KANSAS SPEEDWAY (1.5-MILE TRI-OVAL)

LOCATION: KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
EVENT: NASCAR CUP SERIES (RACE 12 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 7:30 P.M. ET, SATURDAY, MAY 11 (FS1/MRN/SIRIUSXM)

Chase Elliott
No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

2019 Season

• 7th in standings
• 11 starts
• 1 win
• 2 pole positions
• 3 top-five finishes
• 4 top-10 finishes
• 312 laps led

Career

• 124 starts
• 4 wins
• 6 pole positions
• 36 top-five finishes
• 63 top-10 finishes
• 1,555 laps led

Track Career 

• 6 starts
• 1 win
• 0 pole positions
• 2 top-five finishes
• 3 top-10 finishes
• 48 laps led

LAST SIX: Over the last six races, Chase Elliott has led a total of 312 laps – leading in five of the last six races after going the first five races of the season without leading a single lap. He has started from the pole position in two of the last six races (Bristol, Dover).

ON A ROLL: Since capturing his first career NASCAR Cup Series win in August 2018 at Watkins Glen, he is the only Chevrolet driver to have won a race. In his last 26 starts, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native has collected four wins, nine top-five finishes – including one runner-up result – 15 top-10s and 581 laps led.

DOVER REWIND: On Monday, Elliott started on the pole and led a career-high 145 laps at the “Monster Mile” in Dover, Delaware, on his way to his second consecutive top-five finish. The fifth-place finish is Elliott’s third top-five result of the 2019 season and 36th of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

LAST TIME AT KANSAS: Last October, Elliott and the No. 9 team captured their third victory of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season after leading the final 44 laps in the race at Kansas Speedway. His average running position during the event was 6.6. Although a Diet Mountain Dew/Dark Knight Rises car won with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2012, Elliott’s 2018 Kansas victory marked the first win for a Mountain Dew primary paint scheme since October 1982 with Darrell Waltrip.

HOME SWEET HOME: No. 9 team tire carrier/jackman T.J. Semke hails from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, less than 40 miles from Kansas Speedway. Before stepping on the football field at the University of Kansas in 2012, Semke was a part-time bounty hunter. The 25-year-old was a defensive lineman for the Kansas Jayhawks for three years, and in two of them, he earned Academic All-Big 12 Second Team honors. Semke signed with Hendrick Motorsports in October 2016.

NAPA BRAKES: Last weekend at Dover, Elliott’s NAPA Brakes paint schemepromoted NAPA AUTO PARTS’ brakes special that will run throughout the month of May. Customers can get up to $75 off a qualifying NAPA brake parts purchase of $250 at participating NAPA AUTO PARTS stores and NAPA AutoCare centers.

William Byron
No. 24 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

2019 Season

• 19th in standings
• 11 starts
• 0 wins
• 1 pole position
• 0 top-five finishes
• 2 top-10 finishes
• 88 laps led

Career

• 47 starts
• 0 wins
• 1 pole position
• 0 top-five finishes
• 6 top-10 finishes
• 149 laps led

Track Career 

• 2 starts
• 0 wins
• 0 pole positions
• 0 top-five finishes
• 0 top-10 finishes
• 0 laps led

HELLO, UNIFIRST: Unloading at Kansas Speedway this weekend, Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will have UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) on board for the first time in 2019. This weekend’s race will be the first of three where fans can see the refreshed UniFirst Chevrolet paint scheme at the racetrack featuring the company’s signature green and white colors. In 2016, Unifirst and Hendrick Motorsports announced an eight-year partnership that runs through the 2023 NASCAR season. UniFirst is the official work-wear provider of Hendrick Motorsports, supplying work clothing and uniforms to the team and its sister company, Hendrick Automotive Group, which is the largest privately held retail automotive organization in the United States.

