The NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) will make its second and final stop in the state of Texas with Sunday’s WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS).

Christopher Bell won the first race of the Texas “two-step” in early March at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, and now the series visits Fort Worth as nearly the first third of the season has been completed. The WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY (2:30 p.m. CT, TV: FS1, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM and Lone Star 92.5 FM locally) will be the 11th of the 36 points-paying races on the season, and various storylines continue to develop since William Byron’s victory in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Here’s the “Fast Five” storylines to watch during the WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY race weekend:

1) Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) and Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) have been a dominant duo since the outset of the season with the two powerhouse organizations combining for eight wins in the first 10 races.

JGR paces the way with five of those victories, and the team has recorded those in bunches. Christopher Bell reeled off three in a row early in the season at Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix, and teammate Denny Hamlin went back to back at Martinsville and Darlington, respectively.

 William Byron got Hendrick Motorsports rolling with his second consecutive season-opening Daytona 500 victory, and teammate Kyle Larson followed with wins at Homestead-Miami and Bristol, respectively.

The only team to interrupt their complete dominance through the first nine races was Wood Brothers Racing, courtesy of a victory by Josh Berry at Las Vegas. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric won Sunday’s thriller at Talladega Superspeedway, but HMS had all four drivers finish among the top seven with Larson second, Byron third, Chase Elliott fifth and Alex Bowman seventh. 

The early-season trend could continue for Hendrick Motorsports at Texas Motor Speedway, where the organization has won two in a row and three of the last four. Larson ignited the run with a win in 2021 and was followed by Byron in ’23 and Elliott last season. JGR’s last win at Texas came with Kyle Busch in 2020, and Hamlin notched one the previous season.

The one driver among the two organizations to keep an eye on is Byron. He has finished among the top three in three of his last four visits, with a runner-up finish in 2021, a victory in ’23 and third last season. He also is riding a four-race, top-10 streak at TMS.

Byron arrives first in the Cup Series points standings and having finished sixth or better in his last three races.

2) The Team Penske trio of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric led a combined 616 laps through the first nine races, but that did not translate into a single win for the organization.

The trio led a modest 31 of the 188 laps at Talladega, but it was the seven by Cindric that was enough to give Team Penske its first win of the season.

Prior to that, the laps led proved fruitless as Blaney was the only one among them to record a top-five finish. Blaney led 197 laps during that stretch and posted three top-five finishes, including a best of fourth at Atlanta. Logano led 260 laps, but the best finish he could muster was eighth at Martinsville. Cindric added 159 laps led and a pair of top-10s, with a best of sixth at Las Vegas.

Team Penske now heads to TMS, where they run a similar storyline of this season.Blaney has led 449 laps at TMS but is still searching for his first win. He has finished among the top 10 in half of his 16 visits, including a best of second in the 2018 fall race. Logano has led 494 laps with 12 top-five finishes in 29 starts, but has just one win (spring of 2014) among that success. Cindric has just three starts with one lap led and is seeking his first top-10 finish.

3) Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott is hopeful that Texas Motor Speedway can end a victory drought for a second consecutive season. 

Last season, he won in double overtime to snap a 42-race winless streak and earn his first victory since Talladega on Oct. 2, 2022. It also was his first Cup Series victory in 14 starts at Texas Motor Speedway. 

Elliott, a 19-time Cup Series winner and 2020 series champion, arrives at TMS currently saddled by a 37-race winless streak following a fifth-place finish at Talladega. During that stretch, he has recorded 11 top-five finishes that includes runner-up performances at Bristol and Martinsville last season.

He currently sits fourth in the Cup Series points standings, with three top-five finishes through the first 10 races. He finished fourth at COTA and matched that performance at Martinsville.

Elliott owns a 12.2 average finishing position at TMS with seven top-10 finishes and 128 laps led in 14 career starts. 

4) Ryan Preece nearly gave RFK Racing its first win of the season at Talladega as he was edged by .022 of a second by Team Penske’s Austin Cindric. Preece, however, would forfeit that career-best, runner-up finish when his car failed post-race inspection for an illegal spoiler.

RFK Racing could be in contention once again as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway, but this time it could be co-owner/driver Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski is on a six-race streak at TMS of finishing ninth or better, highlighted by a second-place finish last season. It was his third runner-up performance at TMS, where he has produced 14 top-10 finishes, including half of those among the top five, in 27 career starts.

Keselowski also holds a dubious distinction, along with Martin Truex Jr., as the only Cup drivers among the top 13 in career laps led at Texas Motor Speedway without a victory. Keselowski, who ranks 10th with 685 laps led, needs to lead five laps in the WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY to pass Truex Jr. for ninth on the list and seven laps led will allow him to vault past Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards (all tied with 691) to sixth.

5) Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace are off to solid starts for 23XI Racing, but the three-car organization, which also includes rookie Riley Herbst, is still seeking its first win of the season.

Reddick and Wallace have shown promise at Texas Motor Speedway and could be in line to get 23XI Racing into the win column. Reddick, sixth in the Cup Series standings with three top-five finishes, has finished among the top nine in three of his last four visits to TMS. He also owns top-five performances in half of his six career starts. Reddickposted a win in 2022 while with Richard Childress Racing and was fourth last season. In his last three starts, he has led 143 laps.

Wallace, seventh in the NCS standings behind a pair of third-place finishes, has been strong at Texas of late. He won the pole in 2023, led 111 laps and finished third. He followed up that effort with a seventh-place finish last season.

Herbst will be making his inaugural start at TMS in the Cup Series.