Less than two weeks remain in 2024, and the 2025 Daytona 500 will be held in 59 days.
As we count down the days to the new year, here are the most notable statistics to come out of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Down to the Wire
- The May race at Kansas Speedway set the record for the closest finish in Cup history, with Kyle Larson defeating Chris Buescher by .001 seconds.
- Daniel Suarez defeated Ryan Blaney by .003 seconds and third-place Kyle Busch by .007 seconds at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February.
- The finish marked the closest finish in Cup history between three cars.
- A total of three races were decided .006 seconds or less, making 2024 the first season in Cup history to have three races decided by less than one one-hundredth of a second.
- Six of the 36 races ended with a last-lap pass.
- The race at Bristol Motor Speedway in March and the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October set track records for lead changes, with 54 and 33, respectively.
Read all of Frontstretch‘s content looking back on 2024 here
Overtime, Overtime, Overtime
- Thirteen of the 36 races went into overtime, smashing the previous record of 11 set in 2017.
- The June race at Nashville Superspeedway saw not one, not two, but a Cup record of five overtimes and 31 extra laps.
- Six races ended under caution, the most since 2009.
Winning Comes in Threes
- Joey Logano won three races in the playoffs and held off teammate Ryan Blaney at Phoenix Raceway to score the third championship of his Cup career.
- Logano’s title marks three consecutive driver championships for Team Penske and Ford.
- Penske became just the third to Cup team to win three consecutive titles, joining Hendrick Motorsports (1995-98, 2006-10) and Junior Johnson & Associates (1976-78).
- With 36 career wins — and four in 2024 — Logano tied Brad Keselowski for 24th on the all-time win list.
- Logano also set records for the fewest top-five finishes (seven), top-10 finishes (13) and the worst average finish (17.1) for a champion in the modern era.
Dominance Personified
- Larson led all drivers with six wins and 1,700 laps led.
- His 1,700 laps led marks the most laps by a driver with a season of the Next Gen car, breaking his own record of 1,127 in 2023.
- His most dominant race of the season was at Bristol in the summer, where he led a whopping 462 of the 500 laps and won by 7.088 seconds.
- His 462 laps led mark the most led by a driver at Bristol since 1977.
- His 7.088-second margin of victory is the largest of the Next Gen era.
Saying Goodbye
- Martin Truex Jr. retires from full-time driving with the 2017 championship and 34 wins, good enough for 26th all time.
- He also retires with 684 consecutive Cup starts, the sixth-most all time.
- Stewart-Haas Racing closed its doors for good. The team ended its 16-year Cup tenure with 70 wins and two Cup championships.
- Chase Briscoe snagged the team’s final win in the Southern 500 to qualify for the playoffs in the 11th hour.
- FedEx ran its last race with Denny Hamlin at Phoenix Raceway in November. The 20-year partnership — one of the longest in the sport’s history — has come to an end.
Changing of the Guard
- Hamlin, Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were the only 2024 winners born in the 1980s. Thirty-one of the 36 races were won by drivers born in the 1990s or 2000s.
- Harrison Burton became the first winner born in the 2000s with his win at Daytona International Speedway in August.
- With Truex’s retirement, Denny Hamlin (age 44), is currently the oldest full-time driver for 2025.
- Half of the 36 races were won by drivers between 30-35 years old. Thirteen of the 36 were won by drivers under the age of 30.
- A total of 18 drivers scored wins in 2024, one short of the all-time record of 19 set in 2001 and 2022.
- Busch’s record of 19 consecutive seasons with a win came to an end after a winless 2024.
- Logano now has the longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons, with 13.
- Only four full-time Cup drivers in the 2009 season will currently be full time for 2025: Busch, Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger and Logano.
Grand Occasions
- The 40th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports’ first win at Martinsville Speedway in 1984 was celebrated with a 1-2-3 finish at the track in April, led by William Byron.
- Burton’s win at Daytona in August marked the 100th Cup win for Wood Brothers Racing.
- The Wood Brothers became just the eighth team to achieve that total.
- Logano’s win at Phoenix was also the 150th for Team Penske.
- The organization has the fourth-most Cup wins all time, only trailing Joe Gibbs Racing (214), Petty Enterprises (268) and Hendrick (312).
Triumphant Returns
- Iowa Speedway returned to the NASCAR schedule for the first time since 2019, with Blaney winning the inaugural Cup race.
- The series returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for the first time since 2020, and Larson became the newest driver to kiss the bricks.
- Two tracks will be added to the 2025 Cup schedule: Mexico City — the first Cup race on foreign soil since the 1950s — and the Busch Light Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
- The 2025 season kicks off at Bowman Gray on Feb. 2.
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
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Larson has 29 wins already, I hadn’t even realized it till now. He’s given many away and Hamlin has intentionally taken at least 3 away from him.