We see the end of December approaching, we can use these days to reflect on what occurred in 2023. As we did with Formula One, we acknowledge a few achievements from this past NASCAR season. It was the 75th anniversary for the sanctioning body, and a few notable milestones were reached. For a few, it was the final acts for their careers. For others, these were building blocks as drivers attempt to boost their legacies.
Hendrick Motorsports: 301 NASCAR Cup Series Victories
The most successful Cup team already, Hendrick Motorsports had 300 Cup victories in the organization's view from the start of the season. All Hendrick Motorsports needed was nine victories to reach 300, something that was more than achievable. Nine victories is something the team regularly achieves at the Cup level.
When previewing possible milestones before the season began, it was penciled for some time in autumn. When did the ninth victory come?
It was the first race of autumn, September 24, at Texas Motor Speedway, where William Byron won, Byron's sixth victory of the season. Kyle Larson took Hendrick to 301 victories three weeks later at Las Vegas.
It is unexplored territory, and Hendrick Motorsports is the first one there, something that has been rather common in NASCAR.
Denny Hamlin: 51 NASCAR Cup Series Victories
Fifty victories is a significant milestone in the NASCAR Cup Series. It is a short list of the greatest drivers to reach 50 victories. Many great drivers haven't reach 50 victories, though it hasn't been for a lack of skill or effort.
Denny Hamlin had been closing in on 50 victories for a few seasons and he made it his stated desire to reach the milestone mark. He needed two victories to reach 50. His first victory came after a sensational battle with Kyle Larson at Kansas in May. Number 50 came at the location of Hamlin's first career victory, Pocono. It came after another fierce battle with Larson, this one hurt feelings.
Hamlin didn't care. He became the 15th driver to reach 50 career victories. He is only the fourth driver whose career has begun in the last 30 years to reach the mark. Hamlin added his 51st victory at Bristol in September. Sitting 13th all-time, he is three behind Lee Petty and four behind Rusty Wallace with another desired milestone, 60 victories, only nine away. If he reaches 61, Hamlin will enter the top ten.
Ryan Blaney: 100th driver to 300 NASCAR Cup Series Starts
You would think the champion deserves some recognition, and we will give Blaney his moment, but we have already pointed out a few historical notes from his championship season. Instead of rehashing those, let's note something that has not been mentioned about Blaney's career.
His 300th start came at Texas in September, the same day Hendrick Motorsports reached 300 victories coincidentally enough. He became the 100th driver to reach 300 Cup starts! What a fun drop note in history!
Someone had to be the 100th driver to start 300 races. A few drivers are closing in on 300 starts. A series events over the last decade allowed Blaney to be that guy. Does it mean anything? Not really, but 300 starts is a mark, nearly a decade into a career. It shows a driver has some staying power. Kyle Larson surpassed 300 starts earlier this season, but we talk about Larson enough and Blaney won the championship. Blaney gets the spotlight, and with a championship under his belt, he is well on his way to 300 more starts in the Cup Series.
Kyle Busch: 61 Runner-Up Finishes
We mentioned this one prior to this season. No one wants to finish second, but it is also grueling just to finish second. Add second-place finishes to victories, and you get a true sense of a driver's ability. For Kyle Busch, he already had 60 victories and was tied for ninth all-time in victories before the season began. He didn't just one runner-up result to hit 60 runner-up finishes.
That came at Austin in March. In the next road course race at Sonoma in June, Busch was second again, increasing his total to 61. He is now tied with Mark Martin for seventh all-time in runner-up finishes.
How many drivers have at least 60 victories and at least 60 runner-up finishes?
Richard Petty
David Pearson
Bobby Allison
Jeff Gordon
Dale Earnhardt
Kevin Harvick
Kyle Busch
It is seven of the ten drivers that have reached 60 victories, so that actually makes it a little less impressive and makes me more inquisitive about the three drivers that didn't do it (Jimmie Johnson didn't even reach 50 runner-up finishes).
I digress. It is another club membership for Busch.
