CONCORD, N.C. – Short track racing returns this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway.
And Hendrick Motorsports has excelled on short tracks throughout its history.
The organization leads all active teams at short tracks in wins (50), poles (50), top-five finishes (215), top-10s (365) and laps led (20,617). Hendrick Motorsports has won at least one short track race in each of the last five seasons and in 15 of the last 16 (all but 2011), and it has gone to Victory Lane at a short track in 27 different seasons.
Ahead of the trip to “The Last Great Coliseum,” take a look at some key facts and figures from Hendrick Motorsports’ history at Bristol.
- At Bristol Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has 11 wins, 11 pole positions, 55 top-five finishes and 99 top-10s. Jimmie Johnson most recently won there for the organization in April 2017.
- With 99 top-10 finishes at Bristol Motor Speedway on the organization's résumé, the Tennessee track could be the fifth venue where Hendrick Motorsports has earned 100 or more top-10s. The organization has achieved the feat at Martinsville (124), Pocono (118), Richmond (105) and Dover (103).
- Chase Elliott is set to make his fifth career NASCAR Cup Series start at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. In his previous four starts at the track, the 22-year-old driver has led 16 laps and collected one top-five finish and two top-10s. He averages a starting position of 7.8 and finishing position of 11.0. In Elliott’s four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track, he earned one top-five finish and finished in the top 10 in all four events.
- William Byron has three national series starts at Bristol – two in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and one in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – and one regional touring series start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. His best NXS finish at the 0.533-mile oval is 12th, while he earned top-five finishes in NCWTS and NKNPSE competition. In NCWTS, he led a lap near the end of the event before coming home fourth and in NKNPSE, he came just shy of taking home the win with a runner-up finish. At Bristol, 15 drivers have scored top-five finishes as rookies, including teammate Elliott when he drove the No. 24 Chevy in 2016.
- Every driver who has started more than two NASCAR Cup Series races for Hendrick Motorsports has scored at least one top-10 finish. With his 10th-place result at Texas last Sunday, Byron became the 27th different driver to record a top-10 for the organization.
- It was one year ago this weekend when Johnson led 81 laps en route to his second career victory at Bristol Motor Speedway – Hendrick Motorsports’ most recent trip to Victory Lane at the Tennessee track. In a race postponed to Monday due to inclement weather, Johnson started in the 11th position and stayed in the lead pack for the majority of the race. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion took the lead with 20 laps to go to earn the organization’s 11th Bristol win.
- Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's for Pros Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, has 14 total wins on short tracks across the Cup Series circuit, which is the most of all active drivers. In addition to his two wins at Bristol, Johnson has nine wins at Martinsville Speedway and three wins at Richmond Raceway.
- Alex Bowman has four career starts at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series. The Tucson, Arizona, native’s best finish of 20th came back in 2015. Bowman has two starts at the speedway in the Xfinity Series, where he captured one top-15 finish in 2013, finishing 14th. This weekend’s race will be Bowman’s first at the 0.533-mile track since 2015.