Daniel Céspedes

As NASCAR Insights cited, the battle for the Regular Season championship hasn't been so close this late into the season since 2012. However, William Byron led the series with a 37-point cushion coming into July.

Here's how the gap to the leader has evolved over the last 5 races:

Average Finish of every Cup team's best-finishing driver from each race:

This weekend, Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace each reached 100 races without a win. It's the longest winless streak of Wallace's career, and the second longest of Jones's (109).

The 10 longest active winless streaks in the Cup Series:

5 for each win, 1 for each stage win. At the end of the regular season drivers are also awarded playoff points for their position in the standings.

Playoff Points of every Cup driver through 20 races:

Cup Series Playoff Picture over the last 10 races:

Now that we're 20 races into the Cup season, here's how many points every driver earned in each 5-race segment so far:

Every driver's Average Finish vs. Average Start on road courses this season (through 3 races):

Given the current discussion surrounding how much we should see of certain track types on the Cup schedule, here's the share of Cup races each track type has had every season from 1990 until now.

Following Chicago, each track type has now seen 3+ races this season (counting Phoenix as a short track).

Here's every driver's Average Finish by track type so far:

Over the last nine races, Erik Jones has scored 101 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 points than he did during the first nine - by far the biggest improvement of anyone in the Cup Series.

Every driver's point differential between the first and last nine races this season:

Stats at Road Courses over the last 10 races:

Average Finish vs. Average Running Position / Average points earned

Every Cup driver's Average Finish & Average Running Position halfway through the season.

Kinda wild how tight the field is.

Cup Series Driver Points comparison between teammates (through 18 races):

Brad Keselowski's 2nd place finish in Atlanta marked the 5th time in the Next Gen era that he's finish 2nd at a drafting track.

Below are all the drivers multiple 2nd place finishes at Next Gen drafting tracks, and of them, Brad is the only one still without a win.

We're officially halfway through the NASCAR Cup Series season.

Here's how many points every driver has this year compared to this time last year

Biggest gains 📈:
Smith: +172
Preece: +130
Jones: +100

Biggest losses 📉:
Keselowski: -201
Gibbs: -157
Suarez: -69

Average Running Position by race phase at drafting tracks this season:

Xfinity Series: Average Finish vs. Average Running Position at the three drafting races this season

Percentage of laps led by each driver at Atlanta in the Next Gen era:

How many times each Cup driver has been the best finisher among their teammates this season:

33,018 laps have been run in the Next Gen era.

55% of them have been led by either a Hendrick or a JGR car.

Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports each reached 500 entries in the Next Gen car yesterday.

A comparison of their Next Gen stats so far:

Xfinity Series running position heat map

Bright Red = Where driver has run the most laps
White = Where driver has run the fewest laps

Sorted by average running position

5-lap averages from today's Cup practice at Pocono:

Top 10s vs. Average percentage of laps run in the Top 10 this season:

Average of every driver's Top 25 lap times at each Pocono race in the Next Gen era:

Yup! He’s the next best, but like you said, he starts worse so it makes sense. All three TH cars are actually up there haha

Ross Chastain has finished a total of 110 positions better than his starting positions at Intermediates this season; that's 46 positions better than anyone else in the field.

Next Gen stats at Pocono:

Average Finish vs. Average Running Position / Average points earned

Austin Dillon's 6th place finish in Stage 2 at Mexico City means every full-time driver has now officially scored stage points this season.

Stage points earned by each driver so far: