CONCORD, N.C. --Hendrick Motorsports and the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field will head to historic Richmond Raceway this Saturday for the second race of the 2020 playoffs.
Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman all will be revving their engine to lock in a win at the Virginia track and secure a berth in the Round of 12. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson also will try to take the checkered flag and tally his fourth win at the Virginia track.
The race also marks some historic milestones for three of the drivers. Elliott will make his 100th Cup Series start with the No. 9 team Saturday, while Bowman will make his 100th consecutive start as a Cup Series driver. The 24 team has two milestones to celebrate. William Byron will be making his 100th overall start and Chad Knaus will make his 700th appearance as a crew chief.
Hendrick Motorsports has 50 Cup Series wins on short tracks – the most among active teams. The four teammates will be gunning to make that number 51 this weekend. Take a look at some of the more notable stats of Hendrick Motorsports as the drivers prepare for the second race in the Round of 16.
- Over the last three NASCAR Cup Series races, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers rank inside the top 10 in both average running position and total laps run inside the top five. In the last five events, Hendrick Motorsports has earned two victories, a series-leading 13 top-10 finishes and an average result of 10.65, best among all Cup-level teams.
- Car owner Rick Hendrick was raised in Palmer Springs, Virginia, just 90 minutes from Richmond Raceway. Six of his drivers have posted a combined 10 wins at the track, with the first coming in September 1986 with Tim Richmond. Hendrick Motorsports has earned 110 top-10 finishes and led more than 4,000 laps there.
- With the 50 short-track victories, 10 different drivers have posted a short-track win 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.
- Driver Chase Elliott will make his 10th NASCAR Cup Series start at the .75-mile Richmond oval. In his previous nine starts there, he has collected two top-five finishes – one being a runner-up result – and three top-10s. Additionally, he has made four starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond, never finishing outside of the top five and earning a win in 2015.
- This Saturday, driver William Byron will make his 100th start in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has a best qualifying effort of ninth and finish of 12th at Richmond – both coming in April 2018. Byron also is just one of four drivers to have placed inside the top 10 in the other two short-track races this year. He finished eighth at both Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway over the summer.
- Johnson has three wins under his belt at the Virginia track. He also has two top-10 finishes at short tracks this season, finishing third at Bristol and 10th at Martinsville. Johnson currently has the fifth-best top-10 finish streak on short tracks of current drivers with two in a row.
- Driver Alex Bowman has eight previous Cup starts at Richmond Raceway and will be making his 100th consecutive series start on Saturday night. His best Richmond finish came in the fall 2018 race when the team finished 12th after 400 laps. Bowman also has three top-10 finishes in the last three events from Dover, Daytona and Darlington. These results are the tied for the longest active top-10 streak in the series with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron.