By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of O’Reilly Stats Friday. This weekend the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels to Avondale, Arizona for the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway.   Phoenix is a 1-mile oval with a signature dogleg just past the start/finish line.  It served as the Championship Race for the past six years, though that has changed in 2026.  The track opened in 1964, but the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series didn’t start racing there until 19

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games!   We are now three races into the 2026 season, and I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet.   BRACKET GAMES These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but it lasts all season long.    Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from myself.  Each week, whichever d

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture.  StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10:   Michael McDowell – This week: 10 – Last week: 23 McDowell is great at the drafting tracks, and at road courses.  After the first two races of the year didn’t go his way (he finished P22 and

Pre-season testing in Bahrain - Photo from www.x.com/f1 By Ryan Wu As pre-season testing has wrapped up and attention turns to the season opener in Melbourne this weekend, I will revisit my bold, and wildly inaccurate, predictions from last year. I will give myself an accuracy score and offer some new predictions for this season that will hopefully prove to be more accurate. McLaren will remain as the main title competitor to Red Bull for another season but will ultimately f