TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
OCTOBER 18, 2020
KANSAS: RACE #33
With just four races left in the 2020 season, NASCAR’s three national series head to the Midwest for a Playoff tripleheader at Kansas Speedway. For the second time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) will pay a visit to the 1.5-mile Kansas tri-oval for the 400.5-mile, 267-lap Hollywood Casino 400, kicking off the first of three races of the Round of Eight in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff battle. The inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event at Kansas Speedway took place on September 30, 2001, which was won by Career Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon. Going into the action-packed weekend, Sunday’s event will mark the 30th NCS race at the Kansas venue.
Over the course of three days, Kansas Speedway will be the host of four events, kicking off with a visit by the ARCA Menards Series Championship race under the lights on Friday, October 16th. The Playoffs’ Round of Eight gets underway for all three of NASCAR’s national series, starting with the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series with the Clean Harbors 200 on Saturday, October 17th, at 4:00 p.m. ET, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series with the Kansas Lottery 300 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The weekend will be topped off with the NASCAR Cup Series’ Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, October 18th, at 2:30 p.m. ET.
In compliance with the Covid-19 restrictions, a limited number of fans will be in attendance for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event. With an allowance of up to 10,000 fans, the race has been sold out at social-distancing capacity.
WEEKEND SWEEP
It was a winning weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, where Team Chevy made its way to victory lane in all three ROVAL events.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ final race in the Round of 12, Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger endured challenging weather conditions to edge out fellow Team Chevy driver, Noah Gragson, for the win at the line by a mere .446-seconds. Chevrolet drivers took all top-five positions with Daniel Hemric (3rd), Alex Labbe (4th) and Ross Chastain (5th). Going into the Series’ Playoffs Round of Eight, five Team Chevy drivers are left to vie for the title of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion.
In the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut at the ROVAL, Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor claimed the victory from the pole in their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. The duo has now won five of eight races this year and four of the last five in the first year of the mid-engine Corvette C8.R.
The weekend was capped off by Chase Elliott’s continued dominance on road course circuits, when he became a back-to-back Bank of America ROVAL 400 winner. The trip to victory lane marked his fourth road course race win in a row, making him only the second driver in NASCAR history to accomplish that feat. Concluding the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12, Team Chevy’s Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch punched their ticket to the Playoffs’ Round of Eight.
KICKING OFF THE ROUND OF EIGHT:
Since the start of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in 2004, Kansas Speedway has been positioned in five different spots on the Playoff schedule, with the 2020 season being the first that the 1.5-mile tri-oval will host the seventh race in the Playoffs and the first race of the Round of Eight. Kansas Speedway will become the fourth different track to host the seventh race of the Playoffs, alongside Atlanta Motor Speedway (2004-2008), Talladega Superspeedway (2009-2010) and Martinsville Speedway (2011-2019).
Three Team Chevy drivers have secured their spots into the eight-driver field that are left to compete for the chance to be crowned the NASCAR Cup Series Champion. Entering into the first of three races for the Round of Eight, here are where the Team Chevy drivers currently sit in the Playoff standings, including key statistics at Kansas Speedway:
Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE – 4th in Standings (4,027 points)
Victories: 3 (Charlotte Motor Speedway, Daytona Road Course, Charlotte Road Course)
Top-Fives: 13; Top-10’s: 19; Laps Led: 810; Average Finish: 12.3
Stage Wins: 8
At Kansas: Wins: 1; Top-Five’s: 4; Top-10’s: 5; Average Finish: 11.556
Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Truck Hero Camaro ZL1 1LE – 7th in Standings (4,009 points)
Victories: 1 (Auto Club Speedway)
Top-Fives: 4; Top-10’s: 12; Laps Led: 396; Average Finish: 15.6
Stage Wins: 4
At Kansas: Top-Five’s: 1; Top-10’s: 4; Average Finish: 19.6
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE – 8th in Standings (4,006 points)
Victories: 1 (Las Vegas Motor Speedway)
Top-Fives: 6; Top-10’s: 1; Laps Led: 140; Average Finish: 13.2
Stage Wins: 1
At Kansas: Top-Five’s: 4; Top-10’s: 12; Average Finish: 14.120
BOWTIE BULLETS:
· Victories by active Team Chevy drivers at Kansas Speedway include:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE has three wins (2008, 2011, 2015)
Matt Kenseth, No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Camaro ZL1 1LE has two wins (2012, 2013)
Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE has one win (2018).
