PUEBLO, Colo. – In a year like none other in history, the PBR heads to Arlington, Texas, for its 27th PBR World Finals – the first to be held in the heart of cowboy country.
Thirty-nine of the PBR’s best bull riders have officially punched their tickets to AT&T Stadium, and the pursuit of the $300,000 event title – and for some a $1 million World Championship – gets underway Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. ET.
There are still 14 riders mathematically in contention for the 2020 PBR World Championship, and now all eyes will descend upon the home of the Dallas Cowboys to see if world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme will finally win his first World Championship.
Meanwhile, the 2020 YETI World Champion Bull race takes center stage on Thursday night with the rankest bulls of the Finals, including championship frontrunners Chiseled and Smooth Operator, bucking in Round 1 of the four-day competition. The top World Champion contenders will then buck one more time in the championship round on Sunday.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at the upcoming World Finals.
15: Two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney has qualified for 15 consecutive World Finals, which ties Mauney with 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi for the second-most consecutive qualifications in PBR history. 2004 World Champion Mike Lee qualified for 16 consecutive World Finals. Two-time World Champion Chris Shivers is the only other rider with 15 or more World Finals qualifications, but he did not make them consecutively.
4: World leader Jose Vitor Leme has only bucked off four times in 18 outs at the World Finals since qualifying for his first trip to the PBR’s season-culminating event in 2017. Leme is 14-for-18 (77.78%) with six 90-point rides, three round wins and three Top-5 finishes at the World Finals. He went 6-for-6 to win the 2017 World Finals, and he finished 4-for-6 for second place in 2018 and fifth in 2019.
6: Number of victories for world No. 2 Joao Ricardo Vieira inside AT&T Stadium. Vieira has won more than $895,000 in Arlington since riding for the first time in the home of the Dallas Cowboys in 2014. The now 36-year-old has won two Iron Cowboy titles (2014 & 2015) in Arlington, as well as three bull riding championships at The American rodeo in 2016, 2019 and 2020. He also was a member of the victorious Team Brazil squad at the 2019 Global Cup USA in Arlington. Vieira’s 2019 American victory netted him a whopping $433,333.33. He then split the bull riding victory with Sage Kimzey earlier this year for $65,500.
7: There are seven riders in the 39-man field that have won the PBR World Finals event average, including 2016 World Finals event winner Ryan Dirteater, who is set to retire following this year’s finale. Other World Finals event winners headed to Arlington are Jess Lockwood (2019), 2018 World Finals event winner Marco Eguchi, Leme (2017), 2015 World Finals event winner Cooper Davis, 2014 World Finals event winner Silvano Alves and Mauney (2013, 2009).
5: The PBR World Finals will be a five-round competition for the first time since 2003, when rookie Jody Newberry won the PBR World Finals by going 4-for-5. Newberry won the Finals and the Rookie of the Year title by riding three-time World Champion Little Yellow Jacket for 94 points. Newberry is one of five rookies to win the World Finals event average – Ronnie Kitchens (1996), Luke Snyder (2001), Newberry, Cooper Davis (2015) and Jose Vitor Leme (2017).
8: There are eight Texas natives competing at the first World Finals to be held in their native state – Davis, 2020 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Champion Mason Taylor, 2012 PRCA champion Cody Teel, 2020 Rookie of the Year leader Cole Melancon, Ezekiel Mitchell, Taylor Toves and Tye Chandler.
21: Mason Taylor is not a Rookie of the Year contender, but the 2020 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Champion is still just 21 years old. The No. 9-ranked bull rider in the world is the youngest rider in the Top 10 of the world standings and is coming off the biggest payday of his career in Sioux Falls – $60,146.67. Taylor has battled a nagging hand/wrist injury, but he flashed his potential in a major way at the Velocity Tour Finals.
41: Wallace de Oliveira will set a new PBR record as the oldest PBR World Finals qualifier when he climbs into the bucking chute on Thursday night. Oliveira will be 41 years, 4 months and 26 days old. The previous oldest World Finals qualifier was Gary Richard at 40 years old in 2002.
9: Chiseled (5) and Smooth Operator (4) have been scored 46 or more points a combined nine times this season. The two bulls go into the World Finals amidst the tightest champion bull race in the past four years and are separated by a mere 0.03 points. The 2020 YETI World Champion Bull receives a $100,000 bonus, and the champion will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals. The PBR has been using this format to crown its World Champion Bull since 2017, and the current separation between Smooth Operator and Chiseled is the closest in the last four seasons.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photos courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media