NASCAR: The two drivers with the best average finish

By Asher Fair | Mar 1, 2021

Michael McDowell, Front Row Motorsports, NASCAR (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

Two drivers have not finished outside the top eight through the first three races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, and one is quite surprising.

NASCAR‘s three-race improvised trip to the Sunshine State to open up the 2021 Cup Series season is in the books, and three different drivers went to victory lane at three very different race courses.

All three drivers got their first win in Florida, although one of them did so last August. Michael McDowell opened up the season with a win in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway for Front Row Motorsports before Christopher Bell won the road course race at the same venue for Joe Gibbs Racing.

William Byron, who had won at Daytona International Speedway last August to take his first checkered flag, then won at Homestead-Miami Speedway to give Hendrick Motorsports their first win of the season and extend their winning streak to a record 36th consecutive season.

But just two drivers have not finished outside the top 10 so far this season. Neither one has finished outside of the top eight, one of them is quite surprising.

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As expected, one is Kevin Harvick. Who would’ve guessed? In fact, Harvick’s lowest finish so far this season is his sixth place finish in the race at the Daytona International Speedway road course. He finished in fourth in the Daytona 500 and sixth at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

His stats look similar to last season, when he reeled off eight straight top 10 finishes to start the year. In fact, this year, they’re a bit better. By this time last season, his average finish was 7.33 with a top finish of fifth place and a worst finish of ninth. This year, his average finish is more than two spots higher at 5.00.

But the other driver, despite the fact that he is one of the three race winners, is quite surprising, and that is Michael McDowell. Impressively, Harvick and McDowell have been the top two Ford drivers in two of the first three races this season.

McDowell entered last season, his third with Front Row Motorsports and 13th in the Cup Series, with 321 career starts and eight top 10 finishes, including just one in a non-superspeedway race. He had never finished in the top 10 more than three times in any two-year span.

Yet last season alone, he recorded four top 10 finishes, and all came at tracks other than superspeedways.

Now this season, he is three for three, and without any finishes outside of the top eight. In addition to his Daytona 500 win, he finished in eighth place at the Daytona International Speedway road course and sixth at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His average finish of 5.00 is tied for the best in the series with Harvick.

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He had never previously even managed to enter a season with two straight lead-lap finishes.

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