After a multi-year hiatus, Stat Sheet is back as weekly column for NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season in 2023.
But before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve and all attention turns toward the countdown to the Clash at the Coliseum and the Daytona 500 in February, it’s time to take a look at the most intriguing statistics of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Parity galore
- The Next Gen car provided the Cup Series with 19 winners in 2022, which tied the all-time record for most winners in a season. Previously, 19 winners was most recently accomplished in 2001.
- No one led more than 1,000 laps all season, as Chase Elliott led the way with 857. That makes 2022 the first year since the beginning of the series’ modern era in 1972 when no one hit quadruple digits. The previous low came in the 2002 season, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the way with 1,068 circuits out front. The last time no one led more than 1,000 was 1960, a year when lap-leader breakdowns are not available for every race.
- Elliott led all full-time drivers with an average finish of 12.5, a new low in the modern era. Last season once again beat out 2002, when the best average finish was 12.2 by Mark Martin.
Milestone victories
- 2022 produced five first-time winners (Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick), the first such season since 2011.
- By winning at Phoenix Raceway, Briscoe became the 200th driver to score a Cup win.
- With a win in the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race, Kyle Busch tied Richard Petty’s record of 18 consecutive winning seasons. Busch will have a chance to stand alone with 19 straight in 2023.
- Busch and Kevin Harvick became the ninth and 10th drivers, respectively, to score 60 Cup wins. Of the 10 drivers to reach 60, four of them (Petty, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Harvick) won 59 and 60 in back-to-back races.
- Kurt Busch and Harvick became the seventh and eighth drivers, respectively, to win a Cup race more than 20 years after their maiden triumph.
| Driver | First Win | Last/Most Recent Win | Timespan |
| Richard Petty | Feb. 28, 1960 | July 4, 1984 | 24 years, 158 days |
| Terry Labonte | Sept. 1, 1980 | Aug. 31, 2003 | 22 years, 364 days |
| Bobby Allison | July 12, 1966 | Feb. 14, 1988 | 21 years, 217 days |
| Dale Earnhardt | April 1, 1979 | Oct. 15, 2000 | 21 years, 197 days |
| Jeff Gordon | May 29, 1994 | Nov. 1, 2015 | 21 years, 156 days |
| Kevin Harvick | March 11, 2001 | Aug. 14, 2022 | 21 years, 156 days |
| Cale Yarborough | June 27, 1965 | Oct. 6, 1985 | Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…
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