NASCAR Xfinity Series: Ryan Sieg in the midst of a career season

By Asher Fair | Apr 13, 2019

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Ryan Sieg, driver of the #39 Larry's Hard Lemonade Chevrolet, during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series NASCAR Racing Experience 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /

Eight races into the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg is in the midst of a career season that not many people saw coming.

Ryan Sieg entered the 33-race 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season having competing in the Xfinity Series since the 2013 season and having competed in the series on a full-time basis since the 2014 season.

The driver of the #39 RSS Racing Chevrolet entered this season having not competed for a team other than RSS Racing since the 2013 season when he competed in only four races, including two as the driver of the #51 Jeremy Clements Racing Chevrolet.

Entering the 2019 season, he had competed in 169 races over the course of his Xfinity Series career. He had recorded nine top 10 finishes, including three top five finishes, in these 169 races. He had never recorded more than one top five finish or three top 10 finishes in a single season.

When Sieg opened up the 2019 season by driving his #39 Chevrolet to a fourth place finish in the race at Daytona International Speedway, it was widely perceived by many as having been a fluke simply because this fourth place finish, which was his best finish in nearly two years, came in a restrictor plate race.

In the seven races that have been contested since the season opener, the 31-year-old Tucker, Georgia native has silenced his critics.

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Through the first eight races of this season, Sieg has not yet finished a race outside of the top 12. He is the only full-time driver who can make this claim. Meanwhile, he entered the season having never finished in the top 12 in more than six races over the course of a 33-race season.

So far this season, he has recorded a career-high five top 10 finishes, including a career-high two top five finishes, the more recent of which being his fifth place finish in yesterday night’s race at Richmond Raceway. Keep in mind the fact that this season is not even one-quarter of the way complete and he has already recorded these impressive career-high statistics.

With an average starting position of 14.9, Sieg has improved an average of 6.3 positions in each race, as his average finishing position is 8.6. His average improvement in position is the best average improvement in position among the sport’s full-time drivers, and his average finishing position is the sixth best average finishing position among the sport’s full-time drivers.

Meanwhile, entering the the 2019 season, his career-high starting position was 18.7 and his career-high finishing position was 17.8. He recorded both of these previous career-high marks in the 2016 season.

Sieg has also completed all but one of the 1,596 laps that have been contested so far this season and is one of only five drivers who have completed at least 1,595 of these laps.

While it may be a stretch to say that Sieg is a legitimate championship contender given the fact that he is still searching for his first top three finish in almost two years and his first career victory, if he keeps performing at a high level, he could most definitely make a deep playoff run, and he could do it driving for the same team that he has driven for on a full-time basis since the 2014 season and struggled to bring home solid results for over the course of a half-decade.

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Will Ryan Sieg continue his hot start to the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in the season’s ninth race, the MoneyLion 300, at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 27? This race is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. ET, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from the high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama.

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