CONCORD, N.C. -- Hendrick Motorsports will take on the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field in Sunday’s elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL as all four teammates prepare to keep their championship hopes alive.
The three drivers who have led the most laps at the Charlotte ROVAL all belong to team owner Rick Hendrick’s stable. Chase Elliott leads all drivers with 62 laps, Kyle Larson has led for 52 laps and William Byron has paced the field for 50 laps in the three Cup Series races at the road course. Even though he has led just two ROVAL laps, teammate Alex Bowman has never finished outside the top 10 at the track and boasts a 4.7 average finish there, which trails only two-time winner Elliott (2.7).
Check out the impressive stats Hendrick Motorsports has at the Charlotte ROVAL and tune in this Sunday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. ET on NBC to see the teams in action as they look to transfer to the next round of the playoffs.
- Aside from its two wins at the ROVAL, Hendrick Motorsports has 35 Cup-level wins at the CMS facility, including 21 points-paying victories on the 1.5-mile oval and 12 non-points wins – eight in the NASCAR All-Star Race and four in the All-Star Open. Based in Concord, North Carolina, Hendrick Motorsports is located less than 1 mile from the racetrack.
- Hendrick Motorsports has won four consecutive Cup Series playoff elimination races dating back to last season. In 2020, Elliott won the final three cutoff events – held at the ROVAL, Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway – en route to winning the Cup Series championship. This year, Larson won at Bristol Motor Speedway, which hosted the first elimination race of the 2021 playoffs.
- Since 2018, Hendrick Motorsports has won nine of the 14 Cup Series points-paying events held on road courses, including eight of the last 10. This season, the team has won four of six road races, including three sweeps of the top-two finishing positions. Hendrick Motorsports holds the all-time NASCAR Cup Series records for road-course wins (24), different drivers with a road-course victory (seven) and road-course stage wins (11).
- In June at Sonoma Raceway, Larson won both stages and led 57 of 92 laps to capture his first Cup Series road course victory. At Watkins Glen International in August, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet ZL1 1LE led the final 26 laps to secure the victory on the serpentine layout. Overall, Larson has 20 starts on road courses in the Cup Series with two wins, five top-five finishes, eight top-10s and four stage victories (tied for second-most all-time). Two of those stage wins occurred at the Charlotte ROVAL which tie him for the most all-time on the 2.28-mile road course.
- Elliott’s seven road course wins are the most of all active drivers and the third-most all-time road course wins behind only Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight). The Dawsonville, Georgia, native also leads the way for the most wins on different road courses in the series (five). Elliott holds the second-best all-time average finish (7.67) and has garnered the most stage wins (six) of all time at road courses.
- In Byron’s last three showings at the ROVAL, the 23-year-old driver had strong runs. While a flat tire derailed his race in 2018, Byron rebounded to capture the pole at the Charlotte road course in 2019, later racing to a sixth-place finish. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native doubled down in 2020, racing to another sixth-place result at the Charlotte ROVAL. In fact, Byron has led a total of 50 laps at his hometown road course – the third-most in the Cup Series field behind Hendrick Motorsports teammates Elliott and Larson. Those 50 laps led by Byron are also the seventh-highest amount he has at a track in his Cup Series career.
- Bowman will make his fourth start on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL this weekend in the final race in the Round of 12. The Tucson, Arizona, native has the second-best average finish (4.67) among all Cup Series drivers in three starts at the 2.28-mile facility and has captured 107 points at the ROVAL, which is fourth-best among active drivers. Last season, Bowman finished eighth, marking his third top-10 finish at the venue. The team’s eighth-place result locked Bowman into the Round of 8 in 2020.