Joey Logano continues to top the leaderboard in terms of segment points earned and the number of stages in which he has earned points, but he is not completely alone at the top of the chart. Kyle Busch has scored more bonus points with nine segment wins to Logano’s seven.
It is the overall consistency with which Logano has performed well that makes him a regular pick for the NASCAR Fantasy Live game. Logano topped the chart with 158 points and six wins in June. He was also atop the board in April with 114 points and four wins. As of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Logano has 240 stage points to his credit.
But Logano has been slipping. Since the last time we tracked this statistic soon after the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Logano has added only one more stage win and that came on the highly unpredictable Daytona International Speedway. While he has failed to bank many bonus points for winning, Logano continues to add to an impressive total that has kept him within 39 points of the overall points’ lead that will contribute 15 points to the bonus total. He has done that by being among the top five in 10 other segments.
For Logano it seems to be an all or nothing proposition because he has finished between sixth and 10th in a segment only once since June.
[[ad:athena]]
Meanwhile, it is Busch who is banking the most bonus points.
Since June, Busch has won four segments. He led the field in Stage 2 at Kentucky Speedway, Stage 1 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway in back-to-back races, and most recently in Stage 2 of the second Michigan race. Also an all of nothing drier, Busch’s eight stage performances in which he’s scored points since June all ended among the top five.
To date, Kevin Harvick is the driver with the second-most stage points. With a total of 216, he is not that far behind Logano. He has earned points 33 times to Logano’s 37. That would seem to suggest these drivers were on par, but Harvick is fifth in terms of total points earned. That is a piece of important information because it underscores the number of times that he or the crew has made a mistake or suffered a setback in the third stage after the NASCAR Fantasy Live game has locked.
With solid performances in the past couple of months, Chase Elliott has climbed to fourth overall on this list. In 2019, he has scored 184 points earned in 30 stages. His dominance at the Glen added 20 of those points and two of his four stage wins. He also won that race, giving him a perfect record for the weekend. Since then he has swept the stages at Michigan and Bristol with top-10 performances at the end of each stage and a top-10 finish.
Martin Truex Jr. rounds out the top five with 179 points earned in 30 stages and three stage wins.
The remainder of the drivers evenly distribute stage wins. Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson have now scored four wins. Denny Hamlin has three stage wins. No one else has more than two and it can be hard to go out on a limb and predict they will win another stage.
Still, by paying attention to who qualifies well and who has solid 10- and 15-lap average speeds, you can occasionally find a dark horse that will give you those very important 10 bonus points.
Alex Bowman is the driver with the most stage points who has yet to win one of the segments. With seven second-place finishes, he has come close on a number of occasions, but cannot quite close the deal. His most recent close call occurred at Daytona in the Coke Zero 400 when he finished just behind Austin Dillon.
2019 Segment wins and points | |||
Driver | Segment | Segments | Segment |
240 | 37 | 7 | |
216 | 33 | 4 | |
201 | 32 | 9 | |
184 | 30 | 4 | |
179 | 30 | 3 | |
174 | 27 | 4 | |
161 | 25 | 3 | |
152 | 27 | 2 | |
134 | 25 | 4 | |
124 | 21 | 1 | |
113 | 25 | 2 | |
112 | 19 | ||
110 | 21 | 1 | |
88 | 20 | ||
84 | 19 | ||
67 | 11 | 2 | |
65 | 16 | ||
63 | 15 | 1 | |
63 | 13 | ||
45 | 7 | ||
29 | 9 | ||
28 | 12 | ||
20 | 2 | 2 | |
14 | 6 | ||
11 | 3 | ||
11 | 2 | ||
7 | 3 |
