We’re now in the final hours of 2018 and as we all reflect on its highs and lows, it’s time to follow-up on one lingering thread from the beginning of the year. 2 we published a post looking at Now we’ve gone through and tallied up their totals 12 months later.
Kyle Busch seems intent on bending the sport of NASCAR to his every whim these days. He was a man on a mission Sunday at Pocono Raceway, guiding a well-prepared car through a series of late-race.
These numbers come with a bit of an asterisk. In July, Twitter undertook a campaign to purge the social media platform of bot accounts and the accounts of NASCAR drivers and teams were not left untouched. 2, led all full-time Cup drivers with 2,636,014 followers., Johnson lost roughly 60,000 followers in the purge, putting him at around 2.6 million. At press time on Dec. 31, his follower count had risen to 2,645,151. He’s the only active Cup driver with more than a million followers.
Overall, and had the largest net gains in followers. Elliott added 74,572 followers in the year where. Wallace added 57,163 followers in a year where he finished second in the Daytona 500 and was the subject of saw the largest net loss of followers. 2 he had 763,325 followers. Five months after the purge, Hamlin has 721,289 followers for a let loss of just over 42,000 followers. Here’s each Cup driver’s follower count on Jan. 2 and their count 12 months later (post bot account purge).
CREW CHIEF: David Elenz TEAM: JR Motorsports POINTS: First WINS: Two (Daytona I and Miami) LAPS LED: 184 TOP 5s: Seven (Only three more than in 2017 when he ran in 18 races) TOP 10s: 20 POLES: None (Had two in 2017 as a part-time driver) WHAT WENT RIGHT: Beat Elliott Sadler in the closest finish in NASCAR history Had eight top tens in the last 12 races, including six in the seven-race playoffs Delivered JR Motorsports its third Xfinity title and its second in a row Was the first driver to ever win the first and last race of the season. WHAT WENT WRONG: After his Daytona win, Reddick finished in the top five only once in the next 22 races Experienced five DNFs in a 12-race stretch mid-season Led 54 laps in the Texas playoff race but was passed on the last lap by and finished second. WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019: Reddick will have his third home in as many years as he moves from JR Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing, where he’ll drive the No. 2 Chevrolet Reddick will be the first Xfinity champion to defend his title since in 2015.
Kyle Busch held off Kevin Harvick and took home the checkered flag at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday to win his first race of the season. Barring inspection, last year's championship runner-up is expected to join Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Austin Dillon in the NASCAR playoffs. Despite three runner-up finishes in the first six races, and he delivered. The victory is Busch's third at the 1.5-mile track and first since Martinsville in October 2017. Last year's Texas winner Harvick won Stage 1 rather easily, building more than a 12-second advantage over Truex, who was poised to finish the stage in second before his No. 78 lost a tire and went hard into the wall.
Harvick gathered 10 stage points and a playoff point while Truex saw his day come to a close. Kyle Busch finished the stage second followed by Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson to round out the top five.
Kyle Busch took the lead from his brother and pole-starter Kurt Busch late in Stage 2 to take the green-and-white checkered while Harvick and Ryan Blaney suffered setbacks. Larson hit the wall hard, ending his day while Harvick and Blaney had to hit pit road under green due to reports of loose wheels. Both Harvick and Blaney were able to recover and get back on the lead lap rather quickly. O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 results. Kyle Busch. Kevin Harvick.
Jamie McMurray. Erik Jones. Ryan Blaney. Joey Logano. Kurt Busch. Darrell Wallace Jr. Clint Bowyer.
William Byron. Chase Elliott. Trevor Bayne. Ty Dillon. Michael McDowell. Chris Buescher. Matt DiBenedetto.
Kasey Kahne. Ross Chastain. Cole Whitt. Gray Gaulding.
Landon Cassill. Harrison Rhodes. David Ragan. AJ Allmendinger. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Austin Dillon.
Ryan Newman. Alex Bowman. Daniel Suarez. Paul Menard. Reed Sorenson. Aric Almirola.
Brad Keselowski. Denny Hamlin. Jimmie Johnson. Kyle Larson. Martin Truex Jr. 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Standings POSITION DRIVER CAR # POINTS BEHIND WINS 1. Kyle Busch 18 316 LEADER 1 2.
Joey Logano 22 278 -38 0 3. Ryan Blaney 12 265 -51 0 4. Kevin Harvick 4 257 -59 3 5. Martin Truex Jr. 78 250 -66 0 6. Clint Bowyer 14 249 -67 1 7. Brad Keselowski 2 237 -79 0 8.
Kurt Busch 41 224 -92 0 9. Denny Hamlin 11 222 -94 0 10. Kyle Larson 42 202 -114 0 11.
