Front Runners - 2023 HighPoint.com 400, Pocono Raceway

HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway

Front Runners highlights the drivers that lead laps, run fast laps, and run inside the top 10, 5, & 3 the most at correlated track types.

The NASCAR Cup Series makes is lone trip to the tricky triangle of Pocono Raceway on Sunday. For the first time in what seems like ages we may even have a dry weekend at the track.

Pocono doesn’t have any true similar tracks in terms of shape, length, and banking. At 2.5 miles long it is longer than any other intermediate track. The closest tracks in terms of length and banking are Auto Club (rest in peace) and Michigan. Despite the unique track design, we can still get useful information out of a good number of tracks. My incident adjusted speed metric shows useful correlation between Pocono and the three 1.5-mile ovals the Cup Series has raced at in 2023, as well as very strong correlation between Pocono and Nashville. I’m speculating, but I suspect that despite the significant difference in length, the correlation is due to the use of the same intermediate package, along with the 14 degree banking at Nashville being closer to Pocono’s turns than the 20 plus degree turns at the 1.5-mile tacks.

Given that we still six races to use if we only consider 2023 results from Auto Club, the 1.5-mile ovals, and Nashville, along with the 2022 Pocono results, I am focusing on just those six races to keep an emphasis on 2023 speed plus Gen 7 Pocono experience.

The charts below are sorted by percentage of laps led by default. There are also a few more columns that you can choose to display but for ease of display those columns are hidden by default.

Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage laps driver completed at 2022 Pocono and 2023 Auto Club, Las Vegas, Kansas, Charlotte, and Nashville

Pocono Front Runners

wdt_ID	Driver	Races	T10 Fin	T10 Laps	T10%	T5 Fin	T5 Laps	T5%	T3 Fin	T3 Laps	T3%	Wins	Led	LL%	Fast Laps	FL%	Laps	Laps Run %
1	William Byron	6	4	1,250	78.32	3	990	62.03	3	651	40.79	1	282	17.67	104	8.19	1,596	99.87
2	Ross Chastain	6	3	1,111	70.32	3	820	51.90	2	578	36.58	1	210	13.29	85	6.69	1,580	98.87
3	Ryan Blaney	6	1	840	59.36	1	532	37.60	1	412	29.12	1	186	13.14	97	7.64	1,415	88.55
4	Denny Hamlin	6	4	1,289	93.20	3	891	64.43	3	586	42.37	2	177	12.80	103	8.11	1,383	86.55
5	Kyle Larson	6	4	1,019	65.32	3	591	37.88	2	476	30.51	0	167	10.71	120	9.45	1,560	97.62
6	Martin Truex Jr	6	5	1,222	76.47	2	786	49.19	2	442	27.66	0	134	8.39	107	8.43	1,598	100.00
7	Kyle Busch	6	4	969	64.90	2	388	25.99	2	277	18.55	1	103	6.90	100	7.87	1,493	93.43
8	Tyler Reddick	6	3	754	50.84	2	517	34.86	0	344	23.20	0	86	5.80	86	6.77	1,483	92.80
9	Christopher Bell	6	3	884	64.24	1	461	33.50	0	177	12.86	0	69	5.01	55	4.33	1,376	86.11
10	Joey Logano	6	2	519	34.37	0	266	17.62	0	173	11.46	0	36	2.38	20	1.57	1,510	94.49
11	Alex Bowman	5	2	505	37.94	1	264	19.83	1	125	9.39	0	27	2.03	54	4.25	1,331	83.29
12	Kevin Harvick	6	2	642	40.20	1	200	12.52	0	66	4.13	0	24	1.50	36	2.83	1,597	99.94
13	Chase Elliott	5	4	682	61.33	3	234	21.04	2	102	9.17	0	13	1.17	42	3.31	1,112	69.59
14	Bubba Wallace	6	4	823	52.42	3	266	16.94	0	97	6.18	0	13	0.83	30	2.36	1,570	98.25
15	Chris Buescher	6	1	337	21.13	0	40	2.51	0	30	1.88	0	12	0.75	17	1.34	1,595	99.81
16	Erik Jones	6	1	239	15.54	0	49	3.19	0	21	1.37	0	11	0.72	4	0.31	1,538	96.25
17	Michael McDowell	6	1	109	6.85	0	40	2.51	0	29	1.82	0	11	0.69	29	2.28	1,591	99.56
18	Brad Keselowski	6	1	539	33.73	0	169	10.58	0	60	3.75	0	9	0.56	55	4.33	1,598	100.00
19	Corey LaJoie	6	0	75	4.70	0	20	1.25	0	14	0.88	0	7	0.44	2	0.16	1,597	99.94
20	Ty Dillon	6	0	31	2.03	0	17	1.11	0	5	0.33	0	4	0.26	1	0.08	1,527	95.56
21	Harrison Burton	6	0	40	2.52	0	30	1.89	0	22	1.38	0	4	0.25	6	0.47	1,590	99.50
22	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	6	1	341	21.37	0	14	0.88	0	6	0.38	0	4	0.25	6	0.47	1,596	99.87
23	Austin Dillon	6	3	226	14.16	0	41	2.57	0	15	0.94	0	3	0.19	5	0.39	1,596	99.87
24	Noah Gragson	6	0	57	4.36	0	35	2.68	0	16	1.23	0	2	0.15	6	0.47	1,306	81.73
25	Daniel Suarez	6	3	547	34.23	2	155	9.70	0	37	2.32	0	2	0.13	29	2.28	1,598	100.00
26	Ty Gibbs	6	0	417	27.73	0	110	7.31	0	21	1.40	0	0	0.00	16	1.26	1,504	94.12
27	AJ Allmendinger	5	1	182	13.86	0	15	1.14	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	7	0.55	1,313	82.17
28	Cole Custer	1	0	13	8.13	0	5	3.13	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	0	0.00	160	10.01
29	Ryan Preece	5	0	61	4.61	0	12	0.91	0	6	0.45	0	0	0.00	2	0.16	1,323	82.79
30	Justin Haley	6	1	59	3.70	0	5	0.31	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	11	0.87	1,596	99.87
31	Aric Almirola	6	0	37	2.49	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	23	1.81	1,483	92.80
32	Todd Gilliland	6	0	25	1.72	0	6	0.41	0	1	0.07	0	0	0.00	2	0.16	1,455	91.05
33	Chase Briscoe	6	0	23	1.45	0	1	0.06	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	4	0.31	1,587	99.31
34	JJ Yeley	6	0	23	1.45	0	12	0.76	0	2	0.13	0	0	0.00	1	0.08	1,587	99.31
35	BJ McLeod	4	0	4	0.39	0	3	0.30	0	0	0.00	0	0	0.00	1	0.08	1,015	63.52
36	Austin Cindric	6	1	5	0.32	0	2	0.13	0	1	0.06	0	0	0.00	4	0.31	1,547	96.81
	Driver	Races	T10 Fin	T10 Laps	T10%	T5 Fin	T5 Laps	T5%	T3 Fin	T3 Laps	T3%	Wins	Led	LL%	Fast Laps	FL%	Laps	Laps Run %

Note – Since most books grade bets using the pre-inspection “unofficial” results, the chart above credits Denny Hamlin with a win here last year and Kyle Busch with a second place finish. As a result it does not credit Chase Elliott with a win, Tyler Reddick or Daniel Suarez with a Top 3, Christopher Bell or Kyle Larson with a Top 5, and finally it does not credit Erik Jones or Austin Dillon with a Top 10.

Thanks for checking out the Front Runners! Let’s WIN THE RACE!