Who's strongest statistically for Round of 8?

Racing Insights is back with NASCAR Insights stats focused on the entire Round of 8 tracks. By looking at performances on similar tracks, Racing Insights has come up with ratings for each driver in speed, long-run speed, passing, defense and restarts to see who’s set up well for the upcoming semifinal-round races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway.

What we’ve done in the chart below is total up those numbers and order the drivers from lowest to highest (with the lowest being the best or the most likely to do well in this round). Six of the eight title-eligible drivers rank the highest. While Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe rank the lowest of their playoff counterparts.

Briscoe ranks 14th among the entire field for the Round of 8 ratings, but take that with a grain of salt as the four-year Cup veteran has turned into one of the best drivers in the field since the second half of the season. Las Vegas, Martinsville and Talladega were all early-year tracks and since the spring race at Kansas, Briscoe and the No. 19 team have gone on a tear with a pair of victories, six Busch Light Pole Awards and top-10 finishes in five of the six playoff races so far.

MORE: Playoff hub page | Check your Playoff Grid Challenge score

On the flip side is Ryan Blaney, who ranks first in speed, long-run speed and passing for the next three tracks. It would come as no surprise if Blaney were to pull off the impressive feat of his Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, to sweep an entire round (2015, Charlotte, Kansas, Talladega). Blaney is a three-time winner at Talladega and has won the last two playoff elimination races at Martinsville. Speaking of Logano, he ranks first in defense for this round and is pretty consistent among the pack as he ranks top 10 in every category — most notably, fifth in long-run speed.

The playoff drivers are tightly packed together, meaning it will take perfect execution to reach the Championship 4. The biggest differentials among the Round of 8 are restarts, all coming from JGR drivers as Briscoe (12th), Hamlin (13th) and Christopher Bell (15th). Besides that, you can throw a blanket over everyone else and there’s no telling who could break through and punch their ticket to Phoenix.

Check out the full list to see what jumps out at you that could be interesting for the Round of 8:

*Denotes playoff driver

Driver	Speed	Long-Run	Passing	Defense	Restarts	Total
Ryan Blaney*	1	1	1	5	6	14
Kyle Larson*	2	3	5	3	2	15
William Byron*	3	6	6	7	1	23
Chase Elliott*	8	7	3	2	5	25
Joey Logano*	9	5	7	1	7	29
Christopher Bell*	5	4	2	8	15	34
Tyler Reddick	6	12	4	10	4	36
Denny Hamlin*	4	2	11	9	13	39
Bubba Wallace	10	11	8	11	3	43
Josh Berry	7	8	12	12	10	49
Austin Cindric	11	9	13	6	14	53
Ross Chastain	16	15	10	4	11	56
Alex Bowman	12	10	15	15	9	61
Chase Briscoe*	13	13	19	16	12	73
Ryan Preece	20	21	9	19	8	77
Brad Keselowski	17	14	18	13	18	80
Chris Buescher	15	16	22	14	17	84
Carson Hocevar	14	20	14	29	20	97
Ty Gibbs	18	19	16	27	22	102
AJ Allmendinger	19	17	20	24	26	106
Kyle Busch	25	28	17	17	19	106
Zane Smith	21	18	28	20	27	114
Daniel Suárez	23	26	23	18	25	115
Michael McDowell	24	24	25	31	16	120
Noah Gragson	28	23	29	21	21	122
Erik Jones	22	29	21	23	28	123
Austin Dillon	26	25	24	25	29	129
John Hunter Nemechek	27	27	26	28	23	131
Shane van Gisbergen	30	22	31	30	34	147
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	31	32	30	22	33	148
Justin Haley	29	30	27	33	32	151
Todd Gilliland	32	31	32	26	30	151
Riley Herbst	33	34	35	34	24	160
Ty Dillon	34	35	33	35	31	168
Cole Custer	35	33	34	32	35	169
Cody Ware	36	36	36	36	36	180