Erik Jones 20 193 -123 0 12. Aric Almirola 10 177 -139 0 13. Austin Dillon 3 159 -157 1 14. Alex Bowman 88 154 -162 0 15.
Chase Elliott 24 148 -168 0 16. Paul Menard 21 146 -170 0 We encourage you to check out our live blog if you missed any of the action on Sunday.
It includes highlights, analysis and reaction from the thriller at Texas. Alex Bowman goes around and triggers a multi-car crash early at Texas Motor Speedway. Here's what happened. — FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) The quick yellow flag didn't deter Harvick who held the lead on the restart began doing what he's been doing all season, building a monster lead over the rest of the field. Martin Truex Jr.
Began green flag pit stops about 40 laps into the stage, making adjustments while replacing the tires and adding fuel. The rest of the field began to follow shortly after. Ryan Blaney was running second before the pit stop, but a penalty for an uncontrolled tire set the No.
12 team back a couple laps. Jimmie Johnson also suffered a setback, as he was forced to bring his car back down pit road after reporting a vibration on the No. Denny Hamlin stayed out longer than everyone else in hopes of a caution, but eventually came down pit road from the lead laps later. Unfortunately for the No. 11 team, Hamlin was too fast entering pit road and had to serve a penalty. Martin Truex Jr.
Is done for the day after getting hard into the wall at Texas Motor Speedway. — FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) Stage 1 results.
Kevin Harvick (10 points plus 1 playoff point). Kyle Busch (9 points). Kurt Busch (8 points). Joey Logano (7 points). Kyle Larson (6 points). Clint Bowyer (5 points).
Jamie McMurray (4 points). Brad Keselowski (3 points).
Chase Elliott (2 points). Erik Jones (1 point) Stage 2: Kyle Busch outraces brother Kurt at the end Kyle Busch ran a faster pit stop under yellow than Harvick between stages and started the second from the lead. Busch held the top position for roughly 30 laps before surrendering the lead back to Harvick. Kyle Larson was having a solid day, running inside the top five after starting from the rear, however that day came to an end midway through Stage 2 when Larson went hard into the wall and totaled his No. Is out of the car, his day is done after running 4th at the time.
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) 'What a hit that was,' Larson could be heard saying on the radio. The wreck occurred around the same time teams were considering green flag pit stops, so most of the field came down for adjustments under yellow. Unfortunately for Harvick's team it appeared a lug nut got stuck and held the No. 4 on pit road, losing eight positions in the process as Kurt Busch reemerged as the race leader. Downward momentum continued for Harvick when the race returned to green. 4 driver immediately noticed a loose wheel and was forced to bring his Ford back down pit road, losing a lap in the process. Just laps later, Blaney brought his car down pit road for the same issue as the Busch brothers continued to lead.
The reports continue for loose wheels. This time its coming down pit road again after the restart. — NASCAR (@NASCAR) It appeared Kurt Busch would drive on for the stage win without a challenge but a little sibling rivalry came into play with 5 laps to go. Younger brother Kyle Busch made the pass and drove away from his older brother to take the green-and-white checkered. Stage 2 results. Kyle Busch (10 points plus 1 playoff point). Kurt Busch (9 points).
Joey Logano (8 points). Erik Jones (7 points).
Clint Bowyer (6 points). Chase Elliott (5 points).
Brad Keselowski (4 points). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3 points).
Denny Hamlin (2 points). Aric Almirola (1 point) Final Stage: Kyle Busch holds off Kevin Harvick Erik Jones won the race off pit road between stages and led the field to green to begin the Final Stage.
Not even one lap in, Kyle Busch lost some speed, starting a chain reaction that led to a massive pile up involving Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon. Take a look at this which brought out the caution in the. — NASCAR (@NASCAR) The wreck was so large that NASCAR officials had to issue the red flag for track cleanup. Hamlin, Johnson, Almirola and Keselowski were forced to retire for the remainder of the race, joining Larson and Truex as stars in the sport not to finish. Jones led the field to green after the stoppage with just 11 cars on the lead lap. Kurt Busch followed closely behind along with Elliott as Jones set the pace throughout the early portions of the Final Stage. Elliott had to bring his car down pit road with 120 left, just a tick before green flag stops were set to begin, after reports of vibrations.
The rest of the field came down for green flag stops with just over 100 to go in the race. Just as cars were cycling back to the front, Paul Menard brought out the caution, benefitting Harvick and Elliott who stayed out under green. Unfortunately for Harvick, he couldn't capitalize on it as his team was penalized for having too many men over the wall. Kyle Busch took the lead from his teammate Jones on the restart and began pulling away before Kasey Kahne and Trevor Bayne got into it, bringing out the yellow, while racing for the free pass.