Chase Elliott: 5000 Laps Led
This was not a great season for Chase Elliott. I doubt Elliott dreamt he would break his leg, miss six races and then miss another race due to a suspension, leading to him to fail to win a race, fail to make the playoffs and take 17th in the final championship standings.
We are looking for a positive from an otherwise disappointing season. Elliott entered this year needing to lead just 100 laps to reach 5,000 laps led in a career. This was by far the fewest laps Elliott has led in a full-time Cup season (195) but he did reach 5,000 laps led.
It came on lap 38 of the Charlotte roval race in October. Elliott became the 44th driver to lead 5,000 laps in NASCAR Cup competition, and he ended the season with 5,095 laps led.
Let's expand this a little further.
Elliott has led 5,095 laps in his first 286 starts. That is an average of 17.814 laps per race. He is on pace to reach 10,000 laps led in his 562nd start (target the 24th race of the 2031 season). Elliott is on pace to reach 700 starts exactly at the midway point of the 2035 season). If he makes it that far, his laps led pace would have him at 12,470 laps.
If he makes it to 828 starts, the same number his father's Bill made (target the second race of the 2039 season when Chase Elliott will be 43 years old, 13 years younger than when his father reached that mark), Chase Elliott is on pace to have led 14,750 laps, 3,337 more than his father and that would have him 12th all-time with probably a few more seasons remaining in his career.
Shane van Gisbergen: Top Ten Finishes in First Two Cup Starts
We all know Shane van Gisbergen won on his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Chicago race this past July. That is rather remarkable, considering how few debutant winners there have been in the Cup Series, and considering the most recent won prior to van Gisbergen was Johnny Rutherford in 1963 when the qualifying races for the Daytona 500 counted toward championship.
However, it wasn't what van Gisbergen did in Chicago that I want to talk about. It is what he did in Indianapolis. Just over a month after his victory, van Gisbergen was back for his second start on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was a respectable drive as the New Zealander finished tenth. It wasn't the breathtaking performance we saw in Chicago, but it showed van Gisbergen could hang with the regulars at a track the Cup drivers at least had a few years of experience racing on.
Tenth doesn't sound like much to brag about, but with that result, van Gisbergen had done something no one had done in nearly 45 years.
Van Gisbergen became the first driver to finish in the top ten of his first two Cup starts since Terry Labonte in 1978!
That was incredible because it feels like somebody would have done it in that time. Many terrific drivers have raced in the Cup Series during that time. Wouldn't it have made sense for it to have happened somewhere between 1978 and 2023? We aren't talking about winning a race like van Gisbergen did. All a driver needed was to finish eighth and ninth in his or her first two starts and that would be enough.
It is a testament to how difficult it is to crack the top ten even if we think it is a rather pedestrian accomplishment in NASCAR.
In case you are wondering, "Who is the most recent driver to have three consecutive top ten finishes to start a Cup career?" The answer is still Terry Labonte. He was fourth in the 1978 Southern 500 (talk about a hell of a way to make a debut), he was seventh at Richmond the following week and then Labonte was ninth at Martinsville two races later.
We can worry about starting four-for-four if van Gisbergen get to three-for-three.
Corey LaJoie: Finished Every Cup Race in a Season
It is almost unthinkable that a driver will finish every race in a NASCAR Cup season. It is 36 races long. With places like Daytona and Talladega, and now Atlanta, sharing more characteristics with roulette wheels than racetracks, you are bound to have one day that ends early. However, that was not the case for Corey LaJoie in 2023. LaJoie was running at the finish of all 36 races this year.
How often does that occur? A little more than you realize, and it has become a common occurrence in recent seasons.
It was the 34th time in Cup Series history, so not quite every other season, but close. Those numbers are misleading as it has happened 31 times since 2000. That is just more than one a season for 24 seasons. LaJoie's season was the 11th time since 2014 a driver has completed every race.
Since 2017, when the damage vehicle policy was introduced, putting cars in accidents on a clock to have the car repaired and back operating at average speed, it has now happened five times.
Joey Logano and Ty Dillon each finished all 36 races in 2019. Kevin Harvick completed every race in 2020 as did Denny Hamlin in 2021 before LaJoie this year.
