CONCORD, N.C. – Texas Motor Speedway awaits in the second race of the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
And for Hendrick Motorsports, it’s a track where many memories have been accumulated over the years.
The organization has earned nine wins, 37 top-five finishes, 67 top-10s, six pole positions and 2,285 laps led at Texas Motor Speedway, with Jimmie Johnson most recently visiting Victory Lane at the track for the organization in April 2017.
See below for more on how Hendrick Motorsports has fared at Texas Motor Speedway.
- Hendrick Motorsports is tied with Roush Fenway Racing for the most Cup wins all-time at Texas. The organization's nine victories at the track have come courtesy of three different drivers: Johnson (seven), Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte.
- A Hendrick Motorsports victory this weekend would add to the list of venues where the organization has posted double-digit wins. In total, 13 tracks make up the list: Martinsville (24), Dover (20), Charlotte (19), Pocono (17), Atlanta (14), Darlington (14), Daytona (14), Talladega (12), Bristol (11), Indianapolis (10), Fontana (10), Richmond (10), and ISM Raceway (10). Hendrick Motorsports currently has nine wins at Texas and New Hampshire.
- Hendrick Motorsports has a history of closing out races at Texas. The organization has won at least one race at the Fort Worth, Texas, track in seven of the last 11 years and has seen at least one driver lead in each of the last 23 Cup races at the venue. At least one Hendrick Motorsports car has finished inside the top 10 in each of the last 24 Texas events, which is the longest streak all-time at the track.
- Twice in the last seven Texas races, all four of the team’s cars have crossed the finish line inside the top 10. The organization swept the top-two finishing positions at Texas on two occasions: in 2009 (Gordon and Johnson) and in 2013 (Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.)
- Hendrick Motorsports has a NASCAR Cup Series record 58 total wins on 1.5-mile tracks, 13 more than the next closest team, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hendrick Motorsports has earned at least one win on a 1.5-mile track in a record 25 consecutive seasons. Chase Elliott most recently extended that streak from 24 to 25 seasons with his Oct. 21 victory at Kansas Speedway, becoming the 10th different driver to win for the organization on a 1.5-mile track.
- Elliott currently holds the best average finish of all time at Texas Motor Speedway with a 7.4 average finish in five starts at the 1.5-mile oval. That 7.4 average finish also ranks Texas as Elliott’s fifth-best track. In his previous five NASCAR Cup Series starts at the venue, Elliott has garnered two top-five finishes and four top-10s. He has collected top-10 finishes in all but one (11th-place finish) of his previous Cup and NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the Fort Worth, Texas, track.
- Elliott collected his first career Xfinity Series victory at Texas in April 2014. In his five Xfinity Series starts there he has accumulated three top-five finishes and five top-10s, led 38 laps and completed 100 percent of the 1,000 possible laps while averaging a starting position of 10.4 and finishing position of 5.0.
- The Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continues this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Elliott is currently ranked sixth, 31 points below the cutoff line. As the series heads into the final three races of the 2018 season, Elliott currently holds a top-10 average finish at the three remaining tracks (Texas – 7.4, ISM – 6.8, Homestead – 8.0). Last season, the 22-year-old driver captured eighth- (Texas), second- (ISM) and fifth- (Homestead-Miami) place results in the final three events of the season.
- In the last 12 races, Elliott has earned three wins, six top-five finishes and nine top-10s, all of which are tied for the most among all drivers during that span.
- After taking the lead in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings following the spring race at Texas Motor Speedway, William Byron will have a chance to clinch the title this weekend. The 20-year-old driver leads by 107 points in the standings over Bubba Wallace and would clinch if he finishes the race with a 121-point lead. Byron is on a roll of earning NASCAR rookie of the year titles to this point, going back-to-back-to-back with the honor in the Xfinity Series in 2017, the Camping World Truck Series in 2016 and the K&N Pro Series East in 2015.
- Byron earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series top-10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway in the spring race, finishing 10th after starting at the rear of the field due to an engine change. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native also has four other national series starts at the Fort Worth, Texas, track, including a win in his first Truck Series start at the 1.5-mile oval on June 10, 2016. The win was his second of seven victories during the 2016 season and made him the youngest-ever Truck Series winner at Texas Motor Speedway.
- In five national series starts, Byron has never finished outside of the top 10 at Texas. He’s led laps in all three national series for a combined total of 41 laps and has an average finish of 3.5 in Truck, 8.0 in Xfinity and 10.0 in Cup. His one lap led during the Cup race in April made him the youngest driver to lead a lap at the 1.5-mile track in the Cup Series.
- Johnson has won six of the last 12 races at Texas. In 30 starts at the 1.5-mile track, the El Cajon, California, native has the most all-time wins (seven), the most second-place finishes (five), the most top-five finishes (15), the most top-10s (21) and the most laps led (1,041). Johnson has an average finish at the Fort Worth, Texas, track of 9.63, which is the third-best all time among drivers with more than one start at the venue. Texas is one of four tracks on the circuit where Johnson has led more than 1,000 laps, joining Dover (3,105), Martinsville (2,862) and Charlotte (1,930).
- Between November 2014 and November 2015, Johnson won three straight races at Texas – the longest streak ever by a driver at the track. He also has posted three-race win streaks at ISM Raceway, Las Vegas and Martinsville. Johnson won four in a row at Charlotte Motor Speedway from May 2004 to October 2005. Johnson’s seven wins at Texas are more than double of any other driver in the field – the combined Texas wins of the rest of the field this weekend is nine.
- Johnson is the NASCAR Cup Series’ all-time wins leader on 1.5-mile tracks with 28. Second all-time is Johnson’s former teammate Gordon with 17 victories, followed by Tony Stewart (15), Dale Earnhardt (14), Richard Petty (13) and Kevin Harvick (13).
- Alex Bowman has six previous starts at Texas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series. Earlier this season, the No. 88 team started 16th and finished 28th after the team suffered a bent trackbar early in the 334-lap event. Bowman’s best finish in the Cup Series at the 1.5-mile facility came back in 2016 when the No. 88 team finished 13th with Bowman filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. The 25-year-old driver has two starts at Texas in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He started on the pole in both events in 2013, and his first-ever laps led in the Xfinity Series came at Texas.