Sunday’s race in Bristol could be a memory-making one for Hendrick Motorsports as the team edges towards 80,000 laps led in the Cup Series. Since its inception in 1984, Rick Hendrick’s outfit has led 79,997 laps and stands clear at the top of the game. With 3 more leading rounds around a circuit, it could give competitors a more daunting number to catch up to.
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The team has already kicked off its 40th year of operation in a grand fashion by collecting 2 wins in the first 4 races of the season. Reaching the 80,000 milestone at Bristol will only add further cheer to the celebrations.
Chase Elliott told NASCAR.com, “It’s a lot of laps, for sure, and a lot of race wins encapsulated into all those laps that they’ve led as a company. Definitely proud to have been a very, very small part of that, but I’ve enjoyed my time, and hopefully we can keep adding to it.” Elliott has 18 wins and 5,108 leading laps for the team.
Las Vegas winner Kyle Larson continued, “It’s really, really amazing when you think about the amount of laps led. Not only wins with whatever we’re at, 303 or 304, and almost the 80,000 laps led, it’s crazy.”
Alongside Elliott, Larson too has 18 wins and 4,548 leading laps for the team.
Along with their teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman, this duo makes up for approximately 17% of the total laps that Hendrick Motorsports has led. While this appears as a strong number to come from only the current roster, the bigger merit for the achievement goes to Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
The strong impact of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon on Hendrick Motorsports’ achievement
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have combined to produce 11 Cup Series titles for Rick Hendrick’s team. Together, they led 43,877 laps to make up 55% of the team’s total.
Johnson led 18,941 laps as a driver and Gordon, 24,936. Larson said of their dominance, “So, Jeff and Jimmie, though, they’ve, them two together probably have I’m guessing 50% of the laps. We have a lot of catching up to do for those two guys.”
Reaching the level of the two legends appears to be a heavy task for Elliott, but being shouldered by Larson gives him confidence. He said, “Obviously time will tell, but it’s a different era than what it used to be, just as far as guys don’t seem to dominate entire days. It seems like you might have guys be good at certain stages, but again, Kyle dominated at Vegas, so I guess anything is on the table.”
Elliott and Larson will add to their tally at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.
