CONCORD, N.C. -- The playoffs return to 1.5-mile track racing this weekend at Kansas Speedway where the Round of 8 will kick off on Sunday.
After success at the Charlotte roval last Sunday, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman will continue their playoff run at the Kansas track, where Hendrick Motorsports owns seven wins.
William Byron had a top-five and top-10 finish in his last two appearances at the track, while Jimmie Johnson owns three wins at Kansas.
Take a look at some of the more notable stats as the drivers take on the first race in the Round of 8 of the playoffs of the season.
- Coming off a winning weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval, Hendrick Motorsports will take on the 1.5-mile oval of Kansas Speedway on Sunday. The team is the track’s all-time leader in NASCAR Cup Series wins (seven), runner-up results (six), top-five finishes (35) and top-10s (63). Its average Kansas finish of 13.18 is the best of all organizations. Rick Hendrick’s drivers have led 1,278 laps there.
- Elliott is set to make his 10th Kansas Speedway start in the NASCAR Cup Series. He holds the third-best average finish (11.6) at the track among drivers with at least two starts. In Elliott’s nine previous starts at Kansas, he garnered one win, four top-five finishes and five top-10s. Elliott has finished inside the top five in four of the last six races at the 1.5-mile track.
- Byron has five starts at Kansas, and his results don't accurately depict how well the 22-year-old driver has run at the track. During his rookie season, Byron was running seventh in the May event before a late-race incident ended his day early, followed by a mechanical issue early in the October race. In last year’s May race, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native was running in second before being called for a penalty on pit road. Since then, Byron has finished fifth (October 2019) and 10th (July 2020). In fact, Byron’s 27 laps led at Kansas Speedway in the Cup Series is tied for the third most at a track in his career.
- Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Johnson has seen plenty of success over the course of his 28 starts at Kansas Speedway, accumulating a record three wins at the 1.5-mile track. The driver’s most recent win there came on May 9, 2015, when he led the final 10 laps to edge Kevin Harvick for the victory. Johnson owns 28 career Cup Series wins on 1.5-mile tracks, the most of all time. At Kansas, he also has the second-most top-five finishes (nine), the most top-10s (19) and the fourth-most laps led (601).
- In his first Round of 8 appearance, Bowman will make his 11th start at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. Earlier this season, Bowman brought home an eighth-place finish at the track after rolling off sixth. The sixth-year Cup Series driver has four top-10 results at Kansas in 10 starts, which are the most top-10s on a single track for Bowman. He has led 76 laps at the venue and has finished inside the top 10 in three of the last four events.
- Hendrick Motorsports has notched as least one top-10 finish in 14 consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races, its longest streak of the 2020 season. The last time the team reeled off more than 14 consecutive top-10s was in 2016 when it posted 15 in a row during a championship year. Hendrick Motorsports has also led laps in each of the last 10 races, which is the longest active streak of any organization.
- Since the inception of the format in 2004, Hendrick Motorsports has 45 NASCAR Cup Series playoff wins – 16 more than any other team. With Elliott’s victory on Sunday at the Charlotte roval, the organization has now scored at least one playoff win in a record-extending 16 different seasons, missing only 2017. A series-topping seven different drivers have won a playoff race for Hendrick Motorsports.