2012: Third NASCAR Race

By Keith Antigiovanni

Going into the third race of the 2012 season in Las Vegas the NASCAR Spring Cup standings are:

Denny Hamlin 89 points, Greg Biffle 83 points, Kevin Harvick 81 points, Matt Kenseth 79 points, Jr 72 points, Martin Truex 71 points, Mark Martin 71 points, Joey Logano 70 points, Kyle Busch 66 points, Carl Edwards 63 points.

Hamlin won the second race at Phoenix with two top 10 and two top 5 finishes. Kenseth won the Daytona 500 to open the season with one top 10 and one top 5 finish.The 2011 champion Tony Stewart has 53 points with one top 10 finish while five-time champ Jimmie Johnson is off to a slow start with 18 points despite two top 10 finishes and one top 5 finish. The other 31 drivers trail the top 10 but have a long way to go.

In NASCAR winning races are not always the mark of winning the racing title but it sure helps in terms of point standings. Stewart won only five races last year but had 23 top 10 finishes and 15 top 5's and the highest number of races Johnson won five straight titles between 2006 and 2010 and in 2007 when he won 10 but he was able to consistenly finish in the top 10 or top 5 and only 2 wins in 2010.

Johnson's stats:
             Top 10     Top 5   wins
2006:     24            13         5
2007:     24            20        10
2008:     22            15         7
2009:     24            16         6
2010:     23            17         2

The next race will be March 18 at Bristol, Tennessee.