CONCORD, N.C. -- This Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series will tackle Dover International Speedway. Known as the "Monster Mile," the one-mile oval is historically one of the best tracks for Hendrick Motorsports. Chase Elliott is the reigning winner and Jimmie Johnson holds the most victories.
Here is what to look for at the track on Sunday.
- Hendrick Motorsports holds multiple all-time records at Dover. The organization leads all teams with 20 wins, 15 runner-up results, 65 top-five finishes, 105 top-10s and 6,689 laps led at the track. The team’s nine pole positions are the second-most at the track. Since 2009, Hendrick Motorsports has won in all but two seasons – 2011 and 2016 – at Dover.
- Last weekend Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Breaks Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, found Victory Lane at Talladega Superspeedway. Headed into the Monster Mile, a track where Elliott won last season, the No. 9 team has its sights set on back-to-back checkered flags. The driver has garnered five top-five finishes in six starts at Dover, four of which were top-three finishes. Among those top-threes was his win last season and a runner-up result in 2017. His five top-fives rank Dover as one of his best three tracks. Elliott averages a starting position of 10.8 and a finishing position of 4.3 at the one-mile oval, and he has led 149 laps – including a career-best 138 laps led in October 2017.
- Across his entire racing career, driver William Byron has made the trip to Dover on six different occasions. Competing as a rookie in the Cup Series last year, he made two starts there with his best qualifying effort of 17th and finish of 14th both coming in the spring event. In his sophomore season, the driver has a valuable asset in No. 24 team crew chief Chad Knaus. In 36 races at Dover, Knaus has an impressive 11 wins, 17 top-five finishes and 24 top-10s. He also leads all active crew chiefs in overall career victories with 81. The next closest crew chief, Paul Wolfe, has 28 Cup Series wins.
- Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is credited with 11 Dover wins, which is the most all-time. Since 1972, it's the second-most wins by a driver at a single track behind only NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip's 12 at Bristol. In this race two years ago, Johnson scored his 83rd career win, leading seven laps before scoring the victory in overtime. At Dover, he has started on the pole position three times and completed 98 percent of all possible laps run. Johnson averages a start of 10.9 and a finish of 9.9, and his 3,105 laps led at Dover are the most in history.
- Coming off a career-best second-place finish at Talladega last weekend, Alex Bowman will make his seventh Dover start in the Cup Series this Sunday. No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet crew chief Greg Ives has one top-five finish and three top-10s at the track, and his drivers have an average start of 11.6 and an average finish of 16.0. Ives’ resume includes two top-five results and three top-10s at the venue in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Both top-fives came in 2014 when he led driver Elliott to two second-place starts and 19 laps led before finishing inside the top five.