NASCAR Insights: Who’s strongest statistically for the Round of 8?

Racing Insights is back with NASCAR Insights stats focused on the entire Round of 8 tracks. By looking at performances on similar tracks, Racing Insights has come up with ratings for each driver in speed, long-run speed, passing, defense and restarts to see who’s set up well for the upcoming semifinal-round races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway.

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What we’ve done in the chart below is total up those numbers and order the drivers from lowest to highest (with the lowest being the best or the most likely to do well in this round). Six of the eight title-eligible drivers rank the highest. While Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe rank the lowest of their playoff counterparts.

Briscoe ranks 14th among the entire field for the Round of 8 ratings, but take that with a grain of salt as the four-year Cup veteran has turned into one of the best drivers in the field since the second half of the season. Las Vegas, Martinsville and Talladega were all early-year tracks and since the spring race at Kansas, Briscoe and the No. 19 team have gone on a tear with a pair of victories, six Busch Light Pole Awards and top-10 finishes in five of the six playoff races so far.

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On the flip side is Ryan Blaney, who ranks first in speed, long-run speed and passing for the next three tracks. It would come as no surprise if Blaney were to pull off the impressive feat of his Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, to sweep an entire round (2015, Charlotte, Kansas, Talladega). Blaney is a three-time winner at Talladega and has won the last two playoff elimination races at Martinsville. Speaking of Logano, he ranks first in defense for this round and is pretty consistent among the pack as he ranks top 10 in every category — most notably, fifth in long-run speed.

The playoff drivers are tightly packed together, meaning it will take perfect execution to reach the Championship 4. The biggest differentials among the Round of 8 are restarts, all coming from JGR drivers as Briscoe (12th), Hamlin (13th) and Christopher Bell (15th). Besides that, you can throw a blanket over everyone else and there’s no telling who could break through and punch their ticket to Phoenix.

Check out the full list to see what jumps out at you that could be interesting for the Round of 8:

*Denotes playoff driver