‘MONSTER MILE’ MOMENTUM: Qualifying second for the third time in 2019, his fourth time starting on the front row, Byron showed speed throughout the entire weekend at Dover International Speedway. After rain postponed the Cup Series race until Monday afternoon, Byron went on to collect stage points, lead laps, and cross the finish line with a track-best finish of eighth at the “Monster Mile.”

DOVER VICTORY TOUR RECAP: Last weekend, Byron had the opportunity to hang out with 150 kids from the Dover area at the annual NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival. The event showcased the importance of physical fitness and overall healthy living in youth. To see more from Byron’s time at the event, check out the story.

Jimmie Johnson
No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

2019 Season

• 17th in standings
• 11 starts
• 0 wins
• 1 pole position
• 1 top-five finish
• 4 top-10 finishes
• 68 laps led

Career

• 626 starts
• 83 wins
• 36 pole positions
• 225 top-five finishes
• 356 top-10 finishes
• 18,771 laps led

Track Career 

• 25 starts
• 3 wins
• 3 pole positions
• 9 top-five finishes
• 17 top-10 finishes
• 601 laps led

JOHNSON AT KANSAS: Johnson has the second-best driver rating of all active drivers at Kansas with a score of 104.1. He has an average finish of 9.7 and has led 601 laps at the 1.5-mile track.

JOHNSON WRITES EXCUSE FOR YOUNG FAN: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, resident and long-time Johnson fan Beau Smith skipped school on Monday so he could see the race at Dover International Speedway. The eighth-grader was in need of an excuse for the absence, so Johnson personally wrote a note to Beau’s teacher on a hero card. Johnson later jokingly tweeted that he hoped the excuse worked. Click here to see the video.

DOVER IN THE REAR-VIEW: Johnson had the fastest car in final practice last Saturday in Dover. Expectations were high on Monday in the rain-delayed race, but the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 proved to be a handful at the “Monster Mile.” Although he led a handful of laps, Johnson was not able to contend for his 12th win at the one-mile track. Johnson tweeted that it was “not the day we were looking for,” and when the No. 48 team raised the hood post-race, they found some welds that had ripped away from the frame on the front clip, noting that Dover is tough on equipment.

CLOSE(ER) TO HOME: Kansas Speedway is a home track of sorts for longtime No. 48 team spotter Earl Barban. Barban is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, roughly four hours east of Kansas Speedway. Barban has been Johnson’s spotter for six of his seven championships and now resides outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Chel.

ALL EYES ON 84: Johnson’s next trip to Victory Lane will be his 84th points-paying Cup Series win. In June 2017 at Dover, he secured his 83rd, which is the most among all active drivers. An 84th win would tie NASCAR Hall of Famers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for fourth all-time.

Alex Bowman
No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

2019 Season

• 13th in standings
• 11 starts
• 0 wins
• 0 pole positions
• 2 top-five finishes
• 2 top-10 finishes
• 23 laps led

Career

• 128 starts
• 0 wins
• 2 pole positions
• 5 top-five finishes
• 16 top-10 finishes
• 297 laps led

Track Career 

• 7 starts
• 0 wins
• 0 pole positions
• 0 top-five finishes
• 2 top-10 finishes
• 0 laps led

DOVER REWIND: Alex Bowman is coming off another career-best weekend after Monday’s race in Dover. The Nationwide team finished second when the field took the checkered flag after 400 laps, made even more impressive by the fact that Bowman raced from starting the race at the tail end of the field. The 26-year-old driver finished Stage 1 in the seventh position after driving through the field in the first 120 laps. During Stage 2, Bowman remained inside the top five and raced his way to the front, taking the lead with 15 laps to go in the segment. The Nationwide machine ultimately crossed the line second in the stage, as the No. 19 car passed Bowman on the final lap. During the final segment, Bowman settled into the third position as cars raced single-file. With 45 laps to go, the No. 88 Camaro ZL1 was scored second and would ultimately cross the line in that position as the remainder of the event ran caution-free. It marked Bowman’s second weekend in a row with a second-place finish.

