nascar Archives : Building Speed

2026 Fall Martinsville: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2026-11-01 dr. diandra 0

The 2026 Fall Martinsville race, the penultimate race of the season, was an opportunity for Kyle Larson to clinch the championship. For Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, it was their chance to redeem their championship hopes to challenge Larson next week at Homestead. For drivers without a win this year, it was an opportunity to avoid spending the off-season worrying about the size of their losing streak. […]

Are Recent Martinsville Winners More Likely to Win Now?

2026-10-30 dr. diandra 0

A lot of statistical analyses emphasize recent Martinsville winners. Most remind us of Hendrick Motorsports’ 31 wins. But I wonder whether people are over-emphasizing the importance of wins — or even recent wins? Is there any data that supports the idea that winning the last Martinsville race (like Chase Elliott) or the last Fall race (William Byron) gives those drivers higher likelihoods of winning this weekend? […]

Leading Laps Matters. Leading the Most Laps Doesn’t

2026-10-16 dr. diandra 0

People often cite leading laps as one requirement for a good driver. Laps led is one of the few stats that goes way back in terms of record keeping. Before loop data and transponders, races offered a limited number of things your could count. But who lead each lap was one of them. […]

Can a Champion Come from Outside the Top-Six Seeds?

2026-09-25 dr. diandra 0

Within weeks of NASCAR announcing a re-formulated version of The Chase for 2026, the word around the garage was that the future champion would have to enter The Chase as one of the top six seeds. […]

Does the Lead-Change Metric Determine a Good Race?

2026-09-11 dr. diandra 0

People often cite the number of lead changes in a race — the lead change metric — and suggest that a big number means a good race. The metric is simple, easy to get and elegant in a fundamental way.

It’s also misleading. […]

Pit Road and Persistence Determine Darlington Outcome

2026-09-06 dr. diandra 0

Pit road performance always plays a huge role at Darlington Raceway. Equally important is how well a team can recover from a pit-road glitch. The latter played a huge role in Christopher Bell’s win tonight. […]

2026 Atlanta II Race Report

2026-07-15 dr. diandra 0

The 2026 Atlanta II race report questions whether Atlanta is still, well… Atlanta. All of the race hallmarks are very different from what we’ve seen before. […]

Gen-7 Rack-and-Pinion Steering Increases Precision — and Safety Concerns

2026-06-26 dr. diandra 0

I know that rack-and-pinion steering seems an esoteric and niche topic. But Brad Keselowski doesn’t think so. After his crash at Michigan, Christopher Bell might not, either. Safety motivates much of the NASCAR race car’s […]

2026 San Diego Saturday Notes

2026-06-21 dr. diandra 0

The 2026 San Diego Saturday Notes are a little different this week because practice and qualifying were held on different days. Practice was on Friday — before inspection — and cars could make changes after […]

Does NASCAR’s Qualifying Metric Unfairly Penalize Drivers Who Have One Bad Race?

2026-06-12 dr. diandra 0

Drivers talk about NASCAR’s Qualifying Metric every week, even though they may not mention it by name. One might note he’s at a disadvantage this week because he was knocked out of last week’s race early. Another may be thankful he is (this week, at least) in the second practice/qualifying group. Drivers may even mention ‘the metric.’ […]