DARLINGTON, S.C. – With the green flag flying for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports has now made 1,300 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The organization is the fourth to cross the 1,300 starts mark in the sport’s top series. The other three teams are: Richard Childress Racing at 1,557 starts, Wood Brothers Racing at 1,646 starts and Petty Enterprises at 2,059 starts.
RELATED: How Hendrick Motorsports' drivers stack up for the playoffs
"Pretty amazing," vice president of competition Chad Knaus told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier this week. "It shows what Mr. Hendrick has done. It shows his commitment to the industry. We are very fortunate to work for Mr. Hendrick, who has a tremendous passion for NASCAR racing.
"To eclipse that, honestly I am not really surprised. Shoot, we’ll probably double that at one point."
Entering this weekend, Hendrick Motorsports has the most wins (289), poles (237), top-five finishes (1,183), top-10s (2,028), laps led (76,609) and driver championships (14).
The Darlington race marks the start of the 10-race NASCAR playoffs, which Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman are all part of.
RELATED: Gordon, Andrews share outlook for playoffs