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stridsberry
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From "Strap In!" column by Big Bigelow
Strap In!
You wouldn’t think being a big dollar Cup team, that when unloading before qualifying at a track on Friday morning, your goal would be to finish on the lead lap in the coming race on Sunday. But after looking at the results for the season’s first six races that seems to be a lofty goal for most teams.
In the first six events if every car that started finished on the lead lap the total number would be 258 (43 x 6) cars. Would you believe that only 80 cars have done so? That’s only 31 percent.
If you don’t count Daytona, (33 of 43) where the track is two and a half miles long and they only ran half the race then the number drops to 47 lead lap cars of the maximum of 215 (43 x 5) cars. For those of you scoring at home that’s a grand total of 21.8 percent.
Or look at it like this. If you were the last car on the lead lap for all six races you’d have finishes of 33, 11, 11, 9, 10 and 6th. Your point total (without bonus points) would be 751. That would put you in fifth place. That’s right fifth place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in fifth now with 749 points.
Heck you’d only be 185 points behind leader Matt Kenseth and he has four top 5s and 5 top 10s. Or better yet, you’d only be 46 behind Kurt Busch who is in second. And remember that’s without any bonus points.
rest of story and more
Strap In!
You wouldn’t think being a big dollar Cup team, that when unloading before qualifying at a track on Friday morning, your goal would be to finish on the lead lap in the coming race on Sunday. But after looking at the results for the season’s first six races that seems to be a lofty goal for most teams.
In the first six events if every car that started finished on the lead lap the total number would be 258 (43 x 6) cars. Would you believe that only 80 cars have done so? That’s only 31 percent.
If you don’t count Daytona, (33 of 43) where the track is two and a half miles long and they only ran half the race then the number drops to 47 lead lap cars of the maximum of 215 (43 x 5) cars. For those of you scoring at home that’s a grand total of 21.8 percent.
Or look at it like this. If you were the last car on the lead lap for all six races you’d have finishes of 33, 11, 11, 9, 10 and 6th. Your point total (without bonus points) would be 751. That would put you in fifth place. That’s right fifth place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in fifth now with 749 points.
Heck you’d only be 185 points behind leader Matt Kenseth and he has four top 5s and 5 top 10s. Or better yet, you’d only be 46 behind Kurt Busch who is in second. And remember that’s without any bonus points.
rest of story and more
