LAS VEGAS – The No. 8 Nashville Stampede may have gone 7-20-1 in the regular season of the 2022 PBR Team Series, but there was always a belief among rival team executives and coaches that Justin McBride’s Stampede squad would be a unit that no team would want to face inside T-Mobile Arena.

Those premonitions came true in a major way as the Stampede went 4-0 at the 2022 PBR Team Series Championship, knocking off No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 1 Austin, No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Arizona to cap off a Cinderella march to the PBR Teams championship.

It was a wild turnaround for Nashville, especially considering it took them until Sept. 11 to reach four wins in the regular season.

The Cinderella story is a testament to McBride and the Stampede leadership team who always knew the end goal was winning it all in Las Vegas, and not necessarily eating orange slices during the regular season.

Today, PBR.com takes a look at some interesting stats and facts from the Stampede’s stunning championship run.

21.43%: The Stampede finished the regular season sixth in the league with a 33.6% riding average before erupting in Vegas, going 11-for-20 (55%) and increasing its riding percentage by 21.43%.

3: Nashville made sure to start extremely strong in all of its games leading up to the championship showdown against Arizona. The Stampede began each of its first three games with a qualified ride, jumping out to an early lead against No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 1 Austin and No. 2 Texas. In particular, Joao Henrique Lucas was the unsung hero for the Stampede as the 32-year-old went 2-for-3 from the leadoff position. It was a sly move by coach McBride, who only used Lucas twice all season long in the starting position, and the gamble paid off with McBride then moving Kaique Pacheco to the closer role.

4: Speaking of Pacheco and the closer role. Pacheco went 4-for-4 for the Stampede from the No. 5 position after not being the closer for the final 15 games of the regular season. In fact, Pacheco struggled in that spot earlier in the year (1-for-5). Once again, McBride’s faith in Pacheco proved title-worthy.

8: Pacheco is the new king of the throne at T-Mobile Arena. Two-time World Champions Jose Vitor Leme and Jess Lockwood have often been the primary tenants of success at the state-of-the-art venue on the Vegas Strip, but Pacheco has now ridden 8 consecutive bulls inside T-Mobile Arena, including three straight 90-point rides. It is the first time in his eight-year career he has posted that many 90s in a row on the elite level.

0.38: The Stampede were 0.38 milliseconds away from likely not winning the PBR Teams Championship. Austin Gamblers captain Jose Vitor Leme was probably going to be north of 90 points with a qualified ride aboard Show Me Homie in Round 2 of the playoffs against Nashville until he lost his bull rope at 7.62 seconds in a wild turn of events. It was the second consecutive game in the postseason in which Nashville’s opponents’ closer bucked off just before the 8-second mark with a chance to knock off the Stampede. Daniel Keeping also came up short for Texas in the Semifinals vs. Nashville (5.77 seconds vs. Theodore).

2: The Stampede trailed only two times in four games in Las Vegas. There was only one time all postseason in which the Stampede needed to post two consecutive rides to re-take the lead. That came in the Championship Game when Eduardo Aparecido rode Pickle Moonshine for 91.5 points. The Stampede had started the game 0-for-2, but Ryan Dirteater (88.5 points on One Hundred Days) and Silvano Alves (85.5 points on Hunter) came through for the champs.

7: It had been seven months since Pacheco had last ridden four or more bulls in a row. Pacheco had ridden seven consecutive bulls in April when he was battling it out with Leme and Daylon Swearingen for the 2022 World Championship.

2,190: It had been exactly six years (2,190 days) since Ryan Dirteater won the first World Finals held inside T-Mobile Arena. Dirteater went full circle by helping Nashville win the first PBR Team Series Champion in T-Mobile Arena with his ride aboard One Hundred Days.

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media