Curious Notes From The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season

• Ryan Newman posted the first Daytona 500 victory for a Dodge since Ward Burton won in 2002. That victory was the only other restrictor-plate victory for Dodge.


• Tony Stewart won at Talladega Superspeedway in his 20th attempt.
That leaves only three active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks at which Stewart has not visited Victory Lane:

• Auto Club Speedway,
• Darlington Raceway and
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Among active drivers, only Jeff Gordon has won at more tracks. Gordon has yet to win at two tracks:

• Homestead-Miami Speedway and
• Texas Motor Speedway.

By contrast Jimmie Johnson has yet to visit Victory Lane at five active tracks:

• Bristol,
• Chicago,
• Homestead-Miami,
• Michigan,
• Infineon.

Dude, get the lead out!! Oh, wait, he did. THREE TIMES!


• Kasey Kahne was the only driver with three top-10 finishes in the first three races this season. In 2007, Kahne did not get his third top 10 until race No. 24, at Bristol.


• Jeff Gordon won the pole at Atlanta, making this his 16th consecutive year with a pole.

He is third on the all-time list for consecutive years with a pole behind David Pearson (20) and Richard Petty (17).


• Jeff Gordon finished 43rd after his accident at Texas, just the second time in his career that he finished 43rd. The other also came at Texas (March 1999).


• Greg Biffle won the pole on the newly-repaved Darlington Raceway, breaking Ward Burton’s 1996 track qualifying record.

Burton’s was the longest-standing qualifying record at an active, nonrestrictor-plate track.


• Denny Hamlin led 381 laps, setting the record for the number of laps led in a 400-lap race at Richmond.

Denny eclipsed the mark of 369 set by Bobby Allison in September 1979.

The record for laps led all-time at Richmond is 488 of 500 on the half-mile configuration by David Pearson in September 1970.


• Kyle Busch led 786 laps in the first 14 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season. He had also led the exact same number through the first 15 races (the same weekend) in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The man is a freak of skills! Skills we all wish we could freak at!


• Kyle Busch led 415 laps at Bristol, the 13th time a driver has led 400 laps or more at the Tennessee short track.

The standard was set by Cale Yarborough, who led all 500 laps in March 1973.

Busch became the third driver to lead over 400 laps and not win the race, joining
Richard Petty (442 laps in July 1964) and
Rusty Wallace (409 laps in August 1993).


• 42 cars completed the Pepsi 500 – setting the track record for cars running at the finish for Auto Club Speedway.


• The 43 cars running at the finish in the second Richmond race is the first time that all the cars have been running at the finish of a Richmond race, breaking the record of 39 which occurred four times.

It was just the second time since the field was mandated to 43 cars that all starters finished a race. The other was at New Hampshire in September 2007.


• The 40 cars running at the finish at Dover set the record for cars finishing a race there.


• The 42 cars running at the finish at Kansas set the record for cars finishing a race there.


• Chad McCumbee started his first Lowe’s Motor Speedway race, becoming the 500th different driver to compete at LMS.


• Mark Martin has started second six times in the 2008 season – all as a result of timed qualifying.

The modern era record for second-place starts is 10 by Jeff Gordon in 1996.

Richard Petty (1964) and David Pearson (1968) each had 17 second-place starts – the all-time record – but both came in seasons with more than 48 races. (Wow, a 48 race season!!! Gotta wonder how many networks would cover that in this era!?)

-Oh crap... I'm out of curious facts from the 2008 season... now what?????

source: nascar press release