Hendrick Motorsports Starts Storybook Weekend on the Right Foot With Kyle Larson Winning Pole

Photo Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images

Hendrick Motorsports is putting together a storybook weekend.

The successful organization is celebrating 40 incredible years in NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway, the site of the team’s first NASCAR Cup Series win in 1984. With the team bringing over 1,500 special guests to the track, according to Jeff Gordon on the MRN broadcast, the hope is that all four HMS drivers put on a show.

Following practice and qualifying, it looks like their teams will do just that.

Capturing his second career pole at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Larson will lead the field to green in his ruby red No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. This is Larson’s 18th NASCAR Cup Series career pole and his second back-to-back pole, the last coming in 2017 from Michigan to Sonoma.

“That was honestly a bit unexpected I mean I knew we’d be good that second lap didn’t feel that great,” Larson shared. “Really cool to get this 40th anniversary Camaro on the pole.”

Larson’s pole-winning lap was a 19.718 sec. lap around the 0.526-mile short track, which equates to 96.034 mph. Larson took the top spot over Bubba Wallace by .001 seconds, which is irony considering the run-in the two had on track at Richmond.

“Of all people, it would be Larson by a thousandth,” Wallace said before congratulating Larson on his qualifying lap. “They’re good.”

All is not lost though. The McDonald’s 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE was second fastest in practice and had the second best 25-lap average lap times, showing his long run speed for Sunday’s race is looking promising.

Following Larson and Wallace in qualifying was Chase Elliott, who paced Group B’s practice session. This weekend Elliott is hoping to break a 55-race winless streak.

Martin Truex Jr. will start fourth, and is looking to redeem himself after a win slipped from his grasp following a dominant performance at Richmond last weekend. Rounding out the top-10 starters for Sunday’s race are Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Alex Bowman.

Notably, the iconic No. 24 of William Byron will not start inside the top-10 with his teammates. Instead, he will roll off in the 18th position with a qualifying time of 19.994. However, Byron was top-10 in practice, placing third in the 10 best consecutive lap averages.

With speed seemingly in all the HMS cars, we will have to see if one of them can take home to grandfather clock while celebrating a historic anniversary.

Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick was scheduled to drive the pace car ahead of the Cook Out 400, but Hendrick underwent knee-replacement surgery and will not attend the event.

Qualifying Results: NCS Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway

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Taylor Kitchen

Taylor Kitchen found her passion for motorsports after watching a NASCAR Xfinity Series race with her grandma in 2016. The following year, she would attend her first race at Kentucky Speedway. The smell of the gas and roar of the engines filling her ears was enough to solidify her love of the sport. She spent the next few years working her way into the NASCAR online community and researching as much as she could to gain a vast knowledge of the sport. However, something was bothering her. At the time, Taylor struggled to find content within the space that was female-led and came from the perspective of a new fan. This inspired her to create her own media outlet, “Above The Yellow Line” in 2021. On this platform, Taylor writes, films, edits, and markets high-quality videos discussing the latest news and events from the sport. In April of 2022, her company partnered with the prominent NASCAR media outlet TobyChristie.com to provide them social media content and to report on location during select race weekends. Since then, Taylor has been able to help build TobyChristie.com's YouTube audience to well over four thousand subscribers and continues to help expand the company's social reach with her team. 2022 marked a new era for the brand as Taylor expanded ATYL’s capabilities to help various drivers with their communications, public relations, digital media, and marketing. In June of that year, she was hired by ARCA Series Champion, Austin Theriault to work for his driver development program, "AT Racing Development". As the organization's Director of Digital Marketing and Media, she produces and directs her clients tailor-made social media strategies. She also takes part in marketing efforts for her drivers. In May of 2023, Austin Theriault of AT Racing Development partnered with Team Hornaday Development and brought Taylor to the team as their Communications Manager. Working with Ron and Candice Hornaday, Taylor helps direct their drivers social media strategy and PR efforts. She also partakes in company and driver marketing and recruiting efforts