NASCAR Update: Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson among drivers in Hendrick Motorsports' 16-race Xfinity schedule

Hendrick Motorsports will once again field a NASCAR Xfinity Series car in 2025 for a 16-race slate. The Rick Hendrick-owned organization will enter the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for a select number of races with all four of the team's Cup Series stars getting behind the wheel.

The first race for the HMS entry will be at Circuit of the Americas with two-time and defending Daytona 500 champion William Byron, the driver of the #24 HMS Cup car, getting behind the wheel. Alex Bowman, driver of the #48 HMS Cup machine, will take over the Xfinity ride the next week at Phoenix.

Byron will field the #17 machine one more time after CoTA when he takes on the May 24 race at Charlotte. Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HMS Cup car, will run two races in the car at Homestead on March 22 and at Bristol on April 12. Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 HMS Cup ride, will partake in the April 5 race at Darlington in the #17 car.

HMS developmental driver Corey Day will be at the seat of the #17 for the other 10 races the car is entered in, taking on tracks such as Martinsville twice, Texas, Nashville, Sonoma, Iowa, Bristol, Charlotte Roval, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The #17 HMS Xfinity car won two races in 2024, with Larson picking up a victory at COTA while Elliott snagged a victory at Charlotte. The entry first came onto the Xfinity Series scene part-time in 2022 with Larson, Bowman and Byron taking turns behind the wheel. It was the first time HMS had been in the Xfinity Series since 2009. Since HMS' Xfinity Series return, their only two wins came last season.

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Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron won last Sunday's Daytona 500

Syndication: Daytona Beach News-Journal - Source: Imagn

The Hendrick Motorsports #17 NASCAR Xfinity Series entry will surely be competitive in its 16-race slate. On the Cup side, HMS is off to a hot start as William Byron captured the win in last Sunday's Daytona 500 after sneaking through the carnage of a last-lap crash.

Byron started the race fifth and led 10 laps en route to victory. The win puts the North Carolina native in elite company as he's just the fifth driver in history to win back-to-back Daytona 500s, joining the likes of Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Sterling Marlin and Denny Hamlin. It was the 27-year-old's third win at the Daytona International Speedway and 14th career win overall.

Meanwhile, Alex Bowman drove his #48 HMS Chevrolet to a sixth-place effort in Sunday's "Great American Race." Chase Elliott posted a 15th-place effort in his #9 HMS Chevrolet, while Kyle Larson rounded out the HMS field by placing 20th in his #5 machine.