Numbers Don’t Lie: Phoenix

Beginning this week, we are changing the format of the “Numbers Don’t Lie” segment just a bit. The idea is to make it a little more fun and informative at the same time. We hope you enjoy!

It’s Phoenix time already, and you know what that means? Cue the Harvick hype and how awesome he is at ISM Raceway. Well, in this case, the numbers really don’t lie. They just as well rename the place “Kevin Harvick Raceway” and it would be appropriate. Lets see what Happy has done in the desert:

ISM RACEWAY (Formerly Phoenix International Raceway)

IRONMAN AWARD (for the active driver with the most starts)

1^st Place: Ryan Newman with 31 starts

2^nd Place: (tie) Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick with 30 starts

3^rd Place: (tie) Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray with 29 starts

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN AWARD (for the active driver with the highest winning percentage; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Kevin Harvick overwhelmingly wins this category with eight wins, or a whopping 46.67%, nearly double that of second place.

2^nd Place: Jimmie Johnson with four wins, equaling 13.79%

3^rd Place: Ryan Newman has two wins at ISM, 6.45%

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR AWARD (for the active driver with the highest Top-10 finishes percentage; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Jimmie Johnsons 20 top-10 finishes gives him 68.97%

2^nd Place: Kyle Busch, after 25 starts, the younger Busch brother has 17 top-10’s or 68.0%

3^rd Place: Kevin Harvick (there’s that name again) has 19 top-10’s for a total of 63.33%

EVEN CLOSER BUT STILL NO CIGAR AWARD (for the active driver with the highest top-5 finishes percentage; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Jimmie Johnson has 15 top-5’s which equates to 51.72%

2^nd Place: Kevin Harvick has finished in the top-5 14 times, 46.67%

3^rd Place: Denny Hamlin. Denny’s 25 starts and 10 top-5’s gives him 40.0%

EAT MY DUST AWARD (for the active driver with the highest laps led percentage; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Kevin Harvick (come on Kevin, now your just showing off). Of the possible 9,341 laps Harvick has led 1,484 or 15.89%

2^nd Place: Alex Bowman (wait…what?) The young gun from Arizona has completed 1,385 laps of which he led 194 making 14.01%. To be fair, all of these laps led were in one race, when he substituted for an injured Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in 2016, and lost in a heartbreaker. But, nonetheless he has fulfilled the criteria for this list.

3^rd Place: Jimmie Johnson. Johnson refuses to go away quietly and just let Harvick have all the glory. He has led 990 of a possible 8,743 laps, or 11.32%

“I’M GOING FAST” AWARD (for the active driver with the best average start; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Kyle Larson, with an average start of 6.2

2^nd Place: Denny Hamlin, with an average start of 11.8

3^rd Place: Kyle Busch, with an average start of 11.4

MR. or MRS. CONSISTENCY AWARD (for the active driver with the best average finish; 5 or more starts required)

1^st Place: Kevin Harvick (I know, I’m just as surprised as you are), with an average finish of 9.7

2^nd Place: Jimmie Johnson, with an average finish of 10.0

3^rd Place: Denny Hamlin, with an average finish of 11.8