CONCORD, N.C. -- This weekend's trip to Michigan International Speedway comes just before an off weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Before the time away, Hendrick Motorsports will look for success at a track where it has seen plenty.
Here are three storylines to keep an eye on this weekend.
IVES HEADS HOME
This weekend, No. 88 team crew chief Greg Ives returns to his home track.
A native of Bark River, Michigan, Ives spoke with HendrickMotorsports.com last season about the surreal feeling of returning to a track he frequented as a child -- this time as a crew chief at the sport's highest level.
He can’t help but think back to visiting the track in his Jeff Gordon T-shirt, “just a skinny-looking kid watching some racing.”
“It is funny, I can kind of picture myself looking down from the stands in the seats where I was, whether I was across from entry to pit road or entry to Turn 1 – you kind of just remember those times and remember that feeling of seeing the cars go through your turn,” he said. “Now I’m on the other side, so it is awesome.”
Ives said it was hard to fathom reaching his current status growing up in Michigan. But from there, he made it all the way to Concord, North Carolina, and the highest level of NASCAR.
“I didn’t think somebody from that far north would be able to break into a sport that far away,” he said. “It is pretty neat to be here now, looking back.”
He already has one win at Michigan under his belt -- as a crew chief for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. This weekend, he'll be looking for a hometown trip to Victory Lane as a Sprint Cup crew chief.
And the stats so far this season point to that as a real possibility -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s four runner-up results this season -- including last weekend at Pocono -- lead the Sprint Cup Series.
MASTERING MICHIGAN
Speaking of finding Victory Lane at Michigan, Hendrick Motorsports has done just that eight times in addition to earning 49 top-five finishes, 90 top-10s, 11 pole positions and 2,371 laps led.
The eight wins have come via five different drivers: Gordon (3), Earnhardt (2), Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Ricky Rudd.
The organization swept both races at the two-mile oval in 2014 thanks to Johnson and Gordon, contributing to a streak of different winners in each of the last six races at Michigan.
The stretch of parity began with Greg Biffle and Joey Logano in 2013 and continued with Johnson and Gordon in 2014 then Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth in 2015.
With nine drivers claiming victories through the first 14 races of the Sprint Cup season, including three new winners in the past three races, perhaps another new face will take the checkered flag on Sunday.
ELLIOTT'S ELITE COMPANY
Chase Elliott's success this early in his rookie season might have surprised some, but not teammate Earnhardt.
“I don't think you get hired by a team like (Hendrick Motorsports) unless you're good," Earnhardt said earlier this week. "I didn't expect him to struggle."
But perhaps Earnhardt didn't even see this coming -- Elliott’s five top-five finishes through the first 14 races of his rookie season are the most by a rookie since NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt achieved the feat in 1979.
Elliott's elite company doesn't stop there -- his 10 top-10s are also the most through 14 races of a rookie campaign are the most since six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and teammate Johnson amassed the same total in his 2002 debut.
After experiencing "one of our best days of the year, personally," at Pocono, the rookie currently sits seventh in the standings, putting him in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field if the playoffs were to start today. To this point, the only rookie to ever qualify for NASCAR's postseason was Denny Hamlin in 2006.