The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season was unprecedented in so many ways that the annual NASCAR post-season awards ceremony being held this weekend in Nashville simply won’t do this year justice alone.
Therefore, Frontstretch has come to award some the greatest and even the downright craziest parts of the 2022 season for your reading and viewing pleasure.
So straighten those bowties, order some champagne and put on that weird fedora that Chase Elliott wears. It’s our time to give out awards for the craziest season in NASCAR history.
The Richard Petty Most Dominant Driver Award
Since we’re on the topic of Elliott … .
While it’s true that Joey Logano ended the year as the Cup champion, there’s no denying that if the series was still under the pre-2004 points system, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports crew would have had everyone beat by a lot.
In fact, the Napa Auto Parts Chevrolet would have second place beat by a massive 53 points — almost a full race ahead.
There’s no doubt Elliott had a lot of those stage points to thank, too, as he also earned the most of those over every other driver with 213. Additionally, he had the highest average finish over the rest of the field by almost a full position with 12.5. The second-most was 13.3.
Elliott’s dominance in 2022 doesn’t stop there, either. The Georgian also led the most laps over everyone else with 857 over Logano’s 784 and has arguably the most important stat of all: the most wins.
In a year when competition seemed tighter than ever in the modern era of NASCAR, wins were hard to come by for all drivers in the field, yet the No. 9 had earned the most with five and, for a couple weeks, seemed to be emerging as the team to beat in 2022.
While Elliott walked away with only the regular-season championship rather than the full title, he also won his fifth consecutive Most Popular Driver award, so we can add that to the list, too.
You can sound the si-reen again!@chaseelliott wins the 2022 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award presented by @Hooters! pic.twitter.com/4PPjDbCy0J
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) December 2, 2022
The Jimmy Spencer “Mr. Excitement” Award
Logano may have won the championship, and Elliott may have won the races, but Ross Chastain stole the show.
It was never in question if the watermelon farmer was an aggressive racecar driver or not going into 2022, and based on his track record of controversial moments this year, it likely will never be.
Even his first win didn’t…
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