BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY (0.533-MILE OVAL)
LOCATION: BRISTOL, TENNESSEE
EVENT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 23 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 8 P.M. ET, SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 (NBCSN/PRN/SIRIUSXM)
No. 5 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS / Kasey Kahne
Driver Kasey Kahne Hometown Enumclaw, Washington
Age 36 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2016 Season
17th in standings
22 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
2 top-five finishes
6 top-10 finishes
0 laps led
Career
454 starts
17 wins
27 pole positions
88 top-five finishes
162 top-10 finishes
4,607 laps led
Track Career
25 starts
1 win
1 pole position
5 top-five finishes
10 top-10 finishes
512 laps led
AARP: Longtime Hendrick Motorsports partner AARP and its Drive to End Hunger program will adorn Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet SS this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. This weekend’s race marks the first of two times this season that Drive to End Hunger is the primary partner on the No. 5 machine. Drive to End Hunger will return for the Nov. 6 race at Texas Motor Speedway. For more information on the AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger program, visit http://endseniorhunger.aarp.org/.
BRISTOL STATS: Kahne took the checkered flag at the 0.533-mile track in his March 2013 start after leading 109 laps and taking the green flag from the outside pole position. The Enumclaw, Washington, native has 13 top-10 starts at the track, including one pole award in 2007, when he went on to lead 305 laps and finished second in the 500-lap event. Kahne’s second runner-up finish came in the August 2013 race.
BRISTOL LOOP DATA: According to NASCAR’s loop data, Kahne ranks third in green-flag passes at Bristol with 1,205 and fourth in quality passes with 694. He’s sixth in fastest laps run with 493, and eighth in laps led with 512.
DARLINGTON UNVEIL: At 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 24, Kahne will be at the NASCAR Hall of Fame to unveil the No. 5 LiftMaster Chevrolet SS throwback paint scheme for Darlington Raceway. Media members will also be able to experience an innovative virtual reality trip down memory lane with Kahne and the inspiration behind the scheme. If you are interested in attending, please contact Lauren Emling. For those not able to attend, the unveil will be streamed live on LiftMaster’s Facebook account.
RICHMOND VICTORY TOUR: On Thursday, Aug. 25, Kahne will be in Richmond, Virginia, for his final victory tour of the season. Kahne will participate in a Habitat for Humanity build before meeting with the media and heading to Richmond International Raceway. At Richmond, Kahne will visit with fans in attendance as part of the track’s fan appreciation event. If you are interested in covering the event, please contact Lauren Emling.
FIVE KAHNE 5K: For the seventh consecutive year, Kahne will hold his 5K charity run. The event will take place at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 9, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Interested participants can pre-register online by visiting https://fivekahne5k.racesonline.com/home. Over 8,000 children in the states surrounding North Carolina have benefited from the funds raised by the annual charity run.
No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS / Chase Elliott
Driver Chase Elliott Hometown Dawsonville, Georgia
Age 20 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2016 Season
12th in standings
22 starts
0 wins
2 pole positions
6 top-five finishes
11 top-10 finishes
118 laps led
Career
27 starts
0 wins
2 pole positions
6 top-five finishes
11 top-10 finishes
118 laps led
Track Career
1 start
0 wins
0 pole positions
1 top-five finish
1 top-10 finish
0 laps led
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, Aug. 19, at 4:15 p.m. ET in the Bristol Motor Speedway media center.
BRISTOL BOUND: Chase Elliott is Bristol-bound this weekend in his NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS. The rookie returns to the “Last Great Colosseum” after a positive showing at the track in the spring. Elliott, at the time, captured a career-best fourth-place finish after starting from the back half of the field and rebounding from going two laps down due to a loose right-rear wheel. It marked Elliott’s second top-five finish of the season to that point.
