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 Las Vegas, Nevada for The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.    Las Vegas is a 1.5-mile tri-oval speedway.  It opened in 1971, though O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races didn’t start taking place there until 1997.  Jeff Green won the first race there in this series.  Justin Allgaier won this race last year in the spring, and Ari

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:   Kyle Larson – This week: 10 – Last week: 12 Larson joked that he seems to always finish P3 at Phoenix, and it is kind of true.  He’s finished third at Phoenix six times over the course of hi

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games!   If you’re new here, this year I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet throughout the season as we follow along.   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. 

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images By Adam Carabine Ryan Blaney overcame the odds to break Tyler Reddick’s winning streak, and wins for the second time in a row at Phoenix Raceway.    Blaney suffered through much adversity all day long, but clearly had one of the best cars and managed to make his way back to the front to cross the finish line first.    Lap 1: Logano starts on the pole, with Kyle Larson beside him to start the race.    Lap 40: A fairly uneventful start to th

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Avondale, Arizona for the Straight Talk Wireless 500 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 Cup Series didn’t start racing there until 1988.  Alan Kulw

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

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images By Adam Carabine Tyler Reddick became the first driver in NASCAR history to make it back-to-back-to-back wins to start the NASCAR Cup Series Season!   Reddick started strong, earning the pole in qualifying.  Through Stage One, he maybe went too easy on his car, trying to save tires, but was able to adjust his pace and eventually held off road-course wizard, Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG) for the win.    Lap 1: Reddick started the race on pole, but

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels to Austin, Texas for the DuraMAX Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, or COTA.   The portion of the track that NASCAR uses at COTA is a 17-turn 2.4-mile road course.  The facility opened in 2012, and NASCAR first visited in 2021. Christopher Bell won this race last year.   Tomorrow’s race will be 95 laps long (for a total of 223.82 mi

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 Austin, Texas for the Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas, or COTA.   The portion of the track that NASCAR uses at COTA is a 17-turn 2.4-mile road course.  The facility opened in 2012, and NASCAR first visited in 2021.  Kyle Busch won the first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (Xfinity) race there that year.  Connor Zilisc

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, you might be familiar with the Cup Series’ Stats Saturday article, but this year we are branching it out to the Top 3 Series.  It’s now time for another Truck Stats Thursday. This weekend the Craftsman Truck Series travels to St. Petersburg, Florida for the OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 at the St. Petersburg Street Circuit.   The Street Circuit at St. Petersburg is a 14-turn 1.8-mile course that takes over some streets, as well as one of th

Photo by Sean Gardner/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:   Joey Logano – This week: 10 – Last week: 8 Logano might not have finished as well as his P3 at Daytona the previous week, but he had a solid day in Atlanta.  He led 26 laps, earned some stage

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine Tyler Reddick makes it back-to-back wins to start the 2026 NASCAR Cup Season!   Despite some earlier damage, and no front right fender, Reddick was able to make his way back up to the front for a Double-Overtime win at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta.   Lap 1: Due to rained out qualifying, the math-based qualifying metric was used, and last week’s winner Tyler Reddick started on the pole.   Lap 4: Joey Logano and Reddick we

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:   Noah Gragson – This week: 10 – Last week: -- How about a nice start to the season for Noah Gragson? He started with screwing up his qualifying attempt, but rebounded nicely.  He earned poi

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images By Adam Carabine Tyler Reddick reigned supreme at The Great American Race.  Time for a quick recap of the notable moments!   The Daytona 500 initially got moved up an hour to avoid some potential inclement weather.  They were able to get the entire race in with no rain.   Lap 3 In honour of the 25 th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s passing, the fans stood silently with three fingers in the air.  Commentary on FOX was quiet for the whole lap