NASCAR XFINITY Series teams are on break this weekend and will return to action at Texas Motor Speedway for the My Bariatric Solutions 300 at 1:30 pm ET on Saturday, April 8th.  Television coverage begins at 1 pm ET on FOX with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Five Different Winners through First Five XFINITY Series Races

This season marks the 14th time in XFINITY Series history the first five races of the season have been won by five different drivers. It’s been 11 years (2006) since the last time the series has seen the feat accomplished. Ryan Reed (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Joey Logano (Las Vegas), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix) and Kyle Larson (Auto Club) are this season’s five different winners. Also of note, five different organizations have also visited Victory Lane – Roush Fenway Racing (Daytona), Joe Gibbs Racing (Atlanta), Team Penske (Las Vegas), JR Motorsports (Phoenix) and Chip Ganassi Racing (Auto Club).  The XFINITY Series record for largest number of different winners in a single season is 18 – set back in 1988. Last season had 14 different winners. The series resumes in all its grandeur at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.

Sadler Opens Up Points Lead Going into First Off Weekend of Season

Over the past three weeks, JR Motorsports veteran and XFINITY Series driver standings leader Elliott Sadler has been accumulating points and distancing himself from the rest of the pack in the 2017 standings. Following Las Vegas, Sadler had a four-point lead over second-place in the series driver standings, then two weeks ago following Phoenix he opened the lead up to 11 points. Now following a seventh-place finish at Auto Club, he is 17 points ahead of his JRM teammate William Byron in second. In five starts this season, Sadler has posted two top fives, four top-tens and an average finish of 9.8. He also has two Stage wins that have produced two playoff points. Sadler’s season-to-date loop data stats also point to why he has been so successful early this season. Among drivers that have made all five starts in 2017, Sadler leads the XFINITY Series in the following categories: driver rating (101.3), average running position (7.870) and laps in the top-15 (768 laps, 91.8%).

Stage Racing Can Pay Big Points in New Enhanced Format

The new enhanced formats this season have brought a lot to the table as far as accumulating points is concerned throughout a XFINITY Series race. Thirteen different NXS drivers have taken advantage of the new system to earn points by finishing inside the top-ten in the first two stages of a race. Week-in and week-out, the Stage points can add up to be quite the advantage. Here is a look at the Stage point accumulators through the first five races of 2017.

Of the thirteen XFINITY Series drivers that have earned points from the first two stages of the first five races, Elliott Sadler has earned the most. He has nearly double the amount (53 points) of his nearest competitor, Justin Allgaier with 28. Sadler’s stage points are a big contributor as to why he has such a large lead in the XFINITY Series driver standings. Sadler has finished inside the top-ten of every Stage except the two at Las Vegas this season. 

XFINITY Series Stats through Five Races

With the NASCAR XFINITY Series taking a break this weekend, let’s look at how this season’s competitors have performed statistically through the first five races:

• Number of Races This Season: 5
• Number of Winners: 5 –  the most since 2006 (5)
• Number of Coors Light Poles winners: 4 – the same number as last season through five races
• Average Number of Leaders: 5.40 – the most since 2015 (6.20)
• Average Number of Lead Changes: 13.60 – the most since 2013 (16.20)
• Average Margin of Victory: 0.459 second – the closest MOV since 2010 (0.420 second)
• All five races this season have had a margin of victory less than a second – the most since the inception of electronic scoring in the XFINITY Series in 1996.
• Percentage of Lead Lap Finishes: 59% – the highest since 2005 (62.3%)