2019 GOTS ~ Some Interesting Stats
|
|
NASCAR
released their numbers on the GOTS. In a Chris Greythan
article entitled Interesting
Stats From the 2019 NASCAR Gander Trucks Season. It’s my kind of article as I like the Truck
Series. I like
stats. I really
like interesting Truck Series stats.
It
opens with “Matt Crafton captured his third career title by winning the 2019
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship in the season finale
at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Following an incredible year for the series, here
are a few interesting stats we dug up with help from our friends from Racing
Insights.”
From
there it covers a wide variety of items from the season. Things like -
-The
number of laps raced, miles covered for the season, the number of drivers who
debuted in the Series, how many drivers won races and win poles,
-Toyota’s
success on track and manufacturers Championships,
-Analysis
on how many times the Stage winners went on to win the race and who won the
most Stages,
-which
1.5-mile race had the most cautions,
-Austin
Hill winning the first and last race and identifying other drivers who had done
that,
-Listing
the six first time winners
-Stewart
Friesen’s second place finishes before winning his first race at Eldora,
-Tyler
Ankrum’s win at Kentucky made him the youngest driver
to qualify for the Playoffs,
-Todd
Gilliland winning his first race in his 46th start with Kyle Busch Racing, the
longest run before a first win for the team, and closed with
-Greg
Biffle’s 6434-day gap between GOTS wins.
All
interesting stats for an interesting season in an interesting Series.
But
as interesting as those are, here are some stats that for whatever reason
didn’t make the cut for the article. I think they are pretty interesting. See if you don’t
agree.
-Matt
Crafton won his third Championship this season and did so without winning a
race. This
makes him the first Winless Champion in the GOTS and only the second Winless
Champion in the Top Three Touring Series
-Crafton
won the Championship and led 44 of the 3396 laps the Series ran this season
(1.3% Laps Led).
-Crafton’s
44 laps led was the fewest laps led of the eight Playoff Qualifiers. For comparison, six
of the eight Playoff qualifiers led 109 laps or more (more than twice what
Crafton led) with Ross Chastain leading a whopping 591 laps, over 13 times
Crafton’s season total.
-The
next closest lap leader to Crafton’s total was Tyler Ankrum at 58 laps led. Ankrum led 14 more
laps than Crafton, while running three fewer races due to the fact he wasn’t
old enough to compete in the Series until Martinsville.
-Of
the 44 laps Crafton led-36 were green flag laps while 8 were under caution.
-Of
the 23 races in the 2019 season, Crafton led laps in 8 races.
-In
the 8 races he led laps, he led a total of 10 times.
-Of
the 10 times he led laps
- 2 were from the Pole (maintained starting
spot)
- 3 were on restarts (maintained restart
position)
- 1 was while under yellow (pit work or
remained on track when leader pitted)
- 4 were green flag passes for the lead.
So
Matt Crafton won the 2019 GOTS Championship with no wins, 44 laps led in eight
races and having four green flag passes for the lead.
When
you think Championship numbers those are quite... ummm...
interesting. But
under the Playoff System those numbers are Championship numbers no matter what
anyone thinks.
But
there are even more... ummm interesting stats with
the 2019 GOTS season.
-Did
you know that for the season in head to head finishes, of the seven other
drivers who qualified for the 2019 Playoffs, Matt Crafton bested the following
drivers-Johnny Sauter 15-7, Austin Hill 14-9 and Tyler Ankrum 14-6 and while
being bested by Grant Enfinger and Ross Chastain 11-12, Brett Moffitt 9-14 and
Stewart Friesen 8-15. Chastain, Moffitt,
and Friesen were Championship Four finalist. So even though Crafton lost in head to
head with the three finalist he bested them all when it counted most-the
Homestead-Miami finale, to take the Crown.
-That
in the Finale, Crafton started the race behind the other Four Finalist (9th v
1,3 and 4), trailed at the end of Stage 1 (6th v 2,3 and 4). He moved ahead of his other three
competitors in Stage Two (2nd v 3, 4 and 5) and maintained throughout the final
stage to the finish and for the Championship (2nd v 4, 5 and 11th) creating the
“Game Seven Moment” that the Playoff is to create.
