On Sunday at the Ally 400, Kyle Larson (P4) will start only a few rows ahead of Chase Elliott (P19). Facing the music, either of those Hendrick Motorsports champions will break their 620-points-apiece stalemate and take the lead at the top of the regular season table, with all but a few good moves in Music City. But that’s not the only standstill the duo currently face.

At NASCAR heads to its fourth annual trip to the Nashville Superspeedway, Elliott and Larson both hold the opportunity to break a hefty deadlock by winning the race and claiming either’s second-ever custom Les Paul at the 1.33-mile racetrack. However, it would appear that the parity’s closer than ever between the #5 and the #9 camps awaiting the excitements in middle Tennessee.

That is exactly what Kyle Larson believes and with some well-warranted caution. As it all unfolds, the #5 driver revealed his thought process on battling Elliott while gunning for ultimate glory in the 2024 NASCAR season. On June 29, Caleb Barnes of Frontstretch asked Larson, “You’re neck and neck with teammate Chase Elliott coming down for the regular season points. Does that affect how you race him down the stretch?”

Dismissing the idea of any extra motives for some over-the-top competition, the #5 driver said, “I don’t think so. There’s still a lot of racing left before the playoff starts.” Stressing his point further, Larson laid out his eventual desire and an alternative reason for what spurred his initial refusal of the notion. “We race really well together, and it’s been great to see their team being as strong as they are this year. They’re super consistent, so that’s hard to compete against.”

Chase Elliott didn’t start the 2024 season on the best foot. It took him until the Food City 500 – the 5th race of the season – to break into the Top 10 (he finished P8) and another couple of races to crack the Top 5 at the Toyota Owners. Since then, his lowest finish has been 18th place, which came last weekend at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Kyle Larson, on the other hand, has had his fair share of ups and downs. With finishes as low as 34th place, he’s also taken in 3 victories.

That said, following his most recent win at the Toyota/Save Mart 350, he’s had 2 subpar weekends and is looking to bounce back in Nashville. While he appreciated the #9 team, he also praised his crew: “Our team’s been doing a good job too. And just got to get back onto those consistent runs like we’ve had.” As for his points battle against Elliott, it is important to note that Larson currently holds the leverage of 67 stage points, courtesy of 8 stage wins over Elliott’s advances that have resulted in 1 stage win in almost 20 points-paying races.

However, the more notable statistical difference instead has been Larson’s 1-race absence in the 2024 calendar en route to his first potential regular-season championship. As most must know by now, this was due to his inability to race at the Coca-Cola 600 while trying to complete The Double because of unfavorable weather conditions. The waiver/no waiver drama that followed him from that debacle is now safely a memoir of the past, evident through his weekly points march.

Meanwhile, NASCAR’s statisticians recently dropped a fascinating mid-season comparison for the Hendrick Motorsports stablemates. Kyle Larson reigns supreme in laps led, racking up a whopping 755, with a staggering 80% of those laps coming in the first 2 stages of races. On the other hand, Chase Elliott boasts a near-perfect attendance record (speculatively enviable to Larson), having completed all but one lap this year.

Moreover, Elliott also “leads all drivers with a 9.161 average finish” in the last 19 races. Hence, the battle for supremacy at Nashville is barely as simple as the question of an in-house tug-of-war. It is one of accolades, records, and, most importantly, making history at the 4th annual Ally 400. But what does NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver think about these recent developments?

Will there be a JGR spoiler alert at the Hendrick party in Nashville?

In the last 5 races, Kyle Larson has recorded a DNS, a top-10, a race win, a DNF, and a top-5, in that exact order. That would leave very few doubts as to why one would say that the most recent stretch of races has quite clearly been a real rollercoaster ride for the entire #5 team. As for Elliott, though, he hasn’t exactly lived up to the same standards that were once expected of him.

A lot could be accredited to his recovery from a fractured tibia, which normally requires 4-6 months of rehabilitation time. More could receive endorsements as NASCAR’s NextGen evolution changes by the minute to help theoretically produce a new champion. Nevertheless, Elliott’s strength this year heavily lies in his consistency. Although Kyle Larson boasts 3 wins compared to the #9 driver’s one so far at Texas, leading up to the Ally 400, Elliott is the only driver who has not finished outside the Top 20 yet this season.

In the season’s last five outings, Larson’s teammate has scored a podium finish, a top 5, two finishes of P18 and better, and a P7 after the opportune 2024 Coca-Cola 600. This does reveal an awkward dynamic inside the Hendrick garage.

But as Chase Elliott recently told the media in a presser at New Hampshire, “Kyle and I raced for a championship a couple of times. I can say with a lot of confidence that our meetings have never changed – how everyone talks, or the things that are discussed, or the information that is uploaded into our internal servers… It’s just important for us to lean on each other and ultimately take the information that you gather and try to do a better job with it.”

The teammates, quite unlikely to ever turn full-blown rivals owing to their likable personalities, may very well not be at any odds against each other heading to Nashville. But a contender sneaking up on both their advances from the Joe Gibbs Racing camp is Denny Hamlin. When Larson slipped up due to Mother Nature at Charlotte in May, Denny was the one to benefit, even leading the points table briefly until his Hendrick rivals’ took back the lead to tussle among themselves, gearing up for Nashville.

And if Denny Hamlin sweeps both stages and manages to win the Ally 400 on Sunday, both Larson and Elliott would be two points behind the #11 driver in the regular season standings, moving onwards to the great race NASCAR weekend. Please note that Hamlin also won the pole for the Nashville Cup race. The script is splitting at the seams of this season’s unskippable championship battles. So, let us know in the comments who you think could be the regular-season victor of NASCAR’s 2024 rollercoaster.