NASCAR Information Sunday, October 15, 2017

2017 MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES STATS HIGHLIGHTS

• Most Playoff wins this season: 2 Kyle Busch & Martin Truex Jr.
• Most Playoff race 2nd-place finishes this season: 3 Chase Elliott (Winless)
• Most Playoff race top 5 finishes this season: 4 Martin Truex Jr.
• Most Playoff race top 10 finishes this season: 4 Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson & Martin Truex Jr.
• Best Playoff race average finish this season: 6.6 Chase Elliott
• Most Playoff race laps led this season: 331 Martin Truex Jr.
• Most Playoff races led this season: 5 Kyle Busch
• Most wins this season: 6 Martin Truex Jr.
• Most 2nd-place finishes this season: 8 Kyle Larson (4 Wins)
• Most top 3 finishes this season: 12 Kyle Larson
• Most top 5 finishes this season: 14 Kyle Larson & Martin Truex Jr. (Career-high for each)
• Most top 10 finishes this season: 21 Martin Truex Jr. (Career-high: 22 – 2015)
• Most poles this season: 8 Kyle Busch (Career-high)
• Most front-row starts this season: 10 Kyle Busch
• Most top 6 starts this season: 21 Martin Truex Jr.
• Most top 12 starts this season: 26 Kyle Busch
• Best average start this season: 7.1 Kyle Busch
• Most laps led this season: 1977 (23 from 2000) Martin Truex Jr. (Career-high)
• Most laps led by winless drivers this season: 402 Chase Elliott
• Most races led this season: 26 Kyle Busch
• 14 Different winners in 31 races this season
• 4 Different winners from 4 different teams & 3 different manufacturers in 8 races on 1.5-mile tracks this season
• Martin Truex Jr. won 5 of 8 races on 1.5-mile tracks this season – Finished 8th or better every race
• 2 Different winners 5 Playoff races this season – Kyle Busch 2, Martin Truex Jr. 2 & Brad Keselowski 1
• Same top 4 finishers 2017 Chicagoland Playoff race & 2017 Charlotte Playoff race (Both 1.5-mile tracks)
• Brad Keselowski: 5 Career wins by last-lap pass
• Brad Keselowski: Talladega winner – First win in last 25 races (4 Wins previous 26 races)
• Brad Keselowski: 3 Wins this season – 1.5-mile track, short track & restrictor-plate track
• Brad Keselowski: Back-to-back wins twice – Richmond 9/14 & 2014 Chicagoland and Daytona 7/16 & 2016 Kentucky
• Brad Keselowski: 2017 Talladega Playoff race winner – Winless in 2015 & ’16 Playoff races (Last previous Playoff race win: 2014 Talladega)
• Best Playoff finisher last race: Brad Keselowski – Winner
• Worst Playoff finisher last race: Jamie McMurray – 37th
• Best non-Playoff finisher last race: Ryan Newman – 2nd
• Ryan Newman: Passed on final lap for win by Brad Keselowski twice – 2014 Talladega Playoff race & 2017 Talladega Playoff race
• Martin Truex Jr. won first race in Round of 16 & Round of 12
• Martin Truex Jr. only driver to sweep every Stage in MENCS race – 2017 Las Vegas & 2017 Kentucky
• Stage 1 winner went on to win race 6 times including Talladega (Brad Keselowski)
• Stage 2 winner went on to win race 3 times – Martin Truex Jr. (Las Vegas & Kentucky) and Kyle Busch (New Hampshire Sept.)
• Jimmie Johnson: 3 Wins this season – 1 Stage win (Sonoma Stage 1)
• 9 Won Stage 1 & Stage 2 – Twice went on to win race (Martin Truex Jr. Las Vegas & Kentucky)
• 13 Drivers won Stages this season – 4 Have yet to win a race (Bowyer, Elliott, Kenseth & Suarez)
• Martin Truex Jr. leads all with 19 Stage wins – 6 Race wins
• Martin Truex Jr. won Stage 1 & 2 five times
• Martin Truex Jr. started 3rd or better 5 of 6 wins this season – Started 17th in Charlotte Playoff race
• 5 Wins from pole this season – 4 By drivers named Kyle (Kyle Busch 2 & Kyle Larson 2)
• Jimmie Johnson: 5 Wins starting rear of field – 3 of last 4 wins came starting rear of field
• Jimmie Johnson started rear of field 6 races this season – Most of all drivers
• Best finisher dropping to rear of field this season:
• Winner – Jimmie Johnson (Texas April & Dover June) & Joey Logano (Richmond April)
• Last winner in backup car: Denny Hamlin – New Hampshire 7/17
• Last winner after free-pass: Martin Truex Jr. – 2016 Chicagoland
• 3 Won after pit road speeding penalty this season:
• Kurt Busch Daytona 500, Brad Keselowski Martinsville April & Martin Truex Jr. Chicagoland
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 8 Pit road speeding penalties this season – Most
• Martin Truex Jr. led with 10 to go 5 of last 9 races – 2 Wins (Chicagoland & Charlotte)
• Martin Truex Jr. passed for final lead change 4 of last 9 races
• Kyle Larson passed Martin Truex Jr. for final lead change last 2 wins – Michigan Aug. & Richmond Sept.
