TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (1.5-MILE OVAL)
LOCATION: FORT WORTH, TEXAS
EVENT: NASCAR CUP SERIES (RACE 34 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 2 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, NOV. 5 (NBCSN/PRN/SIRIUSXM)
No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS / Kasey Kahne
Driver Kasey Kahne Hometown Enumclaw, Washington
Age 37 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2017 Season
11th in standings
33 starts
1 race win
0 stage wins
0 pole positions
3 top-five finishes
6 top-10 finishes
38 laps led
Career
501 starts
18 wins
27 pole positions
92 top-five finishes
175 top-10 finishes
4,645 laps led
Track Career
26 starts
1 win
1 pole position
5 top-five finishes
9 top-10 finishes
224 laps led
GREAT CLIPS: This weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS will sport a different look, promoting the new Warner Bros. movie, “Justice League,” which debuts in theaters Nov. 17. Kahne’s Chevy features three heroes including Wonder Woman and The Flash.
KAHNE AT TEXAS: In just his fourth start at Texas Motor Speedway, Kahne swept the weekend. He earned the pole for the April 2006 race with a speed of 190.315 mph and went on to visit Victory Lane with a margin of victory of 5.229 seconds. The 37-year-old has led 224 laps throughout five races, which ranks him ninth among active drivers for laps led at the 1.5-mile track. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, Kahne has earned five top-10 finishes and a pair of 11th-place results while driving the No. 5 machine. Overall, the driver has an average starting position of 14.4 and an average finishing position of 18.2 at the Forth Worth, Texas, track.
TEXAS LOOP DATA: According to NASCAR’s loop data since 2005, Kahne is sixth in fastest laps run with 279, green-flag passes with 1,806 and quality passes with 872. Quality passes are the number of times a driver passes another car that is running in the top 15 while under green-flag conditions. The Enumclaw, Washington, native is seventh in laps spent in the top 15 with 5,216 and ninth in green-flag speed.
CREW CHIEF WINS: Darian Grubb — Kahne’s crew chief since September’s New Hampshire weekend — has one win at Texas. He entered Victory Lane with Tony Stewart in the 2011 fall race. The Floyd, Virginia, native’s 23 wins tie him for the third-most among active crew chiefs in the NASCAR Cup Series.
No. 24 Hooters Chevrolet SS / Chase Elliott
Driver Chase Elliott Hometown Dawsonville, Georgia
Age 21 Resides Dawsonville, Georgia
2017 Season
8th in standings
33 starts
0 race wins
3 stage wins
1 pole position
10 top-five finishes
18 top-10 finishes
525 laps led
Career
74 starts
0 wins
3 pole positions
20 top-five finishes
35 top-10 finishes
883 laps led
Track Career
3 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
2 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
4 laps led
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 Hooters Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, Nov. 3, at 10:45 a.m. local time in the Texas Motor Speedway media center.
HOOTERS CHEVROLET: For the second time this season, the orange-and-white Hooters paint scheme will adorn the hood of the No. 24 Chevrolet SS this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. A casual dining establishment with a deep history in NASCAR, the Atlanta-based company will be a three-race primary sponsor of the No. 24 team in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season. Chase Elliott will also pilot the No. 24 Hooters Chevrolet SS next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.
LONE STAR STATE STATS: The Dawsonville, Georgia, native is set to make his fourth NASCAR Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Elliott has collected top-10 finishes in his three previous starts at the 1.5-mile oval. The driver of the No. 24 averages a starting position of 16.0 and finishing position of 6.0. Elliott collected his first career NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at the 1.5-mile speedway in April 2014. In his five XFINITY Series starts there, he has accumulated three top-five finishes and five top-10s, led 38 laps and completed 100 percent of the 1,000 possible laps while averaging a starting position of 10.4 and finishing position of 5.0.
PLAYOFF STANDINGS: Elliott is currently eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings — 26 points behind fourth, the final position moving on to the Championship 4 — as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the second of three races in the Round of 8.
MARTINSVILLE REWIND: Elliott led four different times for a total of 123 laps in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. The No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS driver ultimately finished 27th after being spun by a competitor while leading with less than five laps remaining.
CHASE U: Elliott has partnered with Texas Motor Speedway to bring a unique race-day experience to college students called Chase University, better known as Chase U. Chase U is the official college tailgate party for the Texas 500 featuring free food from Hooters and an appearance by the driver of the No. 24 Hooters Chevrolet himself. Get a race ticket to Sunday’s event and access to the Chase U tailgate for only $24 here.
ELLIOTT IN TEXAS: On Friday, Nov. 3, the 21-year-old driver will head out to Hooters of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, at 6 p.m. local time to take pictures and sign autographs for the first 100 guests through the door. Elliott will appear at the Team Chevy Stage on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 10:10 a.m. local time for a question-and-answer session.
No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS / Jimmie Johnson
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hometown El Cajon, California
Age 42 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2017 Season
5th in standings
33 starts
3 race wins
1 stage win
0 pole positions
4 top-five finishes
11 top-10 finishes
217 laps led
Career
576 starts
83 wins
35 pole positions
222 top-five finishes
341 top-10 finishes
18,663 laps led
Track Career
28 starts
7 wins
1 pole position
15 top-five finishes
21 top-10 finishes
1,041 laps led
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, Nov. 3, at 11:15 a.m. local time in the Texas Motor Speedway media center.