All
this kinda reminds me of the old riddle -
Q: Do you know what they call the medical
student who graduates at the bottom of his class?
A: Doctor!
The
GOTS version is
Q: Do you know what they call a driver who in 23
races wins none, only leads in eight races, leads 10 times for 44 laps and only
makes four green flag passes for the lead the entire season, while getting beat
head to head against the other Championship Four drivers?
A: Champion!
-The
2019 GOTS Championship is Matt Crafton’s third Championship in the Series. This ties him for
second in COTS Championships with Jack Sprague, They
trail Hall of Fame driver Ron Hornaday, who has four.
-With
his third Championship Matt Crafton becomes the first GOTS driver to win
Championships under both the Pre-Playoff (Latford) System and Playoff System.
-Crafton
may be the only one to accomplish this as Austin Dillon and Erik Jones are the
only active drivers who won their Championships under the old system (but I
don’t see them dropping back from Cup to GOTS anytime soon to try and take that
honor from him) and I don’t believe we’ll see Todd Bodine, Jack Sprague or other
retired GOTS drivers come out of retirement to try to win under the Playoff
System (although Bodine coming back would increase the excitement factor
dramatically). But this is racing... and
you never say never when it comes to racing.
-Crafton
won two of the three GOTS Championships back to back (2013, 2014). No other driver has
done that, including HOF driver Ron Hornaday. With his 2019 Championship he is the
only driver in position to again go back to back.
-In
Crafton’s three Championship seasons he won a total of three races (2013-1,
2014-2, 2019-0). This
compares to Jack Sprague’s 13 wins in his three Championship seasons.
That’s
a bunch of stats - interesting stats. Kind of makes me wonder why no one has
mentioned any of them.
In
2019, Matt Crafton did what NASCAR did not want to ever see happen-become a
Winless Champion. They designed their Chase, now Playoff System to ensure this
would never happen after Matt Kenseth won the 2003 Cup Championship with 1 win. Now it has
happened.
A
Winless Champ in one of the Top Three Touring Series under the Chase/Playoff
System was something I had hoped to see. The main reason is because I wanted to
see how NASCAR would respond to this little fact about the Playoffs that no one
seemed to want to acknowledge was within the realm of possibility. Here, in the fourth
year of usage in this GOTS it happened.
The
response has been as I expected-ignore it until pressed and if pressed, only
minimally address it. The
official story line has been-Matt followed the current rules to qualify for the
Playoffs, raced well enough to make it to the Championship Four, was the Top
Finisher at the season finale to become Champ. The responses are so consistent among
media and the Talking Heads it almost sounds scripted.
And
whatever you do, downplay everything else, especially about how the Playoff
format made it possible.
Downplay
how the Playoff in the GOTS Series creates the “Perfect Storm” for this to
occur. How a 16-race
regular season plus a seven race Playoff significantly reduces opportunities to
win. How Cup
regulars or former Cup regulars dropping down to compete and winning six of the
16 regular season races further reduced win chances for GOTS regulars. Two Elimination
rounds instead of three made it easier to advance. Eliminating two drivers per round
meant a driver only had to be third worst or better to advance, which played in
Matt’s favor.
Silence
appears to be a big part of the plan and is working well. And when that doesn’t work, they just
shrug their shoulders and give the old “It is what it is” and move on.
But
as one Race Fans Forever regular and Pure Thunder Racing
author, Berra Nordin would say, “It is what it is but not how it should be!
Maybe
in the off-season while NASCAR is reevaluating everything and focusing on all
the changes they are bringing about in the Sport-New schedule, new TV
contracts, new Series sponsorship model, pit stop procedures, street racing or
not, new cars and as they say at the end
of any Greatest Hits Infomercial “and many more” they need to reevaluate the
use of the Playoff format and seriously ask does it do the best job selecting a
season Champion.
‘Til then, Congratulations Matt Crafton on winning the 2019
GOTS Championship to become the Series Champion for the third time. I look forward to
seeing you again go back-to-back in 2020 to tie Ron Hornaday for Most GOTS
Championships. I’m
confident no matter what method is used you can do it as you have proved that
in the past.
Here’s
hoping you can do it again without a win. A back-to-back Winless Champion would
be one heck of an interesting stat!