CONCORD, N.C. – The NASCAR Cup Series is headed to Richmond Raceway for Race No. 2 in the 2019 playoffs, and Hendrick Motorsports teammates are ready to take on 400 laps at the Richmond oval.
Take a look below at some of the stats and streaks to keep an eye on in Saturday night’s race, which begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
- At Richmond Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports owns 10 wins, 17 poles, 59 top-five finishes, 109 top-10s and 4,034 laps led. It is one of 13 tracks where the organization has scored double-digit wins and one of seven tracks where it owns at least 100 top-10s. The 17 poles are tied for Hendrick Motorsports' third-most at a single track, and the Virginia venue is among five tracks where Hendrick Motorsports has led over 4,000 laps.
- Since Hendrick Motorsports' last win at Richmond in September 2008, its drivers have secured six second-place finishes at the track, including Chase Elliott in April 2018. The organization's 19 runner-up results at Richmond are its most at any venue.
- This weekend at Richmond, Chase Elliott will make his ninth NASCAR Cup Series start at the 0.75-mile oval. In his previous eight starts, he has collected two top-five finishes – one being a runner-up result – and three top-10s. Elliott currently sits sixth in the playoff standings, 30 points above the cut line. Last season in the 2018 playoffs, he earned the most points (89) at the final two races in the Round of 16 (Richmond Raceway and the Charlotte road course). His two wins in the last nine playoff races are tied for the most in that span.
- William Byron’s last 11 races have proven to be some of his best across his Cup career. Dating back to the end of June at Chicagoland Speedway, he’s started from the pole once, collected three top-five finishes and six top-10s, resulting in an average finish of 11.5. In fact, all of his Cup Series top-five finishes and six of his 13 Cup career top-10s have come in the last 11 races. Not to mention, in the last two races (the final race of the regular season and the first race in the Round of 16) Byron ranks fourth in points earned with 74, leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
- This weekend’s race at Richmond will mark a return visit for Byron and the Chad Knaus-led No. 24 team during the 2019 season. In the spring, the sophomore driver started the race 13th, and despite fighting an ill-handling Chevy, was able to cross the finish line in the 13th position after running in the top 15 all race long.
- Since 2014, Jimmie Johnson has seven top-10 finishes in 11 starts at the Richmond, Virginia, track. Finishing in the top 10 63.64 percent of the time at the track in that span, the percentage is tied for his second-best since 2014. The driver's last 10 starts at Richmond feature a pair third-place finishes, a sixth-place finish, three eighth-place efforts, one ninth-place finish, a pair of 11th-place results and most recently a finish of 12th in the spring event.
- Johnson currently has the second-most short track wins on the circuit of all active drivers with 14. He only trails Kyle Busch, who has 16. As an organization, Hendrick Motorsports has led 4,032 laps at Richmond Raceway, and Johnson has contributed to 461 of them as well as three of the organizations 10 wins at the 0.75-mile oval.
- Alex Bowman will make his eighth start at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night. Out of 2,802 laps run at Richmond in his seven starts at the track, the Tucson, Arizona native, has completed 99.1 percent of them. Following last weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where the No. 88 team finished sixth, Bowman now sits 11th in the playoff points grid. The driver gained six points on the cut line following Sunday’s event.