CONCORD, N.C. – Are the odds in Hendrick Motorsports’ favor?
As the team heads into the third race of the 2022 season, it certainly has momentum. On Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, the organization hit two big milestones: 75,000 laps led in the NASCAR Cup Series and its 40th win on a West Coast track. Hendrick Motorsports has now won at least one Cup Series race in a record-extending 38 different seasons.
In addition to coming off a victory at Auto Club, the No. 5 team goes into this weekend’s action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the defending race winners. In order to repeat at the 1.5-mile oval, Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels will seek to duplicate their March 2021 performance when they led 103 laps and earned the driver’s first Hendrick Motorsports victory.
Check out some key stats and facts as Hendrick Motorsports rolls into Sin City. Sunday’s race from Las Vegas will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
- In 2021, Hendrick Motorsports set a new record for laps led on 1.5-mile tracks in a single season with a combined 1,693. The previous record of 1,515 was set in 2005 by RFK Racing.
- Including six at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has 65 victories on 1.5-mile tracks, which is 10 more than second-best Joe Gibbs Racing and 24 more than third-best RFK Racing.
- Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will make his 48th start on a 1.5-mile track for Hendrick Motorsports this Sunday at Las Vegas. In his past 47 appearances, he has garnered one win, nine top-five finishes, 19 top-10s, three stage wins and has led 461 laps.
- The No. 48 pit crew gained a combined 15 spots across all pit stops made in Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway. The crew notched the eighth-fastest stop of the 2022 season on lap 133, clocking in at 10.73 seconds. The crew also holds the fifth-fastest average through the two points-paying races this year, averaging a 12.72-second stop.
- With four victories, Bowman is the second-winningest driver since the start of the 2021 Cup season, trailing only teammate and 2021 champion Larson. Bowman’s four-win campaign started at Richmond Raceway in April. He tallied three more wins: Dover Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Martinsville Speedway.
- In 2021, William Byron picked up the win in the third race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway – his first on a 1.5-mile configuration. The driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, went on to collect seven top-10 finishes across nine races on the intermediate tracks throughout the season – tied for the second-most behind only Kyle Busch (eight).
- Byron scored 370 points on 1.5-mile venues in 2021 – the third most behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson (440) and Busch (381). Heading into Sunday’s race at Las Vegas, he is on a streak of two consecutive top-10 finishes at 1.5-mile tracks.
- Byron is tied for third across the Cup Series field for the longest active streak of races led at Las Vegas (three). Also, the 24-year-old’s 71 laps led there rank as the sixth-most he’s led at a single track.
- Chase Elliott has 10 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas and nearly visited victory lane there last fall, finishing in the runner-up position after a late-race charge for the win. At the track, he has three top-five finishes, four top-10s and three stage wins, which is tied for second among active drivers. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native is also tied for the longest active streak of races led at Vegas with five, dating back to the fall of 2019.
- Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, is riding a streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes on 1.5-mile tracks, which currently leads all drivers in the series. During that span, he has led 78 laps and earned an average finish of 4.2. Elliott drove to runner-up finishes in three of the six races.
- In his previous 65 races on 1.5-mile tracks, Elliott has led 842 laps and recorded two victories, most recently at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 2020. Along with his pair of wins, Elliott has collected 22 top-five finishes – eight of which are runner-up results – and 35 top-10s on 1.5-milers.
- Dating back to last season, Larson has won five of the past seven points-paying Cup Series races. In the modern era (1972-present), the feat has been accomplished nine other times by eight drivers – all members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
- Including his victory at Las Vegas last year, Larson won four of the final eight races held on 1.5-mile tracks for a winning percentage of 50%. In the nine total races held on 1.5-mile tracks last season, the 29-year-old driver led 1,317 laps – the most all-time on that track configuration. In fact, the rest of the field combined to lead 1,337 – only 20 more laps than Larson.
- Larson has won four of the last six Cup races held on the West Coast. Along with his victory at Las Vegas, he took the checkered flag at Sonoma Raceway and Phoenix Raceway in 2021 plus last weekend at Auto Club.
- Only three drivers with more than three Las Vegas starts have an average finish better than 10th. Larson’s average of 9.82 trails only Joey Logano (8.59) and Ryan Blaney (8.82).