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In one of my last articles, I brought up the
question of whether or not organizations that field multiple
cars have an advantage over organizations that have only one car
racing on the NASCAR circuit. For the answer to that, I decided
to do a little statistical analysis of the results of the first
8 races of this season.
2-car Organizations
First, let’s look at the organizations that run 2
cars.
The first two teams I came across aren’t
really multiple car teams. Bill Davis Racing has two cars
on paper, but when you consider that Bill Lester has only driven
the #23 car in one race, finishing 38th at Atlanta,
you can hardly consider that a full time ride. So in reality,
Bill Davis racing is a single car operation, with an occasional
second car. So, let’s leave them out of the multi-car
organizations for now.
Same thing goes for Front Row Motorsports. They
technically have 2 cars in their organization. But between the
two of them, they’ve only run in three races. So, let’s leave
them out for the time being as well.
That leaves Penske, Petty, and Yates as the 2-car
organizations. So how have they fared this year?
Penske Racing has 16 starts this season. 8 for
Kurt Busch’s #2 car, and 8 for Ryan Newman’s #12. Of those 16
starts, Penske has tallied 1 win, 2 top 5 finishes, and 3 top
10s. That means 19% of the time, they finish in the top ten or
better. Their average finish as a team is 23.0.
Petty Enterprises, with the #43 driven by Bobby
Labonte, and the #45 driven by Kyle Petty, also has 16 starts
this season, 8 for each car. But they haven’t fared as well in
their starts, tallying only 2 top 10s, with an average finish of
25.8.
Robert Yates Racing is next, with Elliot Sadler
in the #38 and Dale Jarrett in the #88. In their 16 starts.
they have no wins, and only 1 top 5, but they finish in the top
10 25% of the time. (That’s four top 10s, for those keeping
score). Their average finish is inside the top 20, at 17.9.
MB2 Motorsports is technically a three-car team,
but one of those cars, Bill Elliot in the #136, has driven only
once, finishing 19th at Daytona. But their other two
drivers, Joe Nemechek in the #01 car, and Sterling Marlin in the
#14 car, have each competed in all 8 races this year. So, even
without Bill Elliot’s effort, they’re still a multi-car team.
With 17 total starts, they only have 1 top 10 finish, and an
average finish of just 25.1
3-car teams
Of the teams fielding 3 cars, Chip Ganassi Racing
is the one with the least success so far this year. Their 24
total starts - 8 by Reed Sorenson in the #41, 8 by David
Stremme in the #40, and 8 by Casey Mears in the #42 – have
amounted to only 1 top 5, and 4 top 10 finishes, with an average
finish of 23.5. That doesn’t sound too bad, until you consider
that they’re the only team with three or more cars to have an
average finish outside the top 20.
Dale Earnhardt Inc, aka DEI, is one of the most
successful, although they aren’t really a three car team,
either. They’re in the same boat as MB2. Martin Truex Jr has
started all 8 races in the #1 car, as has Dale Earnhardt Jr in
the #8. But Paul Menard has started only one race in the #15.
He did. However, finish 7th in that effort at
Atlanta. Overall, those 17 starts have garnered 2 top 5s, and 5
top 10s. So, 29% of the time, they finish in the top 10. And
their average finish is just inside the top 15 at 14.9.
Everham Motors has a total of 23 starts so far, 8
for Kasey Kahne in the #9 car, 8 for Jeremy Mayfield in the #19,
and 7 for Scott Riggs in the #10 car. From those starts, they
have tallied 2 wins, 4 top 5s, and 8 top 10s. Checking my
calculator, that means they’re in the top 5 17% of the time, and
the top 10 35% of the time. They average a 19.4 finish.
Joe Gibbs Racing has 24 starts this season, with
8 each from Denny Hamlin (#11), J.J. Yeley (#18) and Tony
Stewart (#20). They’ve totaled 1 win, 6 top 5s (25% of their
starts) and 8 top 10s (33% of their starts) with an average
finish of 19.2.
Richard Childress Racing has 8 starts each from
Clint Bowyer (#07), Kevin Harvick (#29) and Jeff Burton (#31).
Those 24 starts have given RCR 1 win, 5 top 5s (21%) and a
whopping 10 top 10s (that’s 42% of their starts) and an average
finish of 16.5.
The
Largest Teams
Hendrick Motorsports started the year as a 4-car
team with Kyle Busch (#5), Jeff Gordon (#24), Brian Vickers
(#25) and Jimmie Johnson (#48). But they added a fifth car at
Texas in the form of Terry Labonte (#44). That gives them a
grand total of 33 starts for the season. Out of those starts,
they’ve tallied 2 wins, 9 top 5s, and 16 top 10s. That means
27% of the time, they finish in the top 5, and almost half
of their starts (48%) result in top 10 finishes. The average
finish for the team as a whole is 14.3.
Roush Racing has done almost as well with its 5
cars, Mark Martin (#6), Greg Biffle (#16), Matt Kenseth (#17),
Jamie McMurray (#26) and Carl Edwards (#99). Even with the
highly publicized “struggles” of McMurray and Edwards, and the
blown engines, unavoidable wrecks, and lack of fuel plaguing
Biffle this season, they’ve still managed some fairly impressive
numbers. Their 40 starts have garnered 1 win, 9 top 5s (that’s
23% of their starts), and 17 top 10s (43% of their starts). On
average, they finish 16.8 place.
Independents:
So, what about the “Independents”? These are the
teams that have only one car. Some of them run every race, or
almost every race. Some only race once all year long. But none
of them have other cars in their organizations.
At first, you might think these are young drivers
that no one wants to take a chance on, or unknowns that haven’t
proven themselves. But that’s not the case. There are some
fairly experienced drivers in this list. They include Jeff
Green (Haas CNC Racing), Robby Gordon (Robby Gordon Motorsports),
Michael Waltrip (Waltrip-Jasper Racing), Scott Wimmer
(Morgan-McClure MS), Travis Kvapil, and Kevin LePage. The list
also includes the newly formed Hall-Of-Fame Racing, which has
used two drivers already this season.
Adding together all of the starts by independent
drivers, there have been 89 starts so far this season. How have
they fared? Out of those 89 starts, there has been ONE top ten
finish, when Ken Schrader finished 9th at Daytona,
driving for the Wood Brothers. Let me say that again for
emphasis. Out of EIGHT-NINE starts, there was only ONE, UNO,
EINE finish inside the top ten. That’s no wins out of 89
tries. No top 5 finishes out of 89 tries. That matches MB2
Motorsports, who only have 17 starts to work with.
And where the 2-car teams average finish is
inside the top 25, and the 3-car teams average finish is near or
in the top 20, and the bigger teams finish on average in or near
the top 15, these independents, as a whole, finish 29.6 on
average.
So according to the numbers, the bigger the team,
the better chance you have of doing well. It doesn’t mean that
you WILL do well. Just look at the struggles of some of the
Roush drivers, or Jeremy Mayfield’s slump at Everham Motors.
But when you’re on a team, and you struggle, there are teammates
around to help you out, and hopefully pick you up out of your
troubles. As an independent, you’re on your own. The numbers
seem to show just how true it is. And after all, The Numbers
don’t lie. |
