CONCORD, N.C. – The NASCAR Cup Series is on its way to Dover International Speedway this weekend, and it’s a venue Hendrick Motorsports has dominated over the years.
The organization leads all teams at Dover in wins (19), runner-up results (15), top-five finishes (64), top-10s (103) and laps led (6,652).
As the Hendrick Motorsports teammates head to the “Monster Mile,” check out some of the key facts, figures and moments from the organization’s history at Dover.
- Hendrick Motorsports’ 19 victories at Dover is tied for the third-highest number of victories by any team at a single track. The leader in that category is Hendrick Motorsports’ 24 wins at Martinsville Speedway.
- Of the organization’s 19 wins, Jimmie Johnson has captured 11 of them, most recently finding Victory Lane at the track last season. His 11 victories at the one-mile oval are the most all-time by a driver, and his 3,105 laps led also mark a Dover record.
- Johnson is just one win shy of the combined total Dover wins of the rest of field entered in this Sunday’s race, which has accumulated 12.
- In the last 13 races at the “Monster Mile,” Johnson is the only driver to repeat as a winner. The driver has won five times at the venue during that period while no other driver has won more than once.
- At Dover, there have been six different times when the winner passed for the lead in the final three laps. Last June, Johnson passed leader Kyle Larson en route to his 83rd career victory. The driver did the same in May 2009, passing Tony Stewart with three laps left to take home the victory.
- In his rookie season of 2002, Johnson earned a season sweep at Dover and became the first of only two drivers to sweep races at a track in their very first season. He led 188 and 170 laps, respectively, of the two 400-lap events.
- In all four of his Cup Series starts at Dover, Chase Elliott has captured top-five finishes, including a trio of top-three results. The driver finished in the top three in both of his rookie appearances at Dover in 2016 – something only Johnson, Kyle Busch and Davey Allison had achieved before him. Elliott most recently took home a second-place finish at the one-mile oval last October and led 138 laps, his most ever in a single race.
- If Elliott earns a top-five result on Sunday, he will own the second-longest streak to start a career at the track, behind Richard Petty’s seven starts before finishing outside of the top five at Dover.
- While William Byron will make his first career Cup start at Dover, the driver has had success in the other NASCAR national series. In four total starts in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, Byron picked up three top-10 finishes, including one top-five result, never finishing below 11th.
- At Dover, Alex Bowman has four career NASCAR Cup Series starts and six career Xfinity starts. In his two starts with JR Motorsports in 2016 in the Xfinity Series, the driver qualified and finished inside the top five in both Dover starts that year.
- Dover has only produced two first-time winners, but Elliott, Byron and Bowman all will have the opportunity to become the third driver to win their first career race at the “Monster Mile” this weekend.