Terrors in the Rearview: NASCAR's Best Passers By David Smith (on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA) A quality pass, a statistic defined by NASCAR, is a pass within the top 15. A quality pass percentage (QPP) indicates a serious mover and shaker in the point-padding world in which the sport now resides. But the best passing does not always come in quantity or quality. The best passes are ones timed to perfection, sometimes passes followed by the words “for the win.” While most races will end on a mid-sized to lengthy green flag run, the sport’s version of overtime — the green-white-checkered finish — provides a final opportunity for the sharks of the NASCAR waters to chomp down on positions. The equipment-weighted metric I created — Extended Lap Adjusted Plus/Minus (ELA +/-) measures passing and position retainment value in these situations. So when imagining the worst possible drivers to have in your rearview mirror, who do you think of? Two decades ago, the answer to that question was Dale Earnhardt. Now? It might be unclear due to the sheer strength of talent in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. I have set out to find who should worry you if you were staring nervously at your mirror. My list includes the five most dangerous drivers in reverse order, preceded by a pair of honorable mentions. Updated ELA +/- Rankings are listed in the chart below ... Read More _____ To continue reading this article, you must be a premium subscriber to MotorsportsAnalytics.com. _____ MotorsportsAnalytics.com is a subscription-based web site that brings advanced statistical concepts created for evaluating drivers and teams to the every day race fan. The web site has been featured in USA Today and Sports Business Daily and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s NASCAR Channel. _____ David Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of Motorsports Analytics and the host of The David Smith Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA. |