SEASON STANDINGS: Elliott currently sits 12th in the standings with 561 points. The rookie trails leader Brad Keselowski by 166 markers. The 20-year-old is younger than any other driver currently inside the top 16 – the amount of drivers NASCAR takes into its playoffs – while also being the highest ranked rookie.
TOP-RANKED ROOKIE: Elliott leads the 2016 Rookie of the Year contender standings heading into Bristol Motor Speedway by 48 points over second-place Ryan Blaney and 77 points over third-place Chris Buescher. Elliott has accumulated a total of 247 rookie points this year through the first 22 points-paying races.
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!: Elliott’s photo has hit newsstands in Georgia this summer as he graces the cover of Georgia Magazine’s August issue. Earlier this year, Elliott talked with his home state magazine on growing up in Georgia, his parents’ role in his success thus far and racing for Hendrick Motorsports. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native is accompanied in the issue by fellow Georgian athletes Reese Hoffa, Jenny Arthur and two-time Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock – all of whom are competing in the Rio Olympics. To read more on Elliott’s cover feature, visit GeorgiaMagazine.com.
No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS / Jimmie Johnson
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hometown El Cajon, California
Age 40 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2016 Season
10th in standings
22 starts
2 wins
1 pole position
7 top-five finishes
8 top-10 finishes
229 laps led
Career
529 starts
77 wins
35 pole positions
214 top-five finishes
322 top-10 finishes
17,938 laps led
Track Career
29 starts
1 win
1 pole position
10 top-five finishes
16 top-10 finishes
833 laps led
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/ Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS, will be available to members of the media on Friday, Aug. 19, at 9 a.m. ET in the Bristol Motor Speedway media center.
KOBALT RACE: The black-and-white colors of Kobalt Tools will adorn Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet this weekend at Bristol. The paint scheme ran earlier this season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. In addition to this weekend at Bristol, the Kobalt colors will adorn the No. 48 Chevy later this season at Phoenix.
DARLINGTON THROWBACK REVEALED: Prior to the last off-weekend of the season, No. 48 team crew chief Chad Knaus took to social media to unveil the throwback paint scheme for the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet at Darlington Raceway. The look is based off of David Pearson’s No. 2 car paint scheme from 1979, which he drove for four races while filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt. For more on the scheme, which celebrates Lowe’s long history in NASCAR, click here.
BRISTOL DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Johnson has the ninth-best driver rating at Bristol with a score of 92.2 during the past 10 years at the track. 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.
NEW FRONT-TIRE CHANGER: Kevin Novak, a native of Veseli, Minnesota, and graduate of the NASCAR Technical Institute, will replace longtime front-tire changer Cam Waugh. Waugh is moving back to his home state of Colorado. Novak is no stranger to the No. 48 over-the-wall crew as he filled in for an injured Waugh on May 15 at Dover, May 21 at the Charlotte all-star event and June 6 at Pocono.
JOHNSON IN HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: Recently, Johnson participated in an interview for the “Life’s Work” section in one of the premier business and management publications in the world, the Harvard Business Review. The interview will be published in the September issue and is available online now. Click here to read more.
JJF ‘TEAM UP FOR TECHNOLOGY’: The Jimmie Johnson Foundation is offering one lucky K-12 public or charter school the chance to win a $48,000 technology makeover again this year. Nominations will be accepted from Thursday, Aug. 11, until noon ET on Thursday, Sept. 8. Click here to nominate a school.
UPCOMING JIMMIE JOHNSON FOUNDATION WELLNESS CHALLENGE EVENT: Registration is open for the Lake Davidson Sprint Triathlon taking place on Sunday, Sept. 11, at 8 a.m. ET on the Ingersoll Rand Campus in Davidson, North Carolina. Log on to www.jjfwellnesschallenge.org for more details.
