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Numbers Game: 2015 Axalta 400 at Pocono

0 – Drivers in NASCAR history who have led the most laps in four straight Cup races – and failed to win any of those events. Martin Truex Jr. avoided being the first with his feel-good triumph Sunday at Pocono. For the record, he led a race-high 97 circuits.

1 – Lap led by Truex Jr. with Furniture Row Racing last season.

2 – Drivers within 12 seconds of the lead by the time the checkered fell at Pocono. Truex and Kevin Harvick battled for the victory while motoring away from the rest of the field in just a 16-lap, green-flag run to the finish.

3 – Straight finishes of 37th or worse for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse wrecked at Pocono, claiming the brakes were failing on his Ford en route to 42nd.

4 – Straight top-20 finishes for Greg Biffle after just four of them in the season’s first 10 races. He was 12th Sunday, leading the way for Roush Fenway Racing during a difficult afternoon for the program (see above).

5 – Number of Cup point races won by Chevrolet over the last six. Carl Edwards‘s fuel-mileage victory at Charlotte was the only one to break the streak.

6 – Cautions in the final 73 laps at Pocono after two in the first 87. That averaged out to one about every 10-12 laps; the number of yellows left a larger-than-usual 28 cars on the lead lap by the finish of the race.

8 – Drivers out of the 10 qualified for the Chase that have just one victory. Jimmie Johnson (four) and Harvick (two) are the only multi-race winners this season.

8 – Second-place finishes for Harvick this season, including Sunday at Pocono. Harvick now has 10 top-two finishes on the year, tying a NASCAR record set by Bobby Allison in 1972.

13 – Top-10 finishes for both Harvick and Truex this season, leaving them on pace for a modern-era record 33. Bristol was the only race in which either one of them failed to crack the top 10.

14 – Points Kyle Busch gained on 30th-place points man Trevor Bayne Sunday.

151 – Points Busch remains behind Bayne for 30th in the standings. He needs to gain an average of 13 points on 30th over the next 12 races in order to sneak in.

486 – Laps led by Truex Jr. with Furniture Row Racing in 2015.

$117,723 – Money won by Kyle Larson for finishing eighth.

$119,845 – Money won by Bayne for finishing 24th.

 

Tom Bowles
Majority Owner and Editor in Chief at Frontstretch

The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.

You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.