The NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series are fresh off a visit to Virginia’s state capital of Richmond, competing on the 0.75-mile short track at Richmond Raceway.
The weekend was defined by two dominant performances, one that led to a checkered flag and another that did not.
We will go over those two drivers and crunch some more numbers coming out of the River City on this week’s edition of Stat Sheet.
39: Career Cup Wins for Joey Logano
Whenever your name is getting mentioned in the same breath as Matt Kenseth and Tim Flock, you are definitely doing something right as a race car driver.
Such is the case for Joey Logano as his victory in Saturday night’s (Aug. 15) Cook Out 400 at Richmond is the 39th of his Cup Series career, tying him with Kenseth and Flock for 21st on the all-time series win list.
Though Logano still likely has several seasons of racing in front of him, it’s nonetheless interesting to see how his racing resume stacks up for future enshrinement into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. However, it could be argued that Logano could retire tomorrow and be guaranteed a place in downtown Charlotte.
Based on the all-time Cup wins list above, as seen on Jayski, only two drivers in front of Logano are not Hall of Famers: Denny Hamlin and the late Kyle Busch. Both of those drivers are not yet eligible for NASCAR Hall of Fame enshrinement. Furthermore, several drivers behind Logano on the wins list have a spot in the Hall of Fame, including six drivers with fewer than 10 Cup Series victories.
1.98: Chase Briscoe’s Average Running Position
To pick up the win, Logano held off a feisty effort from Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe.
Leading 171 of 400 laps, Briscoe looked like peak Martin Truex Jr., who piloted that same No. 19 JGR Toyota to three wins at The Action Track in 2019 and 2021. Briscoe also sported a race-best average running position of 1.98, but he did not lead when the pay window opened.
Was Briscoe’s performance the most dominant display from a driver that didn’t go on to win the same race this season? Not quite.
Going off average running position, Briscoe at Richmond ranks third-best among non-winners, trailing Kyle Larson at Bristol and Hamlin at Martinsville. Bringing in laps led, Briscoe led 42.75% of the laps (171 of 400), but Larson led 56.24% (284 of 505) at Bristol Motor Speedway and Hamlin paced the field for a resounding 73% (292 of 400) of the circuits at Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin also owns the dubious distinction of the most times having the best average running position among non-winners, doing it five times through 24 Cup races so far in 2026.
34: Carson Hocevar’s Average Finish in the Last Two Races
After a maiden Cup win at Talladega Superspeedway and ascending to as high as fifth in points leaving the Brickyard 400, the heat around Carson Hocevar seems to have cooled off quite a bit coming out of the off week.
Hocevar has posted an underwhelming average finish of 34th in the past two races since the off week, posting a 31st-place finish at Iowa Speedway and finishing shotgun on the field in 37th at Richmond after an errant downshift led to a blown engine.
Is this reason for the No. 77 team to panic? Not really. Two races are a small sample size, and at 128 points above the cut line, Hocevar has all but clinched his spot in The Chase. On the other hand, Hocevar and the No. 77 bunch would do well to post strong finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway to regain momentum before The Chase.
3: Cautions for Incident in the Cup and Truck Races Combined
Richmond has typically been known for longer green-flag runs compared to other short tracks on the Cup circuit, and that was the case again this weekend.
In the Cup and Truck races combined, there were only three cautions for incidents. In the Saturday matinee for the Trucks, Stewart Friesen crashed on lap 217, dealing a huge blow to his Chase aspirations. For the Cup race, a spin by Zane Smith and Hocevar’s engine woes were the only yellow flags outside of the stages. That marked the fewest cautions for incidents in a Richmond weekend since 2022 when Cup and Trucks had just two.
48: Connor Zilisch’s Car Number in 2028
This is not really a stat per se, but it is the big breaking news that the NASCAR world is talking about.
Just a few weeks after Alex Bowman announced his impending retirement from full-time racing at the end of the 2027 season, Hendrick Motorsports revealed that Connor Zilisch will be filling the seat in the iconic No. 48 Chevrolet starting in 2028.
For Zilisch, this is a big step up in equipment, a ride with an organization that most drivers could only dream of working with in their careers.
With that being said, if Zilisch wishes to stick, he will need to utilize the next year-and-a-half to improve on paltry rookie season stats of just one top 10, eight DNFs and an average finish of 27.3. Those numbers could be forgiven for a rookie Cup season with a Trackhouse Racing team that is off its game, but it will not hack it long with Hendrick.
225: Laps Led for Kaden Honeycutt in the Truck Series
Checking in the lower series, while Briscoe’s domination in the Cup race did not lead to victory lane, Kaden Honeycutt turned the most laps led into a checkered flag in the Black’s Tire 250 on Saturday afternoon.
Honeycutt paced the field for 225 of the 250 laps, or 90% of the race. Grant Enfinger (22), Shane van Gisbergen (2) and Giovanni Ruggiero (1) were the only other drivers to lead laps in the race.
Similar to Briscoe before, let’s examine where Honeycutt’s domination ranks among Truck race winners this season, as measured by percentage of laps led.
As has been the case for much of the Truck season, Honeycutt is playing second fiddle to Layne Riggs, who led a whopping 198 of the 200 laps en route to victory at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Nonetheless, Honeycutt has reminded Riggs and the rest of the field that the No. 11 will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming Truck Series Chase.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 and is currently an editor and a weekly writer of Stat Sheet. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
Logano HoF?? He has a ways to go to surpass Harrison Burton and TY Gibbs. Those two are listed as first ballot hall of famers, not due to their driving accomplishments, but because of their family members accomplishments. So unless Joey has a successful racing uncle or brother, by the current standard, he shouldn’t be considered. No I don’t believe this, just pointing out how ridiculous NASCAR is.