Somewhere Joey Logano is waking up to his first sunrise as a Cup champion.
Logano clinched his first Cup title Sunday with his win in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, beating Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
Logano is the 33rd different driver to win a Cup title in the series’ 70 seasons.
The 28-year-old is the second driver to win a Cup title for Team Penske.
With the 2018 season complete and 36 races added to the record book, here’s a look at some of the interesting stats that made up the year courtesy of Racing Insights.
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- The Cup Series competed for 10,250 laps over 13,741 miles
- Cup saw 73 different drivers compete in 36 races
- Eleven drivers made their Cup debut
- Thirteen drivers won at least one pole. Kurt Busch led the series with five poles.
- Daniel Suarez was the only driver to earn his first pole (Pocono II)
- Two drivers, Chase Elliott (Watkins Glen) and Erik Jones (Daytona II) earned their first Cup wins.
- Joe Gibbs Racing led all teams with 10 poles
- Three cautions at Sonoma, Richmond and Kansas were the fewest in a race.
- 13 cautions in the spring at Bristol were the most in a race.
- Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski each won three races in a row. It’s the first time three drivers have done that in a season.
- Five drivers ended a winless streak of 36 or more races: Clint Bowyer (190 races), Aric Almirola (149 races), Kurt Busch (58 races), Ryan Blaney (50 races) and Joey Logano (36 races)
- Seven times a driver won both stages and the race .
- Harvick led all drivers with 19 stage wins.
Most Laps Led in a season without a win:
Driver Laps Led Season
Harry Gant 1169 1981
Jeff Gordon 919 2010
Kyle Larson 782 2018
Buddy Baker 766 1969
Larson led the most laps in four races but failed to win all four.
Best Average Finish on 1.5-Mile tracks in a season:
Driver Avg Fin Season Starts
Bobby Labonte 2.43 1999 7
Martin Truex Jr. 2.55 2017 11
Bobby Labonte 3.14 2000 7
Carl Edwards 4.64 2011 11
Kyle Busch 5.1 2018 11
Consecutive Seasons with at least one win: Active Drivers
Driver No. Years
Jimmie Johnson 16 2002-2017
Kyle Busch 14 2005-2018
Denny Hamlin 12 2006-2017
Kevin Harvick 9 2010-2018
Brad Keselowski 8 2011-2018
Bold drivers won this season