Who was the Most Incident-Free NASCAR Cup Series in 2021?

There is no doubt that the 2021 NASCAR season was one of the better ones in recent memory. Yes, one driver emerged as a favourite from quite early on, and deservedly took home the title. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any battles in the bid for the championship and race wins. There were many of those through the field, throughout the year. And often such battles lead to incidents and collisions.

Yet despite the dramatic moments, the feuds and the sour patches, there were some drivers who finished the season as ‘nice guys’. Drivers who were involved in the fewest racing incidents as they raced safely.

The driver with the fewest incidents was BJ McLeod of Team Live Fast with only 2 incidents in the entire season. He was followed by Garrett Smithley with 2 incidents as well. But Smithley was in second place as he only started in 27 races while McLeod started in 28.

Then came Justin Haley with 6, Matt DiBenedetto with 8, Joey Logano and Josh Bilicki with 9, Chris Buescher with 10 and Erik Jones with 11 incidents.

Pretty ‘neat’ list isn’t it?

When you talk about safest drivers in the 2021 #NASCAR Cup Series, there were none safer (with a minimum of 26 starts) than @teamlivefast’s @bjmcleod78 and @RickWareRacing’s @GarrettSmithley. McLeod had one extra start, so he gets the green bar. pic.twitter.com/wRcLn0HbVA

— TobyChristie.com (@TobyChristieCom) December 17, 2021

Who was the NASCAR driver with the most incidents in 2021?

But just as there is fire to water, there were drivers who had a LOT of racing incidents compared to the ones who had few.

According to TobyChristie, the honour for most incidents on track goes to Ryan Newman of Roush-Fenway Racing. Newman was involved in 21 incidents in 36 starts with an average of 0.583 incidents per race.

He was closely followed by Anthony Alfredo and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with 20, the trio of Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace with 19, and Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe with 18 incidents.

Feb 14, 2021; Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; NASCAR Cup Series drivers Ryan Newman (6), Erik Jones (43), William Byron (24) Tyler Reddick (8), Martin Truex Jr. (19), Aric Almirola (10) and Chris Buescher (17) wreck during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

While incidents are part of the sport, racing incidents are particularly more costly and dangerous for obvious reasons.

And next season, perhaps we’ll see even more drivers lose control. This is because of the new Next Gen car, which isn’t looking incident friendly at this moment at least.

Regardless, we hope the coming season, more drivers can be like BJ McLeod while giving us fans some exciting racing action.

Also Read: Fans Go Crazy as Michael Waltrip Hints at NASCAR Cup Series Return

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