Good news for Paul Menard. (How often does anyone get to write that?) The race in Kansas on Sunday tightened up the FLOPPER standings. FLOPPER stands for Finishes Last in Overall Points while Participating in Every Race.

 

1) David Ragan, Bobby Labonte and David Stremme are virtually tied, and are about 80 points ahead of Paul Menard for the title.

2) This week I included a list of each driver's laps led on the season. Interesting to see the range of those numbers from 0 to 179. Definitely some surprises in there.

3) Funny to think that A.J. Allmendinger is the only guy on this list who has zero laps led all year. Would you have guessed that? His zero laps led are still good enough to stay ahead of Martin Truex Jr., who has led a respectable 179 laps this season.

4) Truex's 179 laps led are actually more than (would you have guessed this?) Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and David Reutimann and are just nine laps less than all four Richard Childress cars combined. I'm serious. Maybe he does have some potential to bounce back next year. His move to Michael Waltrip Racing might be a good one.

5) If Labonte keeps getting last place finishes like he did at Kansas, he'll quickly find himself at the top of this table.

(All Left Turns contributor Dale Watermill is the creator of the Watermill Score and edits the racing statistics blog 36 Races. E-mail him at 36races@gmail.com.)

Related links:
Updated championship probability table
Winning in NASCAR is like counting cards
Chase bonus points are meaningless
Jimmie Johnson has most points at Chase tracks this season
The Watermill Score: How to win a Sprint Cup title
Replacing crew chiefs has not helped Dale Earnhardt Jr.