In case you are wondering what the record is for most consecutive races completed, it is 89, which Greg Biffle set having completed every race from the 2012 Daytona 500 through the 2014 Kentucky race. Biffle streak fittingly ended in the July 2014 Daytona race. LaJoie has completed 41 consecutive races dating back to 2022. He has to go another full season seeing every checkered flag before we can start talking about breaking Biffle's record.
Justin Allgaier: Third All-Time in Top Five Finishes in NASCAR's Second Division
I am dropping this one in here because we ignore the lower division record books, and sometimes you need to take a moment to really look at what is happening.
Allgaier has become a career second division driver. After two season in the Cup Series in 2014 and 2015, Allgaier returned to the second division with JR Motorsports and he has been full-time ever since. He had five full seasons before that, had never finished worse than sixth in the championship and he had three victories.
In the last eight seasons, he has continued to be a regular frontrunner, six times making the final four for the championship race. With that success over such longevity, it should come as no surprise Allgaier has moved up the record book in a number of categories.
In this case, Allgaier's 15 top five finishes in 2023 increased his career total to 143 top five finishes, moving him to third all-time. He surpassed Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth in the record book this season.
Allgaier has a ways to go to reach second. He is 43 behind Kevin Harvick. Kyle Busch holds the record at 226 top five finishes and likely counting.
Allgaier stands out amongst the names Busch, Harvick, Kenseth, Edwards and Keselowski, but Allgaier should be properly recognized. A driver doesn't accidentally end up third all-time in top five finishes. Even if you think it is just longevity, Allgaier's top five finish percentage of 32.65% is still 24th all-time.
The unsung drivers should get their moment when it is due.
Kevin Harvick: 826 NASCAR Cup Series Starts
We must acknowledge the career of Kevin Harvick as 2023 marked the final Cup season of Harvick's career. There are a few notes that encapsulate his career and we should look at those starting with... well, his starts.
Anyone can be the guy who replaces the guy and quickly be forgotten. It is another thing to replace the guy and then go on to have arguably one of the ten best careers in Cup competition.
Harvick could have replaced Dale Earnhardt, had a few high moments but be out of the seat after four or five average seasons, bounce around through teams, win a few more races in his career, maybe make a championship push or two in his career and then retire. Harvick hung around for over two decades. Forget the championship, regular championship top five finisher and 60 victories for a moment, Harvick became only the tenth driver in Cup Series history to start 800 races. He ended eighth all-time.
Since the start of 2001, Harvick only missed two races, the 2001 Daytona 500 and the 2002 spring Martinsville race. He started 784 consecutive races to end his career. The greatest ability is availability, and Harvick was always available, and competing at the highest level.
Harvick: Second Most Times Running at the Finish
Some records are near impossible to get in the NASCAR Cup Series because Richard Petty existed, so if you can end up second to Richard Petty that is almost a record in its own right.
We noted this possible milestone before the end of the season and with Harvick finishing 35 of 36 races this season (the only one he didn't finish was the first Atlanta race), Harvick ends his career running at the finish of 778 races, a finishing percentage of 94.188%. Harvick ended up 57 races shy of Petty's record, at best about one and two-thirds of a season away from possibly surpassing it. Though, Harvick's finishing percentage is 23.665% better than Petty's.
Harvick was brilliant behind the wheel, rarely stepping over the edge or putting himself in a bad position. You could count on him. Twenty-one times he finished at least 30 races in a season. Four times he was running at the finish of every race. Few will come close to his consistency.
Harvick: 251 Top Five Finishes
Harvick did not win in his final season, leaving him on 60 victories, not a bad number to end on. He only had six top five finishes this season, his fewest since five in 2012, but it was enough for Harvick to get to 250 top five finishes, the ninth driver to reach the milestone.
He ended up ninth all-time in top five finishes. His top five percentage was 30.39%, 41st all-time, just behind Charlie Glotzbach and just ahead of Tony Stewart and Joey Logano. Throw in 444 top ten finishes and ranking fifth all-time in that category, Harvick is leaving solidly among the all-time greats and he will remain at the top for some time to come.