MULTIPLE TOP-10 FINISHES: Bowman has finished inside the top 10 twice at four tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit. The Arizona native has finished 10th or better at Bristol, Chicago, Kansas, and Talladega. Bowman has finished in the top 10 in two out of three races at Kansas Speedway.

BOWMAN AT KANSAS: Bowman will make his eighth start in the NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas Speedway this weekend. Last spring, the No. 88 Nationwide team finished 18th at the track after starting 19th. The 26-year-old driver started in the 10th position in the fall at the Kansas-based track and finished ninth. Back in 2016, Bowman ran the No. 88 machine for Hendrick Motorsports in the fall event and captured his first top-10 finish at the track by crossing the line seventh. The Tucson, Arizona, native has one start at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he qualified and finished in the 11th position. Bowman has a stellar record at the 1.5-mile facility in the ARCA Series with two front-row starting positions including a pole position in 2012, and he captured the victory in both events. The driver led a total of 70 laps at the track in the series.

RUNNING NEAR THE FRONT: Since 2016, Bowman has run 515 laps inside the top two positions on three different tracks. The driver ran 128 laps inside the top two last weekend in Dover and 56 laps the weekend prior in Talladega. Coincidentally, Bowman ran inside the top two at the same two tracks in 2018, running 31 laps inside the top two at Talladega and 28 in Dover. In 2016, the No. 88 team ran 272 laps inside the top two, 194 of which were run in the lead.

IVES AT KANSAS: Crew chief Greg Ives will call the shots for the ninth time for the No. 88 team in Kansas this weekend. The Michigan native has one top-five finish and four top-10s at the track. Ives’ drivers have an average start of 17.5 and an average finish of 12.5 at the track. The crew chief’s resume includes one top-five finish and two top-10s at the venue in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In 2013, Ives’ driver led 81 laps en route to a third-place finish at the facility. Ives was a race engineer for the No. 48 team at Hendrick Motorsports from 2006 until 2012. During that time, he was a part of two wins, two pole awards and eight top-10 finishes at Kansas.

WELCOME BACK, AXALTA: This weekend marks the third of 12 events in which the Axalta primary colors will adorn the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Axalta will be on board the No. 88 machine this weekend in Kansas and next weekend at Charlotte for the All-Star Race. Last year, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Axalta signed a four-year contract extension that will take the partnership through 2022. The leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings unveiled a new Axalta Racing website last year that includes plenty of behind-the-scenes content, photos, and videos. Check out Bowman’s page here.

PITCH TO WIN BIG: Small Business Week runs from May 5-11 and recognizes small businesses everywhere. Nationwide and BlueVine are teaming up to give away up to $100,000 to one small business to help it grow. From now until the end of June, small business owners can visit www.pitchtowinbig.com to enter for a chance to win funds to achieve their business goals. Nationwide and BlueVine will select the contest finalists, who will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Nationwide’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, to pitch business leaders in-person during a live “Pitch to Win” event. The winning pitch will win the $100,000 prize, with second place receiving $20,000 and third place taking home $10,000.

HOME-TRACK FEELS: The fueler for the No. 88 Axalta team, Jacob Conley, grew up approximately 204 miles from Kansas Speedway in Omaha, Nebraska. The new father to a baby girl went to Doane University in Crete, Nebraska, and graduated with a degree in sociology in 2012. While at the university, Conley played offensive tackle for the Tigers and was a starter during all four years of college.

Hendrick Motorsports

ON A ROLL: After starting one-two in each of the past two races, Hendrick Motorsports has occupied 75 percent of the top-two finishing positions over the past two weeks. It marks the first time since April 2016 that the organization has had multiple drivers finish inside the top five in consecutive races. On Monday at Dover International Speedway, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers led laps for the first time in a race since last July at Daytona International Speedway. 

STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW: Hendrick Motorsports owns four pole positions in 2019, the most of any team so far this season. The organization is the only team to have swept the front row in qualifying this year, accomplishing the feat four times. That ties for the second-most front row qualifying sweeps in a single season by the organization behind its record of seven in 1986.

