Dominating the front of the pack

A driver's finishing position on a track is certainly important—and in the long run, that is the only way most fantasy games pay points—but it is not always the best indicator of who has been strongest. When handicapping a race, we often find it helpful to look at the number of laps drivers have spent in the top 10.

There are two reasons why this is important. The most obvious of these is that driving in the first quarter of the field means a racer and his car has raw power, but equally important is the fact the further forward a car is in the pack, the less likely the driver is to get into trouble. Top-10 drivers are far less likely to make silly mistakes that could cause your fantasy selection to end the day in the garage.

During the last five years, one driver stands head and shoulders above the competition, and he will come as no surprise to anyone who's played the game for more than a year. Jimmie Johnson remains the master of this track, with five victories and 14 top-15s in 16 starts and his time spent in the top-10 reflects this. Johnson has been that far up on the grid in 79 percent of the laps he's run, boasting 2,588 of a possible 3,275 circuits.

The next driver on the list might be a bigger surprise, however. Despite finishing 25th or worse in five of the last 10 races held at Lowe's, Kyle Busch has managed to log 1,850 laps with the leader, which equals 56.5 percent of the time. More important still, most of these laps came in the last three Lowe's races and he converted those strong runs into three consecutive top-fives.

Kasey Kahne is the only other driver to spend more than half of his time among the top-10 during the last five years. He's run with the leaders 50.8 percent of the time (1,665 laps) and has been even more productive than Busch or Johnson in recent events. In his last six starts on this track, Kahne has won three times and finished second on another occasion. With the new Dodge engine in his car this week, he should be considered a threat once more.

Top-10 Laps, last five years

Driver	Top-10 Laps	Possible Laps	%
Jimmie Johnson	2,588	3,275	79.0%
Kyle Busch	1,850	3,275	56.5%
Kasey Kahne	1,665	3,275	50.8%
Mark Martin	1,634	3,275	49.9%
Dale Earnhardt Jr.	1,634	3,275	49.9%
Greg Biffle	1,625	3,275	49.6%
Jeff Burton	1,553	3,275	47.4%
David Ragan	593	1,471	40.3%
Ryan Newman	1,274	3,275	38.9%
Kurt Busch	1,227	3,275	37.5%
Jeff Gordon	1,172	3,275	35.8%
Clint Bowyer	726	2,205	32.9%
Denny Hamlin	835	2,541	32.9%
Matt Kenseth	1,060	3,275	32.4%
Tony Stewart	1,043	3,275	31.8%
Brian Vickers	914	2,938	31.1%
Elliott Sadler	866	3,275	26.4%
Carl Edwards	816	3,275	24.9%
Casey Mears	789	3,275	24.1%
Joe Nemechek	577	2,538	22.7%
Scott Riggs	726	3,275	22.2%
Jamie McMurray	682	3,275	20.8%
David Reutimann	283	1,407	20.1%
Bobby Labonte	620	3,275	18.9%
Michael Waltrip	510	2,875	17.7%
Kevin Harvick	459	3,275	14.0%
Dave Blaney	444	3,275	13.6%
Martin Truex Jr.	349	2,605	13.4%
Reed Sorenson	227	2,205	10.3%
David Gilliland	174	1,805	9.6%
Tony Raines	212	2,539	8.3%
Sam Hornish Jr.	56	734	7.6%
David Stremme	80	1,807	4.4%
Robby Gordon	141	3,275	4.3%
Bill Elliott	43	1,471	2.9%
Mike Bliss	31	1,070	2.9%
A.J. Allmendinger	8	1,471	0.5%
Juan Montoya	5	1,471	0.3%
Paul Menard	1	1,471	0.1%
Todd Bodine	0	334	0.0%