Chevrolet NCS at Talladega 1: Post-race Report – Speedway Digest

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:

POS. DRIVER

3rd – Kyle Larson

4th – William Byron

7th – Chase Elliott

8th – Carson Hocevar

9th – Alex Bowman

· Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson led Chevrolet to the checkered-flag at Talladega Superspeedway – collecting a third-place finish in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. Larson led a brigade of five Team Chevy drivers to top-10 finishes in the 500-mile race, including his fellow teammates William Byron in fourth, Chase Elliott in seventh and Alex Bowman in the ninth position. Joining his fellow Chevrolet drivers in the top-10 included Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, who drove his No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente to an eighth-place result.

· The series’ most recent winner, Kyle Larson, turned a 25th-place qualifying effort into a win of the first stage – leading a quartet of Team Chevy drivers to the top of the leaderboard at the green-white checkered flag. But the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver quickly lost the track position when the team was faced with a speeding penalty under the stage break. Restarting in the 33rd position, patience was a virtue for the California native – progressively making his way through the pack to lead the Chevrolet camp to the end of the stage yet again with a third-place result.

· It was a turbulent day for Kyle Busch and the Randall Burnett led Chevrolet team. Leading the field to the green-flag from a front-row start position, the day quickly became an uphill battle when mayhem entering pit road under the first green-flag cycle collected the No. 8 Chevrolet. Quickly going to work on a broken toe link, the team fell just one lap down but quickly found his way back to the lead lap by the end of the Stage One. The right combination of patience and strategy kept the team in the lead pack, making their way back up into the top-10 with 38 laps remaining before an untimely pit road speeding penalty took them out of contention.

· Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill continued his superspeedway dominance by picking up his series-leading third victory of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300, leading the Bowtie brigade to a sweep of the top-seven finishing positions in the 300-mile race – the first time since Sept. 2004 that a single manufacturer has swept the top-seven of a race in the division.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Talladega Superspeedway:

Wins: 45

Poles: 37

Top-Fives: 212

Top-10s: 415

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 10 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 3

Poles: 5

Top-Fives: 19

Top 10s: 46

Stage Wins: 8
UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Texas Motor Speedway with the Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY on Sunday, May 4, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:

Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 3rd

“There wasn’t really much I could do the final five laps. I wanted to go to the outside lane when we got clear of William (Byron), but I felt like the gap was too big to move up and the No. 60 (Ryan Preece) was able to fill it. I was still happy to be second-row on the inside lane, obviously happy to be front row, but I just didn’t know how it was going to play out from there. There at the end, you’re just trying to give the right pushes to get clear and then maybe he starts blocking lanes and something would open up for me. I was just kind of jammed up there.

I will take a third-place finish. We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage from where we were on the final restart was also unexpected. Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy.”

Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 25th

“We were having a pretty smooth day with our No. 10 Sea Best Chevy and our car was fast. We did our job on pit road pretty much and on the track, we put ourselves in position and where we needed to be at the end. We were running in seventh and ran out of the gas. We’ve got to get that cleaned up. Running out of gas has robbed us of a lot of finishing positions and points over the last two weeks. We’ve shown a lot of really good speed on the super speedways, and that’s been really good. It’s nice to see the hard work paying off when we show up at the track. We’ll keep grinding and the finishes we deserve will come.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 26th

“Overall, our day was going well. We were racing our own race there of hanging back and going at the end of the stages. That worked out for the first stage, almost worked out for the second stage and I thought we were in a decent position in the third stage. We ended up with a combination of bad luck and not a great last stop at the end, just having to go around the No. 1 car and everything that happened there. That cost us there at the end and that’s disappointing.”

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 4th

“I don’t know about that. We had the No. 48 (Alex Bowman) behind us and he was doing a good job pushing. It just seemed like we couldn’t get enough help from the third guy in line and that’s what it takes. For whatever reason, the top lane just couldn’t get the runs off the corner at the right time to get connected. We’d get connected too late and then get a little bit squirrely and lose our momentum. I wish just that one time, we could have connected a little better to stay even with the bottom lane, but we were working really hard to do that with the No. 2 (Austin Cindric). It just seemed like it took a lot of effort for us to maintain the track position on the front row.

Live and learn. The No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a good job today. We had some issues and had to work on it. We got it better and then we were able to race there in the final stage, so really happy with that. We always want a little bit more. I feel like we were in the perfect position there with 10 laps to go.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 13th

“Not the day we were hoping for at Talladega. Our No. 71 GUNK Chevrolet was fast. Early on in the race, we were able to get to the lead and kind of control the lanes. We just lost track position there at the end and never could really get it back. It was unfortunate, but we learned a lot this weekend. We’ll keep plugging away at it. Not what we hoped for, but we’ll take a solid finish and move onto Texas.”

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 11th

“It was an up-and-down day for the No. 99 Wendy’s Frosty Chevrolet team. I wasn’t in love with the balance of the car. I thought the speed was decent, but I just felt like the balance of the car, we have a little bit of work to do to fight consistently at the front. We made a couple of mistakes on pit road, but when it counted the most at the end, we executed well.”

GM PR