CONCORD, N.C.— This Saturday, Hendrick Motorsports will take on the 1.5-mile oval of Texas Motor Speedway under the lights. There, Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team have won three consecutive races.
“We’ve had really fast cars at Texas the last few times we’ve been there,” Johnson said. “I’m looking forward to going back.”
And the yellow No. 48 numbers are back, too.
This weekend, Johnson and his team will compete for Victory Lane with the iconic yellow numbers back on the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS.
Tune in this Saturday to catch all the action and to see if Johnson or his Hendrick Motorsports teammates can add another win at Texas.
BROADCAST INFORMATION: Saturday’s race will air live on FOX at 7:30 p.m. ET. Can’t make it to the television? Listen to the race live on PRN and SiriusXM to catch the radio coverage. Here is the full broadcast schedule:
Thursday, April 7:
5:30 p.m. ET: Sprint Cup Series Practice, FOX Sports 1
Friday, April 8:
2:30 p.m. ET: Sprint Cup Series Qualifying, FOX Sports 1
6:30 p.m. ET: Sprint Cup Series Final Practice, FOX Sports 1
Saturday, April 9:
7:30 p.m. ET: Sprint Cup Series Cup Race, FOX/ PRN/ SiriusXM
THIS WEEK’S PAINT SCHEMES: Texas marks the first of two races this season for Quicken Loans as the primary sponsor on Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet SS. NAPA AUTO PARTS will be the primary partner on board Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott’s No. 24 Chevrolet SS this weekend. Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS and the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS, respectively.
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AT TEXAS: Hendrick Motorsports has earned eight wins, 31 top-five finishes, 56 top-10s, six pole positions and 2,251 laps led at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson has reached Victory Lane in each of the past three events at the track, including a sweep in the 2015 season.
KAHNE AT TEXAS: Kahne is a race and pole award winner at the Fort Worth, Texas, track. He led 63 laps and swept the April 2006 weekend with a pole and a win in only his fourth start at the mile-and-a-half track. Kahne started from the fourth position and took the checkered flag in eighth in last year’s Texas spring race.
ELLIOTT AT TEXAS: Elliott has earned three top-10 finishes in the 2016 season, and he will look to add to that total this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The 20-year-old driver secured his first top-10 finish of 2016 at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway. He also earned Sunoco’s Rookie of the Race honors for his top-10 finishes at Phoenix International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway. Additionally, he was named the Problem Solver of the Race for his race effort at California.
JOHNSON AT TEXAS: Johnson has won the last three consecutive races at Texas Motor Speedway. He has found Victory Lane in four of the last five and five of the last seven events at the track. In total, Johnson has won six times and led 1,023 laps in the process, both of which are the most all-time at Texas.
EARNHARDT AT TEXAS: At Texas Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has an average finish of 13.9 in 27 races. Since 2010 -- excluding a 43rd-place result due to an incident in the opening laps of the April 2014 race -- his average finish has improved to 10.2. The Kannapolis, North Carolina, native hasn’t been to Victory Lane at Texas since winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in his first start at the 1.5-mile oval on April 2, 2000, at age 25. But he has finished in the top 10 in the last three events at the track, recording a third-place result and two sixth-place finishes. The 41-year-old driver has two poles at the Lone Star State track, earning the top starting spot in April 2001 and in April 2008, his first pole with Hendrick Motorsports.