NASCAR Driver Ratings: 2007 - 2022

Data visualization
Data wrangling
Linear regression
Transformations in regression
Linear regression conditions
Multiple regression
NASCAR Driver Ratings and statistics from 2007-2022
Author

Alyssa Bigness, Jack Fay, and Ivan Ramler

Published

July 6, 2023

Data

The data comes from the NASCAR website and shows the season statistics from 2007-2022. Each row displays the metrics of a racer for that specific year. The data frame contains 1111 rows of observations and 20 variables.

nascar_driver_statistics.csv
Variable Description
Wins The sum of the driver’s victories
AvgStart The sum of the driver’s starting positions divided by the number of races
AvgMidRace The sum of the driver’s mid race positions divided by the number of races
AvgFinish The sum of the driver’s finishing positions divided by the number of races
AvgPos The sum of the driver’s position each lap divided by the number of laps
PassDiff The sum of green flag passes minus green times passed
GreenFlagPasses Number of green flag passes performed by the driver
GreenFlagPassed Number of times driver is passed during green flag
QualityPasses Number of passes in the top 15 while under green flag conditions by driver
PercentQualityPasses The sum of quality passes divided by green flag passes
NumFastestLaps Number of where the driver had the fastest speed on the lap
LapsInTop15 Number of laps completed while running in a top 15 position
PercentLapsInTop15 The sum of the laps run in the top 15 divided by total laps completed
LapsLed The sum of the laps led in a race
PercentLapsLed The sum of the laps led in the race
TotalLaps The sum of the laps completed by a driver that year
DriverRating Formula combining wins, finish, top15-finish, average running position while on lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps, and lead lap finish with a maximum rating of 150 points

Questions

  • What is the best way to model the relationship between average finish and driver rating? Are the linear model assumptions met?

  • Which predictors best predict driver rating?

References

https://www.nascar.com/stats/