Stats show Busch well on his way to first Cup title

By Official Release
July 18, 2008
03:11 PM EDT

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Few could have predicted this from Kyle Busch. Sure, he has shown in the past that he's capable of winning. But to this degree?

Take last year for instance. Check out his numbers through 19 races this season, compared to the same stretch last season:

Kyle Busch

Loop Data stats through 19 races (2007 vs. 2008)

Year	Wins	Avg. Fin.	Avg. Running Pos.	Fastest Laps Run	Laps Top 15%	Driver Rating	Laps Led

2007	1	15.5	12.7	195	71.2%	96.5	155
2008	7	9.5	9.6	440	76.9%	111.2	1,065

Busch is significantly up in every single statistical category. The only stat where the numbers are remotely close is Laps in the Top 15 percentage, and that's mainly due to Busch's Pocono performance. He ran zero of the 200 laps inside the top 15 because of a Lap 47 accident that all but ended his day.

Arguably more telling, in terms of Fastest Laps Run and Laps Led, Busch has already eclipsed his numbers from all of last season. In 36 races in 2007, Busch had 426 Fastest Laps Run and 637 Laps Led. Busch already has 14 more Fastest Laps Run and a stunning 428 more Laps Led.

With his win at Chicagoland, Busch became the 17th driver to win at least seven races in the first 19 events. Eleven of the previous 16 went on to win the Cup Series championship (the last to do so was Jeff Gordon in 1997), two others (Cale Yarborough in 1974 and Bill Elliott in 1985) finished second.

The other three -- David Pearson in 1973 and 1976; Junior Johnson in 1965 -- did not run a full season and finished outside the top five.

Here are the drivers who won the championship after winning at least seven of the first 19 races:

Cup Series Champions

Drivers who won sevenof first 19 races and the championship

Name	Number of wins	Season

Herb Thomas	7	1954
Buck Baker	8	1956
Richard Petty	8	1967
David Pearson	7	1968
Richard Petty	9	1971
Richard Petty	8	1975
Cale Yarborough	7	1977
Darrell Waltrip	7	1981
Darrell Waltrip	7	1982
Dale Earnhardt	8	1987
Jeff Gordon	7	1997

Busch has been near-flawless in each of his seven wins. In his victories, only once has he failed to score higher than a Driver Rating of 100.0 (Talladega). Check out his race logs for his seven wins:

Kyle Busch

2008 Loop Data stats in his seven wins

Track	Avg. Running Pos.	Fastest Laps Run	Laps Top 15%	Laps Led	Driver Rating

Atlanta	1.7	56	100	173	143.9
Talladega	18.1	5	42	12	90.8
Darlington	4.8	56	95.1	169	138.6
Dover	1.9	62	100	158	139.5
Infineon	5.9	26	80.4	78	147.6
Daytona	8.5	4	81.5	31	119.3
Chicagoland	2.8	47	99.6	165	146.3
Total	6.2	256	85.5	786	132.3