Laps Led
• Kyle Busch has led 1,637 laps this season, more than any other driver.
• 47 drivers have led at least one lap this season. No one has led in every race.
• 11 drivers have led the most laps in a race this season:
Kyle Busch (seven)
Jimmie Johnson (seven)
Tony Stewart (three)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (three)
Carl Edwards (three)
Denny Hamlin (one)
Greg Biffle (one)
Kasey Kahne (one)
Mark Martin (one)
David Reutimann (one)
Matt Kenseth (one)
Points
• Jeff Burton became the fourth different driver to lead the points when he took the lead following Martinsville. It is his first time to lead the points since Oct. 14, 2006 (Lowe’s Motor Speedway).
• Kyle Busch re-assumed the lead in the points standings following his second-place finish at Richmond and held it through the second Richmond race.
• Carl Edwards took the lead in the points standings following his third-place finish at New Hampshire to open the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Edwards and Jimmie Johnson were tied with 5, 220 points leaving New Hampshire but Edwards won the tie breaker based on two more victories.
• The points spread between first and second has varied from a low of zero points following New Hampshire-2 to a high of 262 following Chicago.
• Carl Edwards took the points lead following New Hampshire.
• Jimmie Johnson became the fifth different driver to lead the points when he took over the top spot following Kansas.
Rookie Performance
• Five different drivers have been the highest-finishing rookie in 2008:
Regan Smith (nine)
Sam Hornish Jr. (seven)
Patrick Carpentier (seven)
Michael McDowell (five)
Dario Franchitti (one).
Owner Highlights
• Ryan Newman won the season-opening Daytona 500, his first career restrictor-plate victory. Teammate Kurt Busch finished second, giving car owner Roger Penske his first restrictor-plate victory and first 1-2 finish in 25 years of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.
• Richard Childress Racing captured the top-three finishing positions in the first Bristol race: Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, respectively. It was the first 1-2-3 finish for a car owner since Roush Fenway racing captured the top four spots at Homestead in November 2005: Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards, respectively. Roush Fenway Racing again swept the top three finishing positions at Dover-2: Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards.
• Joe Nemechek won the pole at Talladega, giving car owner Barney Visser his first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup pole. It came in Visser’s 49th as a car owner.
• Hendrick Motorsports began competing in NASCAR Sprint Cup in 1984 and won its first race in 1986. HMS has posted at least one victory each of its 22 seasons since and has gone past the seventh race of a season before posting its first win eight times – but only four times since 1994 (including this season). The deepest that HMS has gone into a season before scoring a win was 1992 when the first victory did not come until race No. 23.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Michigan and became the 14th different driver to win for Hendrick Motorsports. Every full-time driver for Hendrick Motorsports since 2000 has posted at least one victory while with the organization.
• Marcos Ambrose posted a third-place finish driving the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford at Watkins Glen, the first top-five finish for the Wood Brothers since Ricky Rudd’s fourth at Bristol in August 2005.
• Carl Edwards posted only the second NASCAR Sprint Cup-NASCAR Nationwide Series weekend sweep at Michigan when he won both races there in August. Both came with Jack Roush as the car owner. Mark Martin posted the first in 1993.
Penalties
• There have been 457 on-track penalties issued this season.
• Penalty Recap:
Pitting Before Pit Road is Open 226
Too Fast Entering Pit Road 40
Too Fast Exiting Pit Road 70
Others 121
Manufacturer
• Toyota leads the manufacturers’ points standings with 175 points. Ford has 171, Chevrolet 168 and Dodge 124.
• Toyota has posted nine victories in 2008. Ford and Chevrolet each have eight and Dodge four.
• All four manufacturers have been in the top four finishers four times this season: Texas, Charlotte, Michigan and Indianapolis.
More Records
• Kevin Harvick extended his current streak of running at the finish to 73 races. That is the all-time record for consecutive races without a DNF. Harvick’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer, is second on the list, currently on a 66-race streak of running at the finish. Note: Herman Beam completed 84 consecutive races that he competed in (1961-63), but he did not race in all of the scheduled events during his personal streak. His longest consecutive-race streak was 35 races.
• Five foreign-born drivers participated at Infineon Raceway: Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Patrick Carpentier and Ron Fellows (Canada), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) and Max Papis (Italy). It was the largest contingent of foreign-born drivers in a race in NASCAR Sprint Cup history, eclipsing the previous mark of three which was set eight times – most recently at Infineon in 2007.
• At Watkins Glen, three nations were represented among the top five for the first time in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history. Kyle Busch (first), Tony Stewart (second) and Martin Truex Jr. (fifth) are from the United States, Marcos Ambrose (third) from Australia and Juan Pablo Montoya (fourth) Colombia.
Notebook
• Ryan Newman posted the first Daytona 500 victory for Dodge since Ward Burton won in 2002. That victory was the only other restrictor-plate victory for Dodge.
• 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 (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. He 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.
• 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.
Brotherly Wins
Kyle Busch won at Infineon Raceway, followed by brother Kurt at New Hampshire, giving them the first back-to-back wins by brothers since Kyle won at California and Kurt at Richmond in September 2005. Kyle again won at Daytona, making it the first time brothers had won three consecutive races since 1955-
56. Tim Flock won the final race of 1955 and the first of 1956 and his brother, Fonty, won the second race. Kyle posted the fourth straight win for the Busch brothers with his win at Chicago. It was the fourth time that brothers had won four straight:
1952 – Tim (Race No. 22 and 23), Bob (Race No. 24) and Fonty Flock (Race No. 25)
1952 – Herb (Race No. 31 and 32), Donald (Race No. 33) and Herb Thomas (Race No. 34)
1955 – Tim (Race No. 36 and 37), Fonty (Race No. 38) and Tim Flock (Race No. 39)
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