Top 10 drivers who completed the most laps in 2016
One of the most curious stats in the NASCAR Premier Series is who completed the most laps in the 36 points races. Believe it or not, only five of the 10 Chase drivers made the list and four of the 10 who did make the top 10 in laps completed didn’t even finish in the top 20 in points.
With 10,523 laps run this year, here’s who completed the most laps:
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Clint Bowyer, 10,252 laps
Let’s be honest, here: 2016 was far and away the worst season of Bowyer’s career, but it wasn’t his fault. He kept his car on track throughout the races, but he just didn’t have enough speed to get anywhere.
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Trevor Bayne, 10,260
It wasn’t a great year for any of the three Roush Fenway Racing drivers, but in the end, Bayne ran more laps than either of his two teammates.
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Kyle Larson, 10,271
The 2016 season was a breakout campaign for Larson, who won a race for the first time at NASCAR’s top level and made the Chase as well.
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Austin Dillon, 10,276
The strong number of laps completed is further evidence that Dillon, indeed, had the best season of his still-young career.
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Landon Cassill, 10,286
You wonder what Cassill could do in front-line equipment, because driving for a small team with limited resources, he kept his Front Row Motorsports Ford on track for a lot of laps.
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Carl Edwards, 10,303
He didn’t win the championship, nor did he finish the championship race, crashing on a restart with 10 laps to go. But on the season, Edwards ran the most laps of any of the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and out of any of the drivers he competed against at Homestead.
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Danica Patrick, 10,326
Give Patrick credit for consistency. Although she failed to post a single top-10 finish all year long, Patrick was usually running at the end of the races.
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Brad Keselowski, 10,337
The 2012 NASCAR Premier Series champion ran well all year until a heartbreaking engine failure at Talladega knocked him out of the Chase. At one point in the middle of the season, Keselowski posted 17 top 10s in 21 races.
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Kurt Busch, 10,348
The elder Busch brother set a NASCAR record by completing every single lap in the first 22 races of the season, a truly impressive feat. And he completed more laps than any other Chase driver this season.
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Kasey Kahne, 10,355
Are you freaking kidding me? Kahne led every NASCAR Premier Series driver by completing 10,355 laps in 36 points races — and he didn’t lead a single one of them! Not one lap led all year long. Truly bizarre.
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