NASCAR Cup Series: 2018 season in review
By Asher Fair
On the final day of the year 2018, let’s take a look back at everything that the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season had to offer.
With the year 2018 officially set to become history when the year 2019 begins tomorrow, the focus in the NASCAR Cup Series world is set to shift solely to the 2019 Cup Series season. But before the calendars change, let’s take a look back at what the 2018 season had to offer.
A total of 36 races were contested in the 2018 season, and Team Penske’s Joey Logano ended up coming on strong in the 10-race playoffs en route to securing his first career championship.
Logano became the fifth different driver to win a championship in the five seasons during which the current playoff format has been used. His championship made the 2018 season the fourth season in these five seasons that resulted in a first-time champion being crowned.
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Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. won the championships in the 2014 season, the 2015 season and the 2017 season, respectively, to become first-time champions. These three drivers were also the three drivers who competed against Logano in the 2018 Championship 4.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson, who went winless for the first time in his Cup Series career in the 2018 season, won the 2016 championship. He is still the only active driver who has won more than one championship, and he has won seven of them.
Aside of Logano, who earned three victories, including two in the playoffs, throughout the 2018 season, 11 other drivers earned at least one victory. Harvick and Busch each earned eight while Truex Jr. earned four.
Like Logano, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski earned three victories each. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer was the only driver who earned exactly two victories in the 2018 season.
The five drivers who each earned one victory in the 2018 season were Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola. Dillon opened up the season by winning the Daytona 500, a race that he had never previously won.
Among the two full-time rookies, including Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Richard Petty Motorsports’ Darrell Wallace Jr., Byron finished in the higher position in the championship standings, and he won the 2018 Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award as a result of it.
Byron finished in 23rd place in the championship standings with 587 points on four top 10 finishes while Wallace Jr. finished in 28th with 471 points on one podium finish, which was his lone top five finish, and three top 10 finishes.
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What does the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season have in store? It is scheduled to get underway in just over one and a half month, as the 61st annual Daytona 500, which is the first race on the 36-race 2019 schedule, is scheduled to take place at that time. This race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 17, 2019 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.