Matt Willis

This week, Denny Hamlin will make his 700th Cup start at Nashville. Last week, Jimmie Johnson made his 700th at Charlotte, finishing 40th, 2nd-worst in a 700th start of the 21 drivers to reach 700 (Ken Schrader, 41st). The best is 3rd by Jeff Gordon at Darlington in 2013.

Some late fun from Coke 600: Ross Chastain was 4th known driver in Cup history to win starting 40th or worse. Last 2 in "Soda" races - 2012 Coke Zero 400 (Daytona): Tony Stewart (42nd) - 1953 Raleigh 300: Fonty Flock (43rd) - 1950 Southern 500 (Darlington): Johnny Mantz (43rd)

4 leaders today ties fewest in Darlington race in Modern Era (since 1972). Each time a Gibbs driver got the win. May 2013: Kyle Busch 265, Kurt Busch 69, Matt Kenseth (winner) 17, Jeff Gordon 16 Today: William Byron 243, Tyler Reddick 42, Denny Hamlin (winner) 10, Ryan Blaney 2

Denny Hamlin's 56 wins are easily the most of a driver to never win a Cup title. The next most are Junior Johnson (50), Mark Martin (40) and Fireball Roberts (33).

William Byron led 243 of 297 laps (81.8%) of laps today, the 3rd-highest pct of laps led by a non-winner in the last 10 seasons. - Kevin Harvick (89.9%) - 2017 Atlanta - Kyle Larson (82.8%) - 2021 Atlanta

William Byron trying to be the 4th driver to lead every lap of a Cup Series race in the Modern Era (since 1972) - 2000 Jeff Burton at New Hampshire - 1978 Cale Yarborough at Nashville Fairgrounds - 1973 Cale Yarborough at Bristol

4 drivers have won at least 3 of the first 4 points races of a Cup season. - 2024 Christopher Bell - 2018 Kevin Harvick (8 wins, finished 3rd in pts) - 1992 Bill Elliott (5 wins, 2nd in pts) - 1954 Herb Thomas (12 wins, 2nd in pts)

Thanks to back-to-back drafting race, we've had 50+ lead changes in the 1st 2 races of the season. That's the first time in the Modern Era that it's happened in consecutive races.

In NASCAR Cup Series (known) history (some races without laps led data), there's been 30 races where the winner led only the final lap. - 21 have been since 2003 - There was 1 in the entire 1990s - There was 1 in the entire 1980s - There was 0 in the entire 1970s

Bubba Wallace's 24.891 sec final lap was the slowest final lap time among drivers to finish 475+ laps by more than 2 seconds. Christopher Bell's 22.506 sec was the 3rd-slowest (Haley: 22.602). To compare, Ryan Blaney's final lap was a 21.407.

Chase Elliott has won twice in the 6 races held at the Charlotte Roval. In the Modern Era (since 1972), only one driver has won at least 3 of the first 7 races at a single track. Brad Keselowski at Kentucky.

The last 3 Talladega races have featured 66+ lead changes. Previously, no Cup Series race has had that many since the October 2011 at Talladega. 10 of the 11 Cup races with 66+ lead changes have taken place at Talladega. Other was 2011 Daytona 500 w/tandem drafting.

There's been 4 Cup races on 1.5-mile tracks (not including Atlanta) this season. Kyle Larson has only run 3 of them. He's won 2, and has led nearly 200 more laps on those tracks than any other driver. Larson: 321 LL (2 wins) Hamlin: 124 LL (0 wins) Bell: 96 LL (1 win)

Kyle Larson led 92.4% of laps last week at Bristol, the highest in a Cup race since Martin Truex Jr. led 92.8% at Martinsville in Oct. 2019. It's the highest for a Bristol winner since Cale Yarborough led 495 of 500 (99%) in April 1977. He won that race by 7 laps!

Tyler Reddick is riding a streak of 7 straight finishes of 6th or better. Since 2000, only 2 drivers have had 8-race top-6 streaks within a single season, and both came in 2020. - Kevin Harvick (9 straight) - Martin Truex Jr. (8 straight)

Thanks to @SiriusXMNASCAR & @PPistone for having me to talk NASCAR Fantasy. In case you missed it, here's some tidbits. - The last 10 drafting races, the perfect #DraftKings lineup has cost $45,560. - The last 5 years, the best starting positions by pts per race: 36-24-33-40-27

4 drivers have won the Brickyard 400, Daytona 500, Southern 500 and Coke 600 (fma World 600). Harvick, Johnson, Earnhardt, Gordon. Denny Hamlin can become the 5th with a win on Sunday. Ky. Busch & Keselowski need a Daytona 500 to complete the feat.