CONCORD, N.C. – This weekend, Hendrick Motorsports drivers are looking to add another milestone win for the organization at Phoenix International Raceway.
Over the years, Hendrick Motorsports has accumulated nine wins at the one-mile track. And those nine victories have been won by five different drivers. Jimmie Johnson has accounted for four, with Jeff Gordon owning two victories and Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and Kyle Busch earning one apiece.
Gordon recorded the organization’s most recent Phoenix victory in February 2011 prior to the repave of the one-mile oval. The organization took home two second-place finishes in the 2014 events at the track thanks to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon, respectively.
With those nine wins in the books, a win this weekend would make Phoenix International Raceway another Hendrick Motorsports double-digit victory track.
But the drivers know that will not be an easy feat to accomplish.
“The shape of the track is unlike anything else,” Earnhardt said. “You go to a lot of tracks and you feel like you see some of the same things at a lot of different racetracks, especially the mile-and-a-half tracks – they’re all kind of very similar. But nothing's like Phoenix.”
Currently, the organization has double-digit victory totals at 10 active Sprint Cup Series tracks: Martinsville (23), Charlotte (18), Dover (18), Pocono (17), Darlington (14), Daytona (14), Atlanta (13), Talladega (12), Bristol (10) and Richmond (10).
Phoenix is one of four tracks where the organization is on the brink of double-digit wins, joined by Indianapolis Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the Fontana, California, oval, where Hendrick Motorsports has also earned nine wins apiece.
A win would not only move the total to 10, but give Hendrick Motorsports three consecutive wins after Gordon’s Martinsville victory and Johnson’s trip to Victory Lane at Texas.
Watch for yourself to see if the organization can make it 11 tracks with double-digit wins on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.