This is usually the point in the NASCAR season when people talk about how we’re past the craziness of SpeedWeeks at Daytona and it’s time to move on to the “real season.”
Except this season, that’s really not the case. We still have so much to learn about all the changes made to the cars for speedway races. Even after Atlanta, there are still a lot of unknowns as the Cup series rolls into Las Vegas this week.
Early returns are positive on the new setup, especially when it comes from a statistical perspective. And that’s sort of how I make my living.
There were 26 lead changes in Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Last season, there were zero races with 26 or more lead changes in a race at any track. And going back further, taking the restrictor-plate affairs at Daytona and Talladega out of the question, there was only one such race in 2016 and 2017 combined: the November 2017 race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Here are three drivers who stole the headlines last weekend at Atlanta:
Busch adds another record
It was an up-and-down Cup race for Kyle Busch. He started at the rear in a backup car, raced to as high as second, and then finished sixth. His attempt to join Richard Petty and Matt Kenseth as the only drivers to win in their 600th career starts came up short, but Busch still made history last weekend.
Busch won Saturday’s Truck series race, giving him 52 career wins in that series, breaking a tie with Ron Hornaday for the series record.
That is in addition to his 92 career Xfinity Series wins — he has 45 more than any other driver in that series (dating to 1982).
Overall, Busch is up to 195 wins in the three NASCAR National Series, putting him five away from Petty’s record — and one of the most hotly contested debates in NASCAR history.
Keselowski keeps the streak alive
The toughman award for the weekend belongs to Brad Keselowski, who went from losing 5 to 6 pounds in a 10-hour span due to a stomach illness Saturday to celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday.
Last year, Keselowski didn’t win until the 25th race of the season. Of course, he then won the 25th, 26th and 27th races. But this year, he seems locked into a playoff spot a little earlier than in 2018.
In doing so, he extended his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to nine. The only other drivers with active streaks of nine-plus years are Kevin Harvick (nine straight entering 2019) and Kyle Busch (14 straight entering 2019).
He still has a ways to go to catch the record holder, Petty, who won a race for 18 straight years from 1960 to 1977.
Larson’s tough luck
Kyle Larson led a race-high 142 laps but couldn’t snap his winless streak, which now sits at 48 races, with seven runner-up finishes in that span. But it hasn’t been for a lack of running up front.
Since Larson’s last win, he has led 1,305 laps, the fourth most in the series behind Harvick (2,318), Kyle Busch (2,180) and Martin Truex Jr. (1,627).
However, the three drivers in front of him each have won at least eight times over those 48 races, with a combined 28 wins between them.
Sunday was the ninth time Larson has led more than 110 laps in a race. He hasn’t won a single one of those. In his five career Cup wins, Larson has led 110, 96, 53, 41 and two laps.