slowly built up from Group A to Group B as the day also grew warmer. Bowman, the only driver from the Hendrick Motorsports stable in the first group, was the 14th-fastest driver when times from both sessions were combined. Larson was next in 17th while Elliott and Byron were 20th and 21st-fastest respectively. 

Martin Truex Jr. won the pole for Sunday’s main event in Florida.

In all, the Rick Hendrick-led group has won four races in Miami. Current vice chairman Jeff Gordon won the final race of the 2012 season at the track while Jimmie Johnson scored the win in 2016, a victory that earned him his seventh and final Cup Series championship. Byron (2021) and Larson (2022) account for the other two victories for Hendrick Motorsports. 

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Tune in to catch all of the action from Homestead-Miami on Sunday, October 22 and 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).