CONCORD, N.C. -- For the third time this season, Hendrick Motorsports and the rest of the Cup Series field will run at Bristol Motor Speedway. However, this race is a little more crucial than the other two events at the Tennessee track.
Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman all have to do well in the race to move on to the Round of 12 in the playoffs. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson also will try to take the checkered flag and tally his third win at the Tennessee track.
Take a look at some of the more notable stats of Hendrick Motorsports as the drivers take on the third playoff race of the season.
- In each of the last six races, the team has led laps, placed multiple cars inside the top 10 and recorded at least one top-five finish. During that stretch, Hendrick Motorsports has the most or is tied for the most in the series in wins (two), top-five finishes (10) and top-10s (15). It also has one runner-up finish, one stage win and 207 laps led in those events. The team’s average result of 11.63 over the last half-dozen races is the best of all Cup-level organizations.
- At the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, car owner Rick Hendrick has 11 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victories with a track record six different drivers. Jeff Gordon (five) and Johnson (two) have won multiple races there for Hendrick Motorsports while Darrell Waltrip (1989), Terry Labonte (1995), Kyle Busch (2007) and Kasey Kahne (2013) have also gone to Bristol victory lane for the team. Most recently, Elliott won the July 15 non-points NASCAR All-Star Race at the track.
- Going into Saturday night’s playoff race at Bristol, Hendrick Motorsports has 50 Cup Series wins on short tracks – the most among active teams. Ten different drivers have posted a short-track victory for car owner Hendrick, which is one away from tying the NASCAR record held by Junior Johnson and Associates.
- Since the inception of the format in 2004, Hendrick Motorsports has 44 NASCAR Cup Series playoff wins – 16 more than any other team. The organization has scored at least one playoff victory in a record 15 different seasons, missing only 2017. A series-topping seven different drivers have won a playoff race for Hendrick Motorsports.
- During the May Cup Series event at Bristol, Elliott and the NAPA team led 88 laps and picked up two stage wins before a late-race accident while battling for the lead left him with a 22nd-place finish. In July at BMS, Elliott drove his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to take the checkered flag after dominating the field during the 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race. Elliott won the second and third stages before crossing the finish line first in the final stage and earning the $1 million prize.
- Byron will make his sixth NASCAR Cup Series start at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has a best qualifying effort of second at “The Last Great Colosseum,” lining up alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott in April 2019. In the May Bristol event, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native raced his way to an eighth-place finish – a personal track-best performance. Just two months later in July, the Cup Series returned to Bristol Motor Speedway for the NASCAR All-Star Race, where Byron won the opening stage the Open race and locked himself into the main event.
- Dating back to 2014, Johnson has only finished outside of the top 10 at Bristol three times over the span of 12 races, making for nine top-10 results. Six of those finishes were in the top five, including one win in the spring of 2017. Johnson finished third in his most recent points race at Bristol in May. The only other track where Johnson has more top-10 finishes during that timeframe is Dover, where he has 10. Johnson has the best overall average finish (8.85) of any driver with more than six starts at Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Bowman has nine NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol Motor Speedway with two top-10 results. His best performance at the half-mile Tennessee venue came in 2018 when he brought home a fifth-place finish after 500 laps in the spring race. Earlier this season, the series visited the track for the 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race, where Bowman and the team earned an eighth-place finish after rolling off second.