Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: by the numbers

  • By The Numbers: Auto Club Preview

    By The Numbers: Auto Club Preview

    Kyle Busch is now one win away from 200 victories across all of NASCAR’s top touring series. After his near full weekend sweep at Vegas and successfully sweeping both races at Phoenix, he claims the points lead with a worst finish of sixth for 2019. Both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series head to the last west coast race of the West Coast Swing at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

    Here are this week’s By The Numbers.

    2 – The past two winners at Auto Club Speedway have won from the pole position. Will the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series make it three in a row?

    20 – In the last 20 NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the 2-mile oval dating back to 2004, the winner started in the top 10. Only five times has the winner started outside the top 10 with Todd Bodine making up the most ground in the inaugural race in 1997.

    0 – Across all three touring series, there has never been a caution-free race at Auto Club Speedway. The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is off this weekend, as they haven’t raced here since 2009.

    188.482 – Jimmie Johnson holds the record for the fastest qualifying speed at 188.482 mph set in 2016, but this track has been fast all along. The 187 mph barrier has been broken eight times since the speedway debuted in 1997.

    3 – The IROC series raced here three times. Mark Martin won the ‘97 and ‘98 races, and Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag in 2002 when the series returned. Pontiac went undefeated in the three events.

    3 – Back to back threes, but Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson are the only three drivers to complete all 1,111 laps this year so far.

    4 – Oh, and Kyle Busch is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four races this year.

    4 – Kurt Busch holds the record for most poles at Auto Club Speedway with four. Denny Hamlin is a close second with three poles. Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray, and Jeff Gordon, who are no longer racing in the MENCS, each have two.

    21.2 – Over the last five races, Jimmie Johnson has the worst average starting position of 21.2 among drivers who have gone to victory lane.

    24 – Ryan Newman leads all active drivers with most career starts at the speedway with no trips to victory lane with 24 starts.

    -63 – Austin Dillon has the lowest pass differential score of all full-time drivers at -63. He also has yet to finish on the lead lap this year, even though younger brother Ty has finished on the lead lap twice. The pass differential score is a calculation of positions gained subtracted by positions lost, so being in the negative isn’t desired.

    148 – Ryan Blaney is second on the season list of laps led with a total of 148 laps out front. However, the No. 12 team only has one top 20 finish as a result.

    3/23 – The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series will return to racing action on March 23rd at Martinsville Speedway.

    1 – Kyle Busch is just one win away from breaking 200 across NASCAR’s national touring series.

  • By the numbers: Spring Phoenix preview

    By the numbers: Spring Phoenix preview

    The Pennzoil 400 had the most green flag passes across the field and most green flag passes for the lead over the past five races. While we’ve had a couple of races with the new package, the reception has been mixed. There’s a good variety of tracks coming up that will help get a better overall understanding of where that is compared to last year.

    Joey Logano stopped the weekend sweep of Kyle Busch by winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday. Busch, who won both the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity race, sped on pit road and recovered to finish third on Sunday. Keselowski put on a late race charge to win back to back Cup races.

    Here are this week’s By The Numbers.

    0 – This was technically a caution-free race when excluding stage cautions. Logano mentioned in the media center after the race that he wasn’t that surprised. This was the first caution-free race since the fall race at Talladega in 2002.

    2 – There were two very interesting and possibly controversial penalties on front runners Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon. It was also (probably) the number of fingers that actually touched the pavement by Larson’s crew member.

    4 – Four drivers shuffled four positions in points. Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. moved up four spots with Logano taking over the points lead. Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman dropped four spots, with Newman outside of the cutoff line for the Playoffs.

    52 – Kevin Harvick was the fastest car on track for 52 out of the 267 laps. That’s just shy of 20 percent for the Stage One winner. He’s also going to a track where he’s won five of the last 10 times.

    129 – It was on this lap that Kyle Busch knew he… well, you can finish the rest. The speeding penalty on Lap 129 while coming on pit road was one of Busch’s rare mistakes that potentially cost him the triple sweep.

    3,345 – Total number of green flag passes in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 according to NASCAR’s official loop data. This was more than the five previous races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

    5.0 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds the best average start at 5.0 in the first three races of the Cup season.

    23.4 – Aric Almirola’s average start at ISM Raceway over the last five races is 23.4. His average finish improves to 11.8, one of the best start to finish improvements across all active drivers.

    100% – Kevin Harvick is the only active driver that has finished 100 percent of the laps in the last 10 races at ISM Raceway.

    375 – In the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Matt Crafton is the only competitor to complete all 375 total possible laps for the 2019 season. They have a big break before returning to racing action at Martinsville Speedway at the end of the month.

    149 – Christopher Bell has led 149 total laps this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, one shy of doubling that of second place full-time Xfinity driver Tyler Reddick (Kyle Busch has led 98 laps but is competing for the Cup Series championship).

    6 – If Kevin Harvick wins this weekend’s Cup race at ISM Raceway, he will become the sixth driver in NASCAR Cup history to win 10 or more times at a single track.

  • By the numbers: Vegas spring preview

    By the numbers: Vegas spring preview

    LAS VEGAS – The 2019 season has started off with a lot of unknowns, a new performance package, some controversy and small names making big moves.

    The old saying goes that “numbers don’t lie,” so I’ll be sharing more in-depth information on what the statistics are showing regarding the drivers’ performances every race. Aside from stage points, the only thing that matters is the end result. Knowing how you get to the end is just as important as the result, but can easily be overlooked. What this new series of statistics will do is create a unique comparison between all the statistics as we progress through the 2019 season.

    Why Keep Statistics?

    Just like any sport, teams and individual athletes use the extra numbers of statistics to examine where they are falling behind, where they are performing strong and cross-referencing themselves against the competition. There also are instances where some drivers, especially those young in a series or new to a team, may set personal goals gauged on those statistics.

    In the sport of NASCAR, we track much more than just wins, poles, DNFs and top-10 finishes. Laps led, average start/finish, lead lap finishes and even running-at-finish can give a driver or team’s resume that extra lift for a contract or a sponsor. There are many great sites that help keep track of more in-depth statistics, such as Racing Reference, Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet and FOX Sports (Jayski was discontinued by ESPN at the end of the 2018 season).

    So with that said, let’s roll the dice here in Vegas and see what numbers come up for us.

    3 – Matt DiBenedetto is third in the list of total laps led, only behind Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. He also has led more laps this season than his entire Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (23 total previously).

    7 – Only seven drivers have completed all 532 total laps between Daytona and Atlanta in the MENCS. Three of those drivers are from Joe Gibbs Racing. Those seven drivers are Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin, last week’s Atlanta winner Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and Erik Jones.

    9 – Only nine drivers have officially DNF’d a race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series between Daytona and Atlanta. Nine drivers suffered a DNF in last year’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Veags Motor Speedway.

    17 – There were 17 caution flags thrown among the first two races of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Daytona (11) and Atlanta (6).

    2,048 – Between the top three touring series in NASCAR, 2,048 miles have been completed in the races, including overtime laps.

    2.5 – Grant Enfinger’s average finish in both truck races, second at Daytona and third at Atlanta.