NASCAR Xfinity Series superlatives for the 2018 regular season

Regular-season MVP: While Justin Allgaier has been a mainstay in the championship picture each of the past two seasons, he still isn't someone who garners a ton of the spotlight. That changed in a big way in 2018. Among series regulars, he accumulated the most overall victories, stage wins, top-five finishes, laps led and earned the regular-season points title and No. 1 playoff seed. In addition to demonstrating he can win any given week on any style speedway, the JR Motorsports driver was especially proficient on road courses, with him taking wins at Mid-Ohio and Road America.

Best moment: The fairy-tale story had no Cinderella conclusion (at least on this day), nonetheless Ross Chastain turned in a memorable weekend at Darlington that left people impressed -- save for Kevin Harvick. In his first opportunity with a top-flight Xfinity team (Chip Ganassi Racing), Chastain not only won the pole, but he also dominated the race before a collision with Harvick stunted his bid for a first-ever NASCAR national series victory. Regardless, Chastain proved capable of delivering if given the chance. Which leads us to ...

Biggest surprise: Based off the performance he turned in at Darlington it wasn't a surprise, per se, that Chastain followed by winning in his second start in a CGR car. Yet even Chastain admitted after winning at Las Vegas that he viewed himself as someone unlikely to become NASCAR's most recent first-time winner. 'Holy cow. I'm just a watermelon farmer from Florida, I'm not supposed to do that,' Chastain said. 'Wow. Man, that is a testament that anything in life is possible.'

Biggest news: After a career that spanned three decades and included 17 combined wins spread across NASCAR's three national series, Elliott Sadler announced in August that 2018 would be his last as a full-time competitor. He will spend his final months pursuing a first-ever Xfinity championship, an accomplishment that has excruciatingly slipped away from him with four runner-up finishes in the past eight seasons. And though winless during the regular season, he comes into the playoffs well-positioned to go out on top having posted the best average finish (8.6) among series regulars.

Best finish: There were no shortage of exhilarating finishes throughout the regular season, with Christopher Bell nudging Allgaier out of the lead at Iowa in July, Allgaier rallying to win at Mid-Ohio, and Spencer Gallagher pulling an upset at Talladega. All praise worthy. However, the best finish goes to Tyler Reddick prevailing in the season-opener at Daytona by the slimmest of margins -- listed officially as .000 seconds -- over Elliott Sadler. The distance between the JRM teammates was roughly 3 inches, an outcome that goes down as the closest in NASCAR national series history.

Best newcomer: Even though the bar was set high for Bell coming into his first full Xfinity season, the 23-year-old has still managed to exceed expectations. He has four wins to his credit, including a sizzling summer stretch that saw him become the first series regular to win three consecutive races since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999. Bell enters the playoffs as the No. 2 seed where he stands a good chance to become the third rookie to win the title in the past five years.

Heartfelt moment: A win at Indianapolis is always special, but for Allgaier his triumph in the penultimate regular-season race carried added importance. As a child his father drove him to Toastmasters classes held at a hotel near the speedway where the young driver learned how to best represent his sponsors outside of the race car. It was this sacrifice that was on Allgaier's mind immediately after winning the Lilly Diabetes 250, fighting back tears and dedicating the win to his father during a national television interview. 'This one is for my dad,' Allgaier said. 'Because at Brickyard Crossing up there, he drove me up here every Wednesday night during the winter, so that I could take classes to be the best that I could be, not only inside the car but outside the car. It was about three-and-a-half hours, and he drove me here every Wednesday night. So, hats off to him.'

Best crew chief: With Joe Gibbs Racing's crew chief roster full on the Cup side, the organization elected to shift Jason Ratcliff from its No. 20 Cup program to Xfinity where he would lead Bell's team. The pairing of the sage veteran crew chief with a prodigious young talent has paid off as evidenced by the wins. Ratcliff's impact, however, goes beyond just winning. Although Bell has always demonstrated he can go fast, he's been known to have bouts of inconsistency where his impatience lends itself to over-driving. But under Ratcliff's tutelage Bell has shed that label to the point he has evolved into one of the championship favorites heading into the playoffs.