Rankings by Category

As promised, albeit a day late, here is a category by category look at the tops in each of the three major categories of the rankings: Race finishes, Qualifying, and Bonus Statistics. I've included the driver's overall rank as well, just for your information.

Race Finishes


Considering he's the #1 overall driver, it should not come as a shock that Scott Dixon is #1 on this list. Jumping up quite nicely in this ranking is Carl Edwards, #7 overall but tied for third with Lewis Hamilton based on race results.

All ties noted are truly mathematical ties. It's actually pretty easy, since F1 and IndyCar ran 18 races while NASCAR Sprint Cup ran 36. Ergo, Carl earned twice as many race points as Lewis, but are tied when averaged.

Two other gents who moved up quite nicely are #9 Dan Wheldon (13th overall) and #12 Jeff Burton (23rd overall). Neither is an impressive qualifier, but move forward as the race progresses.

Which drivers are being propped up by the other categories? Ryan Briscoe is the only top 10 overall driver not in the top 10 of race results - credit a poor showing in the early part of the '08 season when he was 19th in points leaving Indy prior to his breakthrough win at Milwaukee. Ditto Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen, each 8 spots lower than their overall ranks, and the inconsistent Marco Andretti, 7 spots lower.

Qualifying




Dixon is #1 again in qualifying, but with 6 poles and qualifying in the top 25% in all but one possible qualifying session it's no surprise. Felipe Massa was extremely close - one position higher in Canada or Italy would have made him the top qualifier of 2008.

A few of the big NASCAR names, namely Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are much lower than than their overall positions would expect. The nature of NASCAR though can be a key reason. As the only series that features DNQs on a regular basis, there's often guys who will qualify better in a single session in order to make the show. Not to mention the length of a NASCAR race and the (relative) ease of passing compared to, say, Formula One that positions can be made up easily through time and only taking two tires on some pit stops. It's less necessary to qualify well, so the results show that.

Bonus Points

Bonus points consist of leading laps, leading the most laps, running the fastest lap, and improving the most positions in the race.


The Iceman Kimi Raikkonen leads racers in the bonus points category by a pretty fair margin. Kimi had 9 fastest laps that were key to his #1 placement. Scott Dixon is a lot further down in this category than most.



Towards the bottom of this list are two drivers you wouldn't expect in a positive top 30 list: Michael Waltrip and Giancarlo Fisichella. Waltrip was the best improver twice and regularly led a lap (in order to gain bonus points in NASCAR races). Fisi also improved the best twice, which considering Force India's poor qualifying abilities (he earned 0 points in that category), there was nowhere to go but up in classification.