Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway (aka Gateway)
Front Runners highlights the drivers that lead laps, run fast laps, and run inside the top 10, 5, & 3 the most at correlated track types.
Handicapping Gateway presents a new challenge for 2023. The track is a 1.25-mile egg shaped oval, with limited banking and low tire wear. This might lead some to look to the short flat tracks for correlation. In 2022 however there wasn’t particularly meaningful correlation between those tracks and Gateway. In fact, in some cases there was more correlation between the 1.5-mil intermediate tracks. Further complicating matters is that as the track is over 1 mile in length, NASCAR is running the intermediate package, not the short track package used at Phoenix, Richmond, and Martinsville. Conversely, Goodyear will be bringing the same tire as it did to the higher wear short tracks of Phoenix, Richmond, and North Wilkesboro.
Given this blend of equipment its hard to say exactly which tracks will be relevant this weekend. To that end I have updated Front Runners to have four datasets. First, 2022 Gateway only. Second, 2022 Gateway and the next five races which used the same tire code. Third, 2022 Gateway and the following three 2022 races using the same tire code (which would be with the intermediate package since there was no short track package in 2022). Finally, the two 2023 races using the same tire code.
The charts below are sorted by percentage of laps led by default. There are also a few more columns that you can choose to display, including number of finishes inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and wins as well as total laps completed but for ease of display those columns are hidden by default.
Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage laps driver completed at World Wide Technology Raceway (aka Gateway) (2022)
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Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage of laps driver completed at 2022 Gateway, 2022 New Hampshire, 2022 Richmond 2, 2022 Phoenix 2, 2023 Phoenix 1, 2023 Richmond 1
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Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage of laps driver completed at 2022 Gateway, 2022 New Hampshire, 2022 Richmond 2, 2022 Phoenix
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Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage of laps driver completed at 2023 Phoenix 1 and 2023 Richmond 1
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Thanks for checking out the Front Runners! Let’s WIN THE RACE!
