Competition gets closer during this Golden Age

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Present-day NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races offer closer competition than anytime in history, a new NASCAR statistical analysis has shown.

Taking into account such statistics as cars on the lead lap, average leaders per race and margin of victory, racing since 1970 has become more competitive and more unpredictable than ever.

Consider this: In 1970, 22 of the 48 races "featured" only one car on the lead lap at the end of the race. Not since 1994 has a race ended with one car on the lead lap (Geoffrey Bodine at North Wilkesboro).

In the early 1970s, it was common for a race-winner to have a margin of victory of multiple laps. In 1973 at Darlington, for example, David Pearson finished 13 laps ahead of second-place finisher Benny Parsons. Also, in April 1977 at Bristol, Cale Yarborough finished seven laps ahead of runner-up Dick Brooks -- and led all but four laps in that race.

Since then, margins of victory have steadily decreased. Unimpeded runs to the checkered flag are a fading memory.

Since 1970, the race winner was the only car on the lead lap 128 times. From 1970-79, it happened 110 times. In the '80s, 16 times. In the '90s, only twice; and since 1995, it has not happened at all.

Close finishes

In May of 1993, NASCAR revolutionized the way it kept score, going from handheld stopwatches or analog timing clocks to integrated electronic scoring. On May 16, 1993 at Sonoma, Geoffrey Bodine defeated Ernie Irvan by 0.53 second in the first race using electronic scoring. A more precise way of measuring victory margins was established. Prior to electronic scoring, margins of victory were scored in either laps, car lengths or feet. Now the standard is measured in fractions of a second.

Comparing the close racing between now and 30 years ago is one thing, but a comparison between today's racing and racing just 10 years ago shows how the competition has improved in such a short period of time.

This season, the margin of victory was less than a second in 11 of 24 races. In six of those 11 races, the race was run using the Car of Tomorrow.

Of the closest finishes since 1993, seven of the top 10 have occurred since 2000: (Continued)