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 my version lasts all season long.    Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by Jacob Kupferman/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:   Bubba Wallace – This week: 10 – Last week: 9 Despite losing another spot in the Power Rankings, this was a nice bounce-back race for Bubba Wallace after a bad one in Martinsville a few wee

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine We’ve got a new first-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series! After a fairly intense day at Bristol, the young grandson of JGR owner Joe Gibbs, Ty Gibbs came away with his first victory in the Cup Series.  He wasn’t dominant, but maximized a late-race strategy call to get the win, stymieing Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson along the way.   Let’s have a look at how it all shook down!   Lap 1: Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney takes the g

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Bristol, Tennessee for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.   Bristol is a 0.533-mile short track oval, with a concrete surface and heavy banking in the corners.  The track was built in 1961, and has been a staple on the Cup Series calendar ever since.  Jack Smith won the first Cup race there that same year.  Christopher Bell won the

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 Bristol, Tennessee for the Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.    Bristol is a 0.533-mile short track oval, with a concrete surface and heavy banking in the corners.  The track was built in 1961, and has been a staple on the O’Reilly Series calendar since its inception in 1982.  Phil Parsons won the first O’Reilly

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 Bristol, Tennessee for the Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.   Bristol is a 0.533-mile short track oval, with a concrete surface and heavy banking in the corners.  The track was built in

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 my version lasts all season long.    Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by David Jensen/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: 9 It was neither a dominant nor a terrible performance from Kyle Larson at Martinsville.  Larson can be hit or miss, where he’s crashing out early, or

Photo from www.x.com/f1 By Ryan Wu Clearly not satisfied with ‘just’ being one of the youngest drivers to win an F1 Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli can now add ‘The first teenager to win back-to-back races’ and the youngest ever Championship leader to his resume. Not bad for a driver who won’t even be legally allowed to drink at the location of the next race in Miami. Oscar Piastri rebounded beautifully with a second-placed finish (and completed his first Grand Prix lap of the sea

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Ridgeway, Virginia for the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway   Martinsville is a 0.526-mile oval track, nicknamed “The Paperclip,” because of its uniquely tight corners and longer straightaways.  It opened in 1947, with Red Byron winning the first NASCAR race there in 1949.  Denny Hamlin and William Byron won the races at this track last

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 Ridgeway, Virginia for the NFPA 250 at Martinsville Speedway.    Martinsville is a 0.526-mile oval track, nicknamed “The Paperclip,” because of its uniquely tight corners and longer straightaways.  It opened in 1947, though O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races started taking place the same year the series started – 1982.  Sam Ard

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 my version lasts all season long.    Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/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:   Chris Buescher – This week: 10 – Last week: 13 It was a great day, not just for Chris Buescher, but for the entire RFK Team, as they at one point were running 1-2-3.  Buescher had a very

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine 2026 has shown that the key to success is how well you can battle adversity.  Tyler Reddick, battling alternator issues all day long, gambled on tire strategy and earned his fourth win of this young season.   Reddick earned the pole, but within the first two laps he noticed that he was having some voltage issues.  He was unable to run his cool suit, had to run with less throttle at times to preserve power, and at one poi

Photo from www.x.com/f1 By Ryan Wu It was a day to forget for McLaren as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were unable to start the race. The nightmare start to the 2026 season continued for Piastri as he has not completed a single grand prix lap in the first two races of this year. Kimi Antonelli achieved his maiden Formula 1 victory and became the second youngest driver to do so. His teammate George Russell and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium places. For Hamilton, t

LAS VEGAS (March 15, 2026) —  Denny Hamlin rallied from a mid-race pit road speeding penalty to capture his 61st career victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400, moving into sole possession of 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. Photo: Elvin Anderson Jr. Driving the No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin charged through the field after the penalty and reclaimed the lead late at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The speed was evident throughout the weekend. Hamlin topped Saturday’

LAS VEGAS (March 14, 2026) —  Kyle Larson capitalized on a late restart to win Saturday’s LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning his first victory of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season. Photo: Elvin Anderson Jr. Driving the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports , Larson positioned himself among the leaders after a late caution reset the field and created an opportunity to attack on fresh tires. “I left pit road third or fourth of the guys o

LAS VEGAS (March 14) — Christopher Bell won the pole Saturday for the Pennzoil 400, turning the fastest lap in qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bell drove his No. 20 Toyota to qualifying a lap under 29 seconds, beating the field by more than a tenth of a second. Photo Credit: Elvin Anderson Jr. “We had a lot of grip and I held my foot down,” Bell said. “My team hit their P’s and Q’s.” Bell said the lap-time jump from practice to qualifying was typical when teams switch

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