PLAYOFF PICTURE: In last weekend’s event at Martinsville Speedway, Jimmie Johnson secured a 12th-place finish after starting in the rear of the field due to a spin in qualifying. Throughout the race, Johnson led 24 laps, placing fourth and 10th in the first two stages. He fought the handling of the Lowe’s Chevy late in the race and fell to 17th, being scored a lap down. Johnson received the free pass during a late-race caution and was able to make up some positions, but was caught up in an incident on the final lap and finished 12th. He is now fifth in the point standings, just three points behind the fourth-place driver, with two races remaining in the Round of 8.
MAINTENANCE SUPPLY HEADQUARTERS: This weekend, Houston-based Maintenance Supply Headquarters, the newest member of the Lowe’s Pro Services family, will be featured behind the rear wheel of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Other vendors featured this year have included Hitachi, A.O. Smith, SharkBite and Marshalltown.
TEXAS STATS: According to NASCAR’s loop data since 2005, Johnson has the series-best driver rating at Texas Motor Speedway with a score of 107.3. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The driver rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.
SPRING WINNER AND LAP LEADER: The last time out at Texas, Johnson started 24th and led 18 laps to take the checkered flag for his seventh victory at the track. Johnson’s 1,041 laps led at Texas are the most among active drivers.
HOMESTEAD TESTING: Johnson and the No. 48 team participated in a two-day test session last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway in preparation for the 2017 season finale.
No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS / Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hometown Kannapolis, North Carolina
Age 43 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2017 Season
22nd in standings
33 starts
0 race wins
0 stage wins
2 pole positions
1 top-five finish
7 top-10 finishes
44 laps led
Career
628 starts
26 wins
15 pole positions
149 top-five finishes
259 top-10 finishes
8,231 laps led
Track Career
29 starts
1 win
2 pole positions
7 top-five finishes
18 top-10 finishes
448 laps led
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, Nov. 3, at 10 a.m. local time in the Texas Motor Speedway media center.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: In addition to teammate Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will also have a special paint scheme on his Chevrolet this weekend. Both cars are inspired by characters from the new Warner Bros. movie, “Justice League,” in theaters Nov. 17. “Justice League” heroes Batman, Cyborg and Aquaman will adorn the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
STRONG AT TEXAS: Earnhardt hasn’t finished outside of the top six in the last five races he has run at Texas Motor Speedway. While the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS hasn’t been to Victory Lane since winning his first NASCAR Cup Series race in his first start at the Fort Worth, Texas, track on April 2, 2000, at age 25, he earned a runner-up finish in last year’s spring race and finished fifth in his most recent trip to the facility earlier this year. The 43-year-old driver has two poles at the Lone Star State track, earning the top starting spot in April 2001 and in April 2008, his first pole with Hendrick Motorsports.
QUALITY PASSES AND STATS: Earnhardt leads all active drivers since 2005 in the quality passes category per NASCAR’s loop data statistics. Quality passes are the number of times a driver passes another car that is running in the top 15 while under green flag conditions. He has recorded 1,018 quality passes at Texas, 75 more than the next closest driver. Earnhardt has the sixth-best driver rating with a 93.6 average. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. He ranks third in the number of laps spent in the top 15 with 6,075 and he holds a solid ranking in several of the speed categories: average running position (sixth – 12.302), fastest laps run (fourth – 328) and green-flag speed (fifth – 173.888 mph).
TEXAS MOTORSPORTS HOF: Earnhardt will become the 19th member inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame when he is honored during a special ceremony held in The Grand Ballroom of The Speedway Club on Saturday, Nov. 4. The driver took an immediate liking to Texas Motor Speedway, earning his first career XFINITY Series win on April 4, 1998, at the 1.5-mile speedway. Nearly two years later to the day Earnhardt would strike again, winning his first Cup Series race on April 2, 2000, to become the first Cup rookie driver to win at Texas. The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame ceremony serves as a major fundraiser for Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas. Tickets were appropriately priced at $88 to reflect Earnhardt’s iconic Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet, and the event has sold out. For more, click here.
GRAY GLOVES: Earnhardt will wear gray-accented gloves this weekend at Texas and for the remainder of November to raise awareness for diabetes awareness month. Through the Dale Jr. Foundation’s Driven to Give Gloves program, his race-worn gloves will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s clinical and research programs. Nationwide Children’s is America’s largest pediatric hospital and research center with all care provided regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
Hendrick Motorsports
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AT TEXAS: Hendrick Motorsports has earned nine wins, 37 top-five finishes, 65 top-10s, six pole positions and 2,273 laps led at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson most recently visited Victory Lane at the track for the organization earlier this year in April.
ORGANIZATION STATS: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has totals of 12 championships, 249 race victories, 213 pole positions, 1,027 top-five finishes and 1,736 top-10 finishes in points-paying NASCAR Cup Series competition. Its teams have led 67,198 laps since 1984.
QUOTABLE /
“I’ve always liked going to Texas. I think the track does a good job and I also like the Fort Worth area. We had a pretty good car there earlier this year, but unfortunately we had some issues towards the end of the race so we didn’t get the result to show for it. This weekend will be the second time we’ve raced on the new surface, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Kasey Kahne on racing at Texas
“Looking forward to getting back to Texas – it’s a fun place to go. I enjoy going there and after the good runs we had there last season, I’m definitely looking forward to returning. In the spring we had a pretty good car, our teammate won, so good things to look back to for that race when we go back.”
Chase Elliott on racing at Texas
“Last weekend was such a bummer, we had such high hopes for Martinsville. We maintained points but we are now in must-win situations. These next two weeks are going to be high-pressure.”
Jimmie Johnson on racing at Texas
“Texas definitely has always been one of my preferred stops because of the success we’ve had in the XFINITY and Cup Series in our first races there. You never forget where you won your first race and neither do your fans. I always look forward to going there.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on racing at Texas
