NASCAR Did You Know…
Strength of Sport
That NASCAR is the No. 1 spectator sport as 17 of 20 highest attended U.S. sporting events in 2008 were NASCAR races.
That NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events averaged nearly 120,000 fans in 2008.
That NASCAR remains strong as the No. 2-rated regular season sport on television.
That NASCAR is televised weekly in more than 100 countries and in more than 30 languages.
That more than 400 unique corporate sponsors are involved in NASCAR.
That NASCAR has the most Fortune 500 involvement in all of professional sports.
That NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races at 100 tracks across more than 30 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico.
Driver/Track Milestones
That Jimmie Johnson will attempt to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships.
That for the first time in his 11-year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Tony Stewart will be driving for a team other than Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart is the new driver/owner of Stewart-Haas Racing and will drive the No.14 Chevrolet in 2009.
That Joey Logano will be the youngest driver to run the Daytona 500. He was 18 years, 8 months and 22 days on Feb. 15. The previous youngest was Clark Dwyer in 1983. He was 19 years, 1 month and 8 days old.
That Jeff Gordon needs to lead 89 laps to reach 20,000 career laps led.
That Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer look to extend an all-time record this season. Harvick has run 80 consecutive races without a DNF (did not finish). Clint Bowyer is second with 73.
That as long as Jeff Gordon makes each of his starts this year, he’ll move into the sixth spot for most consecutive starts. He now has 545. By season’s end, he’ll have 581.
That with two poles, Ryan Newman will move into the top 10 on the all-time poles list. Newman enters this season with 43 career poles.
That Bill Elliott will make his 800th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start with his fourth start of 2009.
That Ron Hornaday Jr. needs one win to become the first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver with 40 career wins.
That there have been back-to-back first-time race winners in each of the last four NASCAR Nationwide Series seasons. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano did it last year, winning their first races at Nashville and Kentucky.
That the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600 will take place May 24 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
That the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star Race will celebrate its Silver Anniversary at Lowe’s Motor Speedway this May.
That the Atlanta Motor Speedway event on March 8 will be the track’s 100th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
That three tracks will be celebrating their 80th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this season: Dover, Michigan and Talladega.
Competition
That 29 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers had at least one top-five finish in 2008.
That 37 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers had at least one top-10 finish in 2008.
That NASCAR Sprint Cup races averaged 11 leaders and 21 lead changes in 2008.
That a series-record 89.6 percent of the cars were running at the finish in 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
That 43 NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers had at least one top five in 2008.
That 49 NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers had at least one top 10 in 2008.
That 60 NASCAR Nationwide drivers led at least one lap in 2008.
That 28 NASCAR Camping World Series drivers had at least one top five in 2008.
That 43 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers had at least one top 10 in 2008.
That 20 of the 25 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races had a margin of victory under one second in 2008.
That more than 2,000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series chassis have been inspected at the R and D Center since November 2006.
That the No. 22 Toyota team raced the same car at 11 different NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events in 2008 – or nearly one third of the schedule.
That the No. 1 Chevrolet team raced the same car at 10 different NSCS events in 2008, as did the No. 29 Chevrolet and No. 21 Ford teams.