1.5-MILE CHAMPS: Hendrick Motorsports has a NASCAR Cup Series record 58 total wins on 1.5-mile tracks, 12 more than the next closest team, Joe Gibbs Racing.

LOOKING AHEAD: Of the next six races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule – Kansas, All-Star Race, Charlotte, Pocono, Michigan and Sonoma – Hendrick Motorsports owns the most all-time wins at five of them. The only exception is Michigan, where the organization’s eight wins are tied for third-most.

FIRST-TIME WINNERS: Hendrick Motorsports holds the record for the most first-time Cup Series winners with nine. If William Byron or Alex Bowman win at Kansas, it would extend the record to the 10th time a driver has recorded his first career Cup Series win while driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

ALL-STAR FAN VOTING: Fan voting for the NASCAR All-Star Race is now open with two teammates from Hendrick Motorsports on the ballot. Byron and Bowman are in the fan voting pool, providing one route to join their teammates Elliott and Johnson, who are locked in, in the All-Star Race field on May 18. Fans can cast their vote here, and votes shared on Twitter and Facebook count double.

ORGANIZATION STATS: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has totals of 12 championships, 253 race victories, 219 pole positions, 1,051 top-five finishes and 1,799 top-10 finishes in points-paying NASCAR Cup Series competition. Its teams have led more than 68,200 laps since 1984.

QUOTABLE / 

Chase Elliott on racing at Kansas:
“Kansas has become a cool place. I think as it has aged, that outside lane has really prevailed and I think that will continue to be that way. I think it’s going to be a top-lane-dominant racetrack as it continues to wear and age, and as time goes on even more than it already is. So, that makes it difficult. It’s hard to make a lot happen in a hurry when everybody is riding the wall and up in those top grooves. That’s the challenge of it is trying to pass and move forward. It’s a difficult thing to do when everybody is gripping the top.”

William Byron on the asphalt at Kansas:
“It’s definitely aged. I think the tire Goodyear has brought has been really good for that track. It has been able to lay rubber and we’ve been able to run up the track pretty quickly. Even with cooler temperatures, I think the track has taken rubber pretty quickly. Not sure why that’s been the case, but it’s been a really fun race there the last couple years because of that. Kansas Speedway is one of my favorite tracks because if you feel like you’re struggling on the bottom you can immediately move to the top and be competitive. I’ve enjoyed this track really in all three series and am excited to get there this weekend.”

Jimmie Johnson on racing at Kansas:
“It would be nice to leave Kansas as the only four-time winner there. This weekend will be a bit different with the new rules package and the race being at night. I am anticipating a lot of speed, a lot of grip and a lot of action. This package promotes a lot of passing in the pack, so it should be a very charged-up race. I’m looking forward to it.”

Alex Bowman on what makes Kansas unique:
“Kansas Speedway is cool because it’s newer pavement, but it’s widened out a lot. You can run from the bottom to the top. That is one of the only newer paved places that you can do that right now. I enjoy going there as much as it widens out. This is one of my favorite tracks, to be honest. I feel like when you run at night versus during the day, the track doesn’t change much and feels really the same. The top always comes in, which makes the racing fun. This is a race that I definitely look forward to coming to.”

Bowman on back-to-back second-place finishes:
“We are coming off two great weekends. Talladega is a superspeedway, so there is a lot of luck involved in that one. Dover, however, is just physically exhausting. We had a shot at the win and that is all that you can ask for. I have to give credit to (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and the No. 88 guys. They put a great car together last weekend and they should definitely be proud of Monday’s execution. We will continue moving forward with this momentum and try to finish one spot better on Saturday night.”

TRENDING / 

Well I guess not all Mondays suck! Would love to be headed home with a trophy but feeling good after coming from the back to the front. Really proud of this team @nationwide88

@AlexBowman88 via Twitter
5/6/19, 4:06 p.m. ET