The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth with the sixth race of the 2018 season, the My Bariatric Solutions 300.
Here’s a quick look at some interesting statistics and tidbits heading into the weekend.
- This is the 35th race at Texas Motor Speedway. The first race was in 1997, when Mark Martin scored the victory in a Ford.
- Kyle Busch leads all drivers in Xfinity Series victories at TMS with eight, including a streak of five consecutive wins between the 2008 spring and 2010 spring races. Kevin Harvick has five victories, followed by Mark Martin and Erik Jones with three each.
- Overall, 16 drivers have won an Xfinity Series race at Texas: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Purvis, Joe Nemechek, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.
- Erik Jones swept the two Xfinity Series races at Texas last year and has won three of the last six races at the track. Jones was the last Xfinity Series regular to win at Texas in 2015, before he began racing in the Cup Series fulltime in 2017.
- Kyle Larson became the 16th driver to win an Xfinity Series race at Texas (2016 fall race).
- There is a lot of parity between manufacturers in Xfinity Series competition at Texas, with Toyota and Ford each winning 11 races and Chevrolet winning 10. Dodge has two victories. Toyota has won each of the last two races at the track.
- Like the Cup Series, the polesitter has had a tough time finding victory lane at Texas. Only five of the 34 Xfinity Series races at TMS have been won from the pole, though three of those have come in the last six races (including Erik Jones in the 2017 fall race). Jones and Kyle Busch have each won from the pole twice. Six victories have come from the second starting spot, giving the front row starters 11 victories, while second row starters have combined to win a race at TMS seven times.
- Kyle Busch won from the furthest back of any driver, 31st, in the 2008 spring race. Only two of the previous 34 races have been won from outside the top 20 starting positions.
- Drivers who have led the most laps in an Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway have gone on to win the race 19 times in 34 races, including eight of the last 10 races.
- Kyle Busch holds the record for most laps led in a race (179) at Texas Motor Speedway, when he won the 2009 fall race. He also led 178 laps in the spring race to lead 357 of 400 laps in the two 2009 races.
- Busch also holds the record for most laps led in a race (147) for a driver that did not win the race, when he finished second in the 2004 spring race.
- On three occasions the winner of the race led only six laps, a record for fewest laps led by a winner at TMS. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the first to do so in 1998, followed by Jeff Purvis (2002) and Trevor Bayne (2011 fall race).
- Five drivers have won races this season: Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Reddick is the only Xfinity Series regular of that group. This is the 16th season in Xfinity Series history that at least five different drivers have won in the first five races, and second consecutive season (six in 2017). A new winner this weekend will mark the 12th season of six different drivers winning in the opening race and third since 2006. The record for different drivers to win a race to open the season is 13, set in 1988.
- There have been 11 consecutive Xfinity Series races in which a different driver has won a race, dating back to the 2017 fall race at Dover International Speedway: Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, William Byron, Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.
- Kyle Busch is the last driver to win back-to-back races in the Xfinity Series, triumphing last July at Kentucky Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in consecutive weekends.
- Points leader Elliott Sadler leads the series in top fives (four), top 10s (five) and laps completed (855). He has finished in the top 10 in 13 of the last 14 races, though he hasn’t won a race since 2016, when he won at Kentucky Speedway.
- Justin Allgaier leads all drivers in top threes (three).
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