The Gen-6 cars on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC
Photo – Getty Images
When the 2013 season began, everyone was anticipating the newest generation of stock cars on the track in NASCAR‘s Sprint Cup Series. With the season complete, it’s now time to take at look at the Gen-6 car’s début season by the numbers.
17 – Number of different winners this season, up from 15 different winners last season. The modern era record for different winners in a season is 19.
5 – Number of drivers who won in 2013 after going winless in 2012: Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr.
19 – Number of track qualifying records broken this season.
3 – Number of track qualifying records broken by Jimmie Johnson this season, the series’ most.
11 – Number of drivers who broke a track qualifying record this season. They are Jimmie Johnson (three), Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Matt Kenseth, (two each), Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose (one each).
127,306 – Number of Green Flag Passes, the second highest total since the inception of Loop Data in 2005 – and 17,398 more passes than 2012.
971 – Number of Green Flag Passes for the Lead, an increase from the 946 Green Flag Passes for the Lead in 2012.
10 – Average number of leaders per race, up from 9.39 in 2012.
19.4 – Average number of lead changes per race up from 18.9 last season.
46 – Number of drivers who lead at least one lap, up from 42 last season.
1,267 – In seconds, the average margin of victory in 2013. It’s the lowest average MOV since 2005.
20 – Number of races that ended with a margin of victory under one second, up from 17 races last season.
83.1 – Percentage of cars that were running at the finish of races, up from 74.7 percent in 2012.
51.2 – Percentage of cars that finished on the lead lap, the highest percentage since 2009.
88 – Appeal (likeability) of the race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series increased from 65 percent to 88 percent.**
83 – The perception that the race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “look similar to new cars in the showroom” increased from 28 to 83 percent **
86 – The perception that the race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “have distinctive body styling” increased from 35 to 86 percent **
76 – The perception that the race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “are cars that I would be interested in buying” increased from 49 to 76 percent. **
70 – The perception that the race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “make me more interested in the car manufacturers” increased from 41 to 70 percent. **
** Source: Official NASCAR Fan Council, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gen-6 Car Tracking Survey
Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer is outspoken about the new Gen-6 car as well.
“Look at these highlights, isn’t this awesome! I love this sport. I’m telling you, whoever designed this new car, we should kiss ’em every weekend. It’s (Gen-6) creating drama. We haven’t seen racing like this in years, since I first started in this sport (2004). When you can leave a race track and there’s people in tears because they won, and in tears because they got crashed, that’s what brings us to the race track, that kind of racing and determination and passion.”
Photo – NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications
