#2-Brad Keselowski, #48-Jimmie Johnson and #11-Denny Hamlin led the series in wins, at 5 each.
Johnson had the most top fives (18) and most top 10s (24) in the field but also had more DNFs (6) than any other driver in the Chase dozen.
Most races led? That number 26 (of 36) belongs to Johnson.
Johnson also scored more points (873) in superspeedway competition than any other driver. #17-Matt Kenseth was tops in that category on restrictor-plate tracks with 180. With 236, #15-Clint Bowyer led points scorers on short tracks, and Bowyer also was No. 1 on road courses with 88.
Johnson sat atop the most laps led category with 1,744, or 16.7 percent of all laps run.
The most-laps-completed winner was winless Paul Menard, who ran 10,406 laps, or 99.6 percent of the seasonal total.
By winning at Las Vegas in March, Tony Stewart extended his series-leading streak of winning at least one race per year to 14.
#5-Kasey Kahne, #55-Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson shared the honor of winning the most poles with four each, but the biggest number in the pole category was zero, and that belonged to #39-Ryan Newman. Flyin ‘ Ryan, generally considered an expert at qualifying, failed to notch a pole for the first time in 12 seasons, and he has been stalled at a career number of 49 since September 2011.
The numbers can have any ugly downside, as evidenced by these: Too many drivers will enter 2013 with unsightly winless streaks #31-Jeff Burton (149), #78-Kurt Busch (43), #18-Kyle Busch (27), #99-Carl Edwards (69), #47-Bobby Labonte (324), #1-Jamie McMurray (77), #42-Juan Pablo Montoya (86), #339-Ryan Newman (30), #56-Martin Truex Jr. (203).(SPEED)(12-19-2012)
