2024 By The Numbers

2024 Points Per Race: By The Numbers

The 2024 points-per-race report compares drivers on a more level playing field. NASCAR’s shift to a playoff system complicates comparing driver performance. In some years, a playoff driver couldn’t finish lower than 16th — even when he deserved to. […]

2024 By The Numbers

2024 Winners: By the Numbers

The NASCAR championship format doesn’t necessarily reward the driver who wins the most races in a season. It’s far more important WHEN a driver wins, as Joey Logano showed this year. […]

2024 By The Numbers
2024 By The Numbers

2024 Laps and Miles: By The Numbers

Building Speed’s 2024 By The Numbers feature starts with a look at the Laps and Miles run in 2024. The big story in that department this year was the weather. Despite Mother Nature dissing stock cars, we managed to get in a surprising portion of the scheduled racing. […]

Cautions

2024 Iowa Race Report

The 2024 Iowa race report has some edgy tires, a disaster for both Kyles and the first win of the season for defending champion Ryan Blaney. So let’s get to it! Caution- and Lead-O-Gram We […]

Lead Changes

Counting Lead Changes Through the First ‘x’ Races is Meaningless

The hoo-rah being made over the large number of lead changes in the NASCAR Cup Series through the first 11 races of the 2024 season is artificial. It’s an accident of schedule changes and tire weirdness at Bristol. Counting lead change numbers by themselves doesn’t mean anything unless you consider where the numbers come from. […]

The Phoenix short-track-package testing: Day 1
Aerodynamics

2024 Spring Martinsville Lead Change Preview

The 2024 spring Martinsville lead change preview shows lead-change variations throughout the last three generations of the NASCAR race car. This information provides necessary perspective for understanding this week’s race results. […]

2023

2023 Stats Overview: Penalty Numbers

The 2023 Stats Overview: Penalty Numbers summarizes the overall number and types of penalties incurred in NASCAR’s 2023 season. Teams generated a total of 741 total penalties, but not all were accidental. Last year, I […]

A pie chart showing what days NASCAR races were scheduled on in 2023
2023

2023 Stats Overview: Days Raced

The first entry in the 2023 Stats Overview is Days Raced, which surveys the days races started. Note that races delayed a day by weather aren’t included here. Also, I only include points races in this survey. […]

A table showing the average finishing positions of elite drivers in the races after their last wins
Drivers