Graph of the Day
In Honor of John Andretti (1963-2020)
John Andretti died of colon cancer on January 30th at the age of 56. He was diagnosed at age 53 after a routine screening and used his battle to raise awareness of the disease. If […]
The Building Speed Blog
Graph of the Day
GOTD: NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominations
The NASCAR Hall of Fame inducts Buddy Baker, Joe Gibbs, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Waddell Wilson today. Notable stars of the sport comprise every class, but this class has something rare: An inductee recognized […]
Drivers
GOTD: NASCAR Driver First Names
NASCAR drivers have some unique names, but I hadn’t appreciated the full range of names until now. I’m teaching myself Python. Excel has its limitations, especially in pulling together data from long periods of time […]
Graph of the Day
Graph of the Day for 1/28/2020: NC Gets Culvers
A venn diagram […]
Cautions
Cautions and Yellow-Flag Lead Changes
Lead changes are frequently used as a way to measure how ‘good’ the racing is. But yellow-flag lead changes aren’t all that exciting. Even worse, they skew the statistics because a race with a lot […]
Graphs and Charts
Graph of The Day: 1/27/20
We all had heard a lot about Kyle Larson’s plans for the “off-season”, so I was wondering how it all turned out. I actually got myself a little confused trying to track down all the […]
Aerodynamics
One NASCAR Rules Package for All Tracks?
NASCAR wants to cut costs for teams by developing a rules package that, with minimal tweaking, provides good racing at any track. The 2019 rules package met with mixed results. Races were mostly better at […]
Drivers
NASCAR Numbers 2019: Part 2 — The Drivers
Sixty-four drivers in 46 different car numbers ran for 37 full-schedule and 10 limited-schedule teams in 2019. But how did they do? And how does that compare to 2018? In my last post, I examined […]
Racing
NASCAR Numbers 2019: Part 1
With another season in the record books and everyone making their top ten lists, it’s time to look at what the numbers say about the year that was… Season Overview The requisite 36 points-paying races […]
Graphs and Charts
Was Phoenix a ‘Bad Race’?
A lot was written last week about the Phoenix race being a ‘bad race’ — but was it? In comparison to what? The typical race at Phoenix? Our memories of races at Phoenix? Our expectations? […]