Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Follow the leader: Who led the most laps in Sprint Cup in 2015

STP 500

MARTINSVILLE, VA - MARCH 29: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, and Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, lead the field to a restart during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on March 29, 2015 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Getty Images

There are not many surprises among the 10 drivers who led the most laps over the course of the Sprint Cup Series’ 36 point races in 2015.

All 10 drivers qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup and all 1o finished the year with multiple wins with one exception.

Here’s the top 10 drivers in laps led.


  1. Kevin Harvick; 2,294 laps - For the second season in a row Harvick led the field in laps led. His 2015 number bettered his 2014 total by 157. His laps at the front - 22 percent of the laps he completed - translated into three wins compared to his five in 2014, but led to Harvick finishing second 13 times, the most since NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison did it 15 times in 1970.
  2. Joey Logano; 1,431 laps - Logano led 863 fewer laps than Harvick on the way to a career-high six wins. Just 497 of the laps occurred in races Logano won.
  3. Brad Keselowski; 1,184 laps - Logano’s teammate led 11.4 percent of the laps he completed in 2015. Only one of those laps took Keselowksi to victory lane (Auto Club Speedway) and that was after a late debris caution. Keselowski led the most laps in four races. In 2014, Keselowski led 1,540 laps and won six times.
  4. Matt Kenseth; 927 laps - Kenseth ran out front for 9.4 percent of his 34-race season. That’s an increase of 398 laps and 4.4 percent over 2014.
  5. Kurt Busch; 788 laps - The Stewart-Haas Racing driver cracked the top five despite missing the first three races of the year due to suspension. In 2014, Busch didn’t even make it into the top 10 with 220 laps led.
  6. Kyle Busch, 736 laps - The 2015 Sprint Cup champion missed the first 11 races of the year because of injuries. In the 25 races he competed, he led 10.7 percent of the laps he completed. In the five races he won, Busch led 335 laps.
  7. Martin Truex Jr., 567 laps - At one point in the season Truex led the most laps in four straight races, winning only one (Pocono I). After that stretch, he led double-digit laps in just two races.
  8. Jimmie Johnson; 558 laps - Johnson failed to lead more than 1,000 laps for the first time since 2006 (854).
  9. Denny Hamlin; 529 laps - After leading 363 laps in consecutive seasons, Hamlin recorded his second-highest total in laps led since 2010. His best in the last five seasons was 1,226 in 2012.
  10. Carl Edwards; 376 laps - Edwards recorded his second highest total since 2011. Only once has Edwards led more than 1,000 laps in a season (1, 282 laps, 2011).

Follow @DanielMcFadin