• Kyle Larson took lead for final time with 6 or fewer laps to go in 3 of 4 wins this season – 5 of fewer last 2 wins
• Kyle Busch passed for final lead change 5 races this season
• Kyle Larson passed for final lead change 4 races this season
• Brad Keselowski passed for final lead change 3 races this season
• Kevin Harvick passed for final lead change 2 of last 5 races
• Kyle Busch: 14 Straight races led (931 Laps led) – Career-long streak
• Kyle Busch led most laps 8 races this season – 2 Wins in those races (Pocono July & New Hampshire Sept.)
• Jimmie Johnson led 18 or fewer laps 3 of last 4 wins
• Final lead change with 5 or fewer laps to go 7 of last 12 races
• Final lead change with 10 or fewer laps to go 17 of 31 races this season
• Leader of most laps won only 9 of 31 races this season – Truex Jr. 4, Kyle Busch 2, Larson 2 & Hamlin 1
• 10 To go leader failed to win 15 races this season including all 4 restrictor-plate races
• 3 Races settled by last lap pass this season – Daytona 500, Talladega May & Talladega Oct. (All won by Ford drivers)
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took lead for last time on final lap at Talladega May & with 2 laps to go at Daytona July
• Ryan Newman best Chevrolet finisher 3 races this season including Talladega
• Brad Keselowski best Ford finisher 7 races this season including Talladega
• Martin Truex Jr. best Toyota finisher 10 of 31 races this season
• 3 of last 4 Chevrolet wins by Kyle Larson
• Ford: 8 Wins in 31 races this season – 1 Win in last 14 races (Talladega Oct.)
• Toyota: 10 Wins last 14 races – Only 2 wins previous 17 races this season
• Toyota: 4 Wins last 5 races – Hamlin best Toyota finisher at Talladega (6th)
• Joe Gibbs Racing: 6 Wins last 13 races – Winless previous 20 races
• Chevrolet winless last 5 races
• Gray Gaulding best Rookie finisher at Talladega – Finished 9th
• 10 Overtime races this season – Leader at scheduled distance won 6
• Kyle Larson: 4 Wins this season – 3 Overtime wins (Auto Club, Michigan Aug. & Richmond Sept.)
• Youngest winner: Ryan Blaney – 23
• 22 Wins this season by drivers 32-years-old or older
• 3 Different winners in 4 restrictor-plate races this season – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won twice
• Ford won last 7 restrictor-plate races – 3 Different teams (Penske 4, Roush 2 & Stewart-Haas 1)
• Closest margin-of-victory this season: .095 Seconds – Talladega May (Ricky Stenhouse Jr. over Jamie McMurray)
• Largest margin-of-victory this season: 7.179 Seconds – Chicagoland (Martin Truex Jr. over Chase Elliott)
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won 2 of the 4 closest races this season – Talladega May & Daytona July
• Furniture Row Racing: 12 Wins – 6 This season
• 9 Different teams won this season
• 4 Crew chiefs won first race this season: Justin Alexander, Jeremy Bullins, Luke Lambert & Keith Rodden
• Chad Johnston: 6 Career wins (1 Martin Truex Jr. & 5 Kyle Larson)
• 6 Winning crew chiefs were suspended this season –
• Paul Wolfe, Rodney Childers, Todd Gordon, Adam Stevens, Chad Johnston & Mike Wheeler
• Joe Gibbs Racing: 6 Wins this season – 12 Wins all of last season (Led all teams)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. best Hendrick Motorsports finisher at Talladega (Finished 7th) – 3rd time best HMS finisher this season
• Roush Fenway Racing ended 101-race winless streak at Talladega May
• Richard Childress Racing ended 112-race winless streak at Phoenix March
• 3 Won first career race this season – Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon & Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended 157-race winless streak this season (Talladega May)
• Austin Dillon ended 132-race winless streak this season (Charlotte May)
• Ryan Newman ended 127-race winless streak this season (Phoenix March)
• Kasey Kahne ended 102-race winless streak this season (Indianapolis July)
• Kyle Busch ended 36-race winless streak this season (Pocono July)