No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS / Jeff Gordon
Driver Jeff Gordon Hometown Pittsboro, Indiana
Age 45 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2016 Season
3 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
0 top-five finishes
0 top-10 finishes
0 laps led
Career
800 starts
93 wins
81 pole positions
325 top-five finishes
475 top-10 finishes
24,929 laps led
Track Career
46 starts
5 wins
5 pole positions
17 top-five finishes
25 top-10 finishes
2,730 laps led
EARNHARDT STILL RECOVERING: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet SS for Hendrick Motorsports, will miss his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event as he continues to recover from a concussion. He was not cleared by physicians to compete in this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway. Another update will be provided by Hendrick Motorsports next week.
CARRYING THE FLAG: Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon will continue to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet SS for the fourth race in a row. Gordon, who filled in for Earnhardt at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 24), Pocono Raceway (Aug. 1), and Watkins Glen International (Aug. 7) with an average finish of 18th, will lead the No. 88 team into battle at the “Last Great Colosseum” in Saturday night’s event.
FIVE-TIME VICTOR: Gordon, who will be driving the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS at Bristol, has earned five victories at the 0.533-mile short track, placing him in a three-way tie for first among active drivers with Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch. The 45-year-old driver, who made his 800th career NASCAR Cup Series start on Aug. 7, also has five poles, the most of any active driver, and has finished in the top five in 37 percent of the races he’s run at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” His 17 top-five finishes and 25 top-10s are the most of any active driver at the track. He also leads active drivers in laps completed (22,025) and laps led (2,730). His 30 lead-lap finishes are the most of any driver all-time at Bristol.
LOOP DATA: Gordon leads active drivers at Bristol in average running position (10.132), according to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, which extend from 2005 to now. He also ranks near the top in other categories, including driver rating (third – 99.5 average), average speed early in a run (second – 117.984 mph), average speed late in a run (third – 114.949 mph), laps in the top 15 (second – 8,582), and quality passes (third – 698).
MORE THAN A WIN: While the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series had a weekend off, Gordon, along with several other Cup competitors including teammate Kahne, traveled to Iowa for the Knoxville Nationals and to compete in Gordon’s annual charity go-kart race. Gordon captured the checkered flag, but he said the most important thing was the money raised for pediatric cancer research through the event, which benefited the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation.
AXALTA PARTNER: As part of its business-to-business marketing model, Axalta will place one of its partners, All-Pro, on the TV panel of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS. For more news and updates on the Axalta Racing program, visit the website: http://www.axaltaracing.com/.
Hendrick Motorsports
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AT BRISTOL: At Bristol Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has 10 wins, 11 pole positions, 54 top-five finishes and 96 top-10s. Kahne most recently won there for the organization in March 2013.
ORGANIZATION STATS: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has totals of 242 victories, 209 pole positions, 1,000 top-five finishes and 1,668 top-10 finishes in Sprint Cup competition. Its teams have led 65,417 laps since 1984.
QUOTABLE /
“I like Bristol. We always put on a pretty cool show up there and I’m sure we will have a great car. I know the track has done a couple of things to the surface to try and bring the bottom groove in, so we’ll see how that goes.” – Kasey Kahne on racing at Bristol
“I had a really good car at Bristol in the spring. The guys brought a fast car and we learned a lot. I didn’t qualify as well as I had wanted to, but I’m going to work on that going back. We hit on a few things there during practice and the race and I’m looking forward to racing Saturday night.” – Chase Elliott on returning to Bristol
“Hopefully everyone is well-rested after the off-weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing the track surface changes in the lower groove this weekend at Bristol. We had a great car back in the spring — the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy was really comfortable. Either way, its always an exciting race for the fans.” – Jimmie Johnson on returning to Bristol
“I love coming to Bristol. It’s one of those tracks that brings out the fan in all of us. It’s the one track that I go in the night before and walk over to it when nobody is there. I just look at it and go, ‘Man, this place is cool.’ I walked it earlier this year with (fellow NASCAR on FOX personality) Larry McReynolds never thinking I would be racing at this ‘Colosseum’ again.” – Jeff Gordon on racing at Bristol