· Of the 29 NASCAR Cup Series events held at Kansas Speedway, Chevrolet has recorded 12 victories and 11 poles at the 1.5-mile Kansas tri-oval, topping all other manufacturers. Other statistics of note include 59 top-fives, 125 top-10’s and 2,564 laps led in NCS history at the track.
· Career Chevrolet drivers, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, lead the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Kansas Speedway, each scoring three victories. In addition, Jeff Gordon is the only driver in the series to-date to win in his first appearance at Kansas (2001).
· Only three drivers have started all 29 NASCAR Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway, one of which being Chip Ganassi Racing and Chevrolet Driver, Kurt Busch.
· Of active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson leads the way in top-five finishes with nine and top-10 finishes with 19. He also holds the record of the most laps led by a race winner in a single NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas with 197 of 272 laps during his October 2011 win, a laps-led percentage of 72.4%.
· Chevrolet team, Hendrick Motorsports, leads the series in wins at Kansas Speedway with seven victories: Jeff Gordon (2001, 2002, 2014), Jimmie Johnson (2008, 2011, 2015), and Chase Elliott (2018).
STARTING LINE-UP:
For the remainder of the 2020 NCS season, the starting lineups will be determined by a competition-based formula, combining the following metrics from the previous race event: 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the Owner points position. Coming off of his recent victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Chase Elliott will lead the field to the green in his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE.
Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400:
1st Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE
3rd Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
6th Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Truck Hero Camaro ZL1 1LE
10th William Byron, No. 24 Hendrickcars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE
14th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
15th Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1 1LE
17th Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE
19th Ryan Preece, No. 37 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE
TUNE-IN:
NBC will telecast the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 18th, at 2:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage of the 400.5-mile, 267-lap event for race one of three for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 can also be found on the NBC Sports Gold app, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 4th IN STANDINGS
IS THE NO. 9 TEAM DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY THIS SEASON TO ADVANCE TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4?
“I don’t know if we are necessarily taking a different approach. I think we’re just trying to build on what we’ve been working on over the past few years. I feel like every year we’ve been close; we just haven’t been able to get over that hump and really assert ourselves among that top group. I feel like we’ve been right there. I feel like we’re very capable of it. Just those little inconsistencies and some bad racetracks have been our biggest problems. So, we’re trying to be a little more consistent everywhere. I think it’s a goal. And eliminate bad tracks. You can’t have bad tracks at this level, and the guys who win often and win all the time and run good don’t have any bad tracks. So, it’s certainly possible and that’s just where we have to get to. The reality is that’s the only way to contend with them and I think we’re capable of doing it.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/TRUCK HERO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 7th IN STANDINGS
“Making the Round of 8 was one of our team’s goals for the 2020 season. We are focused and ready to get through the Round of 8 and go for a championship in Phoenix next month. Going to Kansas this weekend is something I am looking forward to. We have had some strong results there in the past and Hendrick Motorsports’ intermediate program is one of our best. This No. 88 team is capable of putting together a race winning Chevrolet and we believe we will have a strong car this weekend.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/TRUCK HERO CAMARO ZL1 1LE
“I feel like we are going to have a great car in Kansas. It is one of those tracks that we have had marked on our board, like hey this is another place we can win at. We have the car capable to do that and we have the team capable of doing that. There are a lot of factors to consider but we are going to go out there with a fast Chevrolet and try to get that win. We have to take advantage of our strengths and we feel that Kansas is one of our strongest tracks when looking at the next three tracks. We have to be aggressive to the point of succeeding, but not over aggressive.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 8th IN STANDINGS
“This was our goal at the beginning of the year, right underneath winning the championship, was to be in this position. Here we are, we’re in the elite eight. I like to reference it as the ‘who’s who’. We are a little bit behind in points and it’s tough to gain points on a group of drivers like this towards the end of the year. Everybody is on their game, every position counts. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I feel like we’ve prepared the cars well over the last month since we won (Las) Vegas. As soon as we won Vegas, our mindset went straight to Kansas and Texas, of course we’ll still have a good car for Martinsville though. This round is important and I believe that we need to win at one of these mile-and-a-half tracks; you never know what can happen at Martinsville, others could have trouble. I believe there are two wins ahead of us for the rest of this year at a mile-and-a-half track or Phoenix, and that’s how you win a Championship!”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th IN STANDINGS
HOW IS KANSAS UNIQUE COMPARED TO SOME OF THE OTHER 1.5-MILE TRACKS?
