NASCAR Nationwide and More Series News and Notes

Posted on by

CaptureChampionship Contenders Share Common Goal – Winning

Showcasing the exceptional talents of this season’s championship contenders on one of NASCAR’s most competitive stages has appeared almost seamless for the top-three in Nationwide Series standings.

Chase Elliott, Elliott Sadler and Regan Smith all have posted wins, are only separated by three points in the standings and have average finishing positions in the top-ten. The feat for some has seemed almost impossible – yet these three have faced the insurmountable with ease. 

Chase Elliott, the series points and Rookie of the Year leader, is already deemed the sport’s next ‘face’ by fans and media – and with good reason. He is the youngest driver in series history to lead the standings and the first rookie to win back-to-back races at Texas and Darlington. The son of NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee, Bill Elliott, has posted seven top-tens in nine races this season. His 7.4 average finish in the first nine races of his Nationwide Series career is the eighth best in series history. He also has a series leading season-to-date Driver Rating of 109.1.

Just outside Elliott’s quarter panel sits veteran Elliott Sadler, just one point back in the standings. Sadler’s win at Talladega not only ends a 54-race win-less streak dating back to August 4, 2012 at Iowa, but also revives his championship form.

“It means a lot for me to get this JGR team to victory lane, Sadler said. “They’ve worked their butts off last year and we weren’t able to reward them. We have a lot of momentum on our side now.”

NNS-SideNote-KSSadler has four top-fives and seven top-tens in the first nine events. But he has finished runner-up in the standings twice in the last three years. Will 2014 be the season he gets over the hump?

Filling Sadler’s mirror is Regan Smith, third in the standings, three points back from his JR Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Smith opened the season in dramatic fashion, winning at Daytona and scoring a series-leading nine top-ten finishes. Smith led the standings for the first five races of the season and his season-to-date Driver Rating is 98.9.

Expect to see these three up front every week, as none have finished outside the top-20 so far this season.

Competition is the Biggest Star So Far, Heading into a ‘Break’

Chase Elliott seems the singular star of the first nine races, but overall, the on-track competition has taken center stage during this scintillating start of the season. A brief look at some of the top highlights illustrates the point…

  • Seven different winners in the first nine series races – Chase Elliott (Texas, Darlington) and Kyle Busch (Phoenix, Bristol) are the only two multi-race winners.
  • The average age of the seven different winners in the first nine races is 27-years-old.
  • Nine different Coors Light pole winners in the first nine races, tying 1998 for the most in series history through the first nine races.
  • There are a total of 108 lead changes in the first nine races, averaging 12.0 lead changes per event.
  • There are a total of 55 race leaders in the first nine events, averaging 6.1 leaders per race.
  • The average Margin of Victory (MOV) through the first nine races of 2014 is 0.910 of a second. The closest MOV in 2014 was Daytona at 0.013 of a second.

Additional Nationwide Series Notes

The Nationwide Series teams were testing at Iowa Speedway on Tuesday, May 6th, before their event at Iowa Speedway on May 18th. Several drivers and teams were in attendance including: Brian Scott in the No. 2 for Richard Childress Racing, Trevor Bayne in the No. 6 for Roush Fenway Racing, Chase Elliott and Austin Theriault in the No. 9 for JR Motorsports, Brad Keselowski in the No. 22 for Penske Racing, and Sam Hornish Jr in the No. 54 for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Rookie of the Year candidate, Chris Buescher, posted his career-best finish of second this past weekend at Talladega. Buescher is third in the rookie standings behind Chase Elliott at the lead and Ty Dillon in second.