CONCORD, N.C. – One final opportunity to race for a title at Homestead-Miami Speedway comes this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to ISM Raceway.
The penultimate race of the season, which takes place Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, is Chase Elliott’s last chance to make the Championship 4 and put the organization in contention for its 13th NASCAR championship.
Take a look below at how Elliott and his teammates have fared at the Avondale, Arizona racetrack in advance of Sunday’s 312-mile race.
- Hendrick Motorsports leads NASCAR Cup Series teams all-time at ISM Raceway with 10 wins, nine runner-up results, 47 top-five finishes, 84 top 10s, 11 poles and 2,653 laps led. At least one Hendrick Motorsports driver has finished inside the top 10 in each of the last 15 races at ISM Raceway, which is the longest active streak, and in all but one of the last 26 races at the track. At least one of the organization's drivers has led laps in each of the last eight races at the venue. The organization also owns the most wins on the West Coast of any team all-time with 34 spread across Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ISM Raceway, Auto Club Speedway and Sonoma Raceway. Jimmie Johnson leads drivers all-time with 15 West Coast wins.
- Elliott currently sits eighth in the standings, 78 points behind the fourth-place driver. He'll look to become the second driver in NASCAR playoffs history to enter the final race in the Round of 8 outside the top four and make it to the championship. In his previous seven starts, the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has led a total of 156 laps – 140 laps combined in 2017 and 16 laps in November 2018. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native has finished in the top three in two of his last four starts at the track and averages a finishing position of 10.1, fifth-best all-time at the venue. He has also won two stages at the Avondale, Arizona, track.
- In his three previous Cup starts at the one-mile oval, the William Byron, has a track-best qualifying effort of seventh that came in the spring of this year, and a track-best finish of ninth in last year’s fall race. Aside from his three Cup starts at ISM Raceway, Byron has one NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series start and two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts. In November 2017, Byron became the youngest winner ever at ISM Raceway in the Xfinity Series at 19 years, 11 months and 13 days.
- Johnson is set to make his 650th career NASCAR Cup Series start this Sunday at ISM Raceway. He has four career wins at ISM Raceway, where his average finish is 10.2 – the sixth best at the track all-time. He trails only Alan Kulwicki, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin. Johnson's last win at the Avondale, Arizona, track came Nov. 15, 2009, when he led 238 of 312 laps. His last pole at the track came in November 2015.
- Alex Bowman, a Tucson, Arizona, native, has eight starts in the NASCAR Cup Series at his home track of ISM Raceway. His best finish of sixth came in the 2016 event when the No. 88 team started from the pole and led a race-high 194 laps. His average running position during that event was 1.9 as he spent 272 laps running inside the top two. Earlier this year, Bowman qualified sixth and finished 35th after being involved in an incident on Lap 191 of the 312-lap event.