CONCORD, N.C. – The NASCAR Cup Series is heading to Pocono Raceway for the second time this season.
At the Pennsylvania track, Hendrick Motorsports leads all teams with 17 wins, with the four most recent coming as season sweeps in 2013 (Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne) and 2014 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.).
In addition, the organization also owns the most in each of the following categories at Pocono: 12 pole positions, 67 top-five finishes, 120 top-10 finishes and 3,226 laps led. At least two Hendrick Motorsports drivers have finished inside the top 10 on 39 different occasions at Pocono, including 24 of the last 30 races at the track.
More facts and figures on Hendrick Motorsports’ history at the “Tricky Triangle” can be found below.
- Hendrick Motorsports’ 17 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Pocono have come via seven different drivers, a stat which is tied for the most different winners at a track by a team. The organization's Pocono wins have come via Jeff Gordon (six), Johnson (three), Tim Richmond (three), Earnhardt (two), Geoff Bodine, Terry Labonte and Kahne.
- Gordon’s six wins at Pocono are an all-time record. He also owns the record for laps led at the venue with 1,040, with Johnson fourth on the list with 740 laps led.
- Hendrick Motorsports owns the record for the most consecutive wins at Pocono Raceway with a five-race win streak that began with Gordon's August 2012 victory and ended with Earnhardt's August 2014 win. The first four of those five straight races were won by four different Hendrick Motorsports drivers, a feat that has been accomplished on just one other occasion by Carl Keikhafer Racing at Martinsville Speedway from 1955-1956.
- Chase Elliott is set to make his sixth start at Pocono Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend. In his first five starts, the 22-year-old driver collected one top-five finish and four top-10s. During his rookie start at Pocono in June 2016, he led 51 laps en route to a fourth-place finish.
- In William Byron’s first Cup start at Pocono Raceway in June, he and the No. 24 team had a solid day. The 20-year-old was running inside the top 10 near the end of the event before losing a handful of positions during a series of late-race restarts and finishing 18th. The NASCAR Cup Series rookie has experienced past success at the 2.5-mile triangle in the other NASCAR national series, finishing in the top 15 in his lone Xfinity Series start at Pocono, and winning the 2016 Camping World Truck Series race after starting from the pole and leading 44 of 60 laps.
- Johnson will make his 600th career NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend at Pocono Raceway. Johnson will be the 30th driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to start 600 races. Among the drivers to previously accomplish the feat, nine of them have driven for Hendrick Motorsports – and Johnson makes 10. NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty is the only driver to win a race on his 600th start, which took place at Richmond in February 1973.
- Johnson ranks third among drivers who have accumulated the most wins through 600 starts. On the list, he is surrounded by NASCAR Hall of Famers. Richard Petty leads with 150 wins, Darrell Waltrip had 84, Johnson sits at 83 and Jeff Gordon had 82.
- At the “Tricky Triangle,” Johnson has found Victory Lane on three separate occasions, the most recent coming on June 9, 2013. The driver started on the pole and led 128 of 160 laps to earn his most recent win at the venue. Johnson also has 11 top-five finishes and 20 top-10s at the track.
- Alex Bowman has five previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Pocono Raceway. Earlier this season, the No. 88 team qualified 14th and finished 27th after an on-track incident on Lap 148 that caused heavy right-rear damage. In 2016, Bowman made his only start at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and finished 10th. The Tucson, Arizona, native captured two third-place finishes at the track in the ARCA Racing Series in 2012, leading a total of seven laps.
- All four Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs have found success at Pocono Raceway. Chad Knaus has three Pocono victories with Johnson, Alan Gustafson picked up two wins with Gordon, Darian Grubb earned a win with Tony Stewart in 2009 and Greg Ives took home a runner-up result with Earnhardt in 2016.
- Prior to this season, there has been only one race run at Pocono on July 29. On that date in 2002, Chase Elliott's father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, won in the No. 9 car. Gordon also won on July 29, taking the No. 24 Chevrolet to Victory Lane at Talladega in 2002.
- If Elliott, Byron or Bowman wins at Pocono, it will mark the ninth time a driver has recorded his first career Cup Series win while driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing share the all-time record, having each sent eight first-time winners to Victory Lane in Cup Series competition.