“Kansas Speedway has done a really good job with their banking. There’s a line right up by the fence that has a little extra grip. There’s an angle up there that I don’t think many tracks have figured out yet, but Kansas got it right. You can run from top to bottom there. The bottom groove is the preferred groove at the beginning, but it becomes too tight to try and run around there in turns one and two sometimes depending on what the balance of your race car is. I’ve enjoyed that track a lot ever since they repaved it. I wish every track could do as good as a job as Kansas has with repaves.”
HOW WILL YOU APPROACH THIS RACE NOW THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER COMPETING IN THE NASCAR PLAYOFFS?
“I don’t think the mentality changes, too much. The goal remains the same, and that is to go out and win. My RCR team has been really strong on mile-and-a-half tracks this season, and I know that we have everything we need to try and get another win before the end of the season. We can take some chances and try some things now that maybe we wouldn’t have if we were still in the NASCAR Playoffs, but overall, the goal is still the same.”
OCTOBER IS NATIONAL “NAME YOUR CAR” MONTH. DO YOU EVER NAME ANY OF YOUR CARES OR HAVE NAMES FOR THEM?
“When I was in the NASCAR East Series, we had a car called Midnight Rider because we worked all night on it. It ran a lot of races and was a solid car for us.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 12th IN STANDINGS
BYRON ON THE CHALLENGES OF RACING AT KANSAS:
“Kansas is one of the most dynamic tracks we go to in terms of how crucial lane choice and lane selection are. It’s a tough track to figure out. You want to be turning well but if you’re too loose it’s really hard to make good lap times because the track is so smooth. It’s tough to manage and figure out how much freer you need to be to make time but also how much rear grip you need so you can stay in the throttle. I think the Vegas races this year give us a good idea of how this weekend will go though. I think those two tracks really correlate well to each other. Vegas gives us a good idea of what we need to work on since we had a decent run there and hopefully, we can apply some of those things.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th IN STANDINGS
“I’ve always loved racing at Kansas. The track shape and design, and also the progressive banking in the corners. They just hit it – and they gave drivers the opportunity to search for other lanes and to try to find a way by the car in front of you. It’s led to some very strong finishes for us. It really takes 10 to15 years for a track’s surface to really come in and if you look at the age of Kansas Speedway they are in that window. Its quality racing and some of the best out there.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 19th IN STANDINGS
WE RETURN TO KANSAS SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND AFTER RACING THERE AT THE END OF JULY. ARE THERE ANY TAKEAWAYS FROM THAT RACE THAT YOU CAN USE THIS WEEKEND?
“Honestly, that race was a tough one for us where we were going through a patch of learning how to adjust on these Cup cars to get me what I need. None of the adjustments we made that weekend seemed to help, so we’ve been working hard on our game plan for this weekend when we return to Kansas Speedway with our No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet. I think we’ve made a lot of good headway over the past couple of months on making adjustments that help me. With this Sunday’s race being a day race and not bleeding into the night, I think the track will still change but not go through as big of a swing as it did during the July race. We’ll have a little more consistency during the day, which will help us. We just have to manage everything the best that we can and not lose any track position we get, since it’s so hard to get that back in these races.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships:
Total (1949-2019): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Drivers Championships:
Total (1949-2019): 31
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)
2020 STATISTICS:
Wins: 7
Poles: 3
Laps Led: 1,880
Top-five finishes: 45
Top-10 finishes: 109
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 793 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 717
Laps led to date: 236,186
Top-five finishes to date: 4,059
Top-10 finishes to date: 8,391
Total NASCAR Cup wins by corporation, 1949 to date
General Motors: 1,127
Chevrolet: 793
Pontiac: 154
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 803
Ford: 703
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 191
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 151
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
