CONCORD, N.C. -- This weekend, drivers will race at Texas Motor Speedway -- the second 1.5-mile track of the season. The venue is one where Hendrick Motorsports has a history of trips to Victory Lane, tied for the all-time record at the Fort Worth, Texas, track.
This weekend, two new paint schemes will make their 2019 debut at Texas. Chase Elliott will pilot a Kelley Blue Book scheme while his teammate Alex Bowman will have a LLumar paint scheme for the first time this season.
Below is a closer look at Hendrick Motorsports' track record at Texas along with what to look out for this weekend as drivers head to the Lone Star State.
- Hendrick Motorsports has earned nine wins, 37 top-five finishes, 68 top-10s, six pole positions and 2,299 laps led at Texas Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson most recently visited Victory Lane at the track for the organization in April 2017. The organization owns six wins in the last 13 races at Texas, the most among all teams, with Johnson winning four of the last nine.
- Hendrick Motorsports holds the record for the most first-time Cup Series winners with nine. If Bowman or William Byron wins at Texas, it will extend the record to the 10th time a driver has recorded his first career Cup Series win while driving for Hendrick Motorsports.
- This weekend, Elliott is set to make his seventh NASCAR Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway. In his previous six starts, the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has garnered two top-five finishes, five top-10s and an average finishing position of 7.2 – currently the best average finish at Texas of all time and statistically among his top four tracks (Dover, Michigan, Charlotte road course, Texas) based on average finish. In the four races since the track reconfiguration in 2017, Elliott ranks fifth among active drivers for the best average finish (8.5).
- In the last five 1.5-mile events (Kansas, Texas, Homestead, Atlanta, Las Vegas), Elliott finished outside the top 10 only once and averaged a finish of 8.4.
- When the green flag drops this weekend, Byron will hit a notable mark in his NASCAR career. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway will signify Byron’s 100th start across all three national series. With two starts in each of the three series he has competed in at the 1.5-mile speedway, Byron became the youngest-ever Truck Series winner at Texas with his win in June of 2016. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native also collected his first career Cup Series top-10 finish in last year’s spring race. In fact, Byron has finished in the top 10 in 83 percent of all his Texas starts (five out of six) and has an average finish of 3.5 in Truck, 8.0 in Xfinity and 13.0 in Cup at the track.
- This weekend, No. 24 team crew chief Chad Knaus will call his 33rd Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway from on top of the pit box, but this will be his first at the 1.5-mile oval with Byron and the No. 24 team. In his 32 previous races, Knaus has won seven times at the "No Limits" track, with the most recent win coming in the spring race of 2017. In his career as Cup crew chief, Knaus’ seven wins at Texas Motor Speedway are his fourth-most at a track behind Dover International Speedway (11), Martinsville Speedway (nine) and Charlotte Motor Speedway (eight).
- In 31 starts at Texas, Johnson has the most all-time wins (seven), second-place finishes (five), top-five finishes (15), top-10s (21) and the most laps led (1,052). 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). Johnson won three straight races at Texas between November 2014 and November 2015 – the longest streak ever by a driver at the track. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has an average finish of 9.81 at the 1.5-mile track, which is the third-best average of all-time at the Fort Worth, Texas, venue.
- Bowman has seven starts in the NASCAR Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway. His best finish of 13th came in 2016 in the No. 88 machine while he was filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. The 25-year-old’s first two poles in the NASCAR Xfinity Series came at Texas in 2013.