Yahoo Sports NASCAR.coms 36 for 36: 2024 Season Wrap-Up
The 2024 NASCAR season had no shortage of excitement, drama and unpredictability. The same went for NASCAR.com’s season-long 36 for 36 competition.
With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players selected one car per race, with one simple twist: Once they made a pick, they couldn’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car was selected exactly once — NASCAR’s version of a survivor pool. You get it.
Our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com, and the collective r/NASCAR subreddit — thought like strategists and proved their picking prowess over the course of the year.
Now, with the 2024 season in the books, it’s time to crown a champion and take a look back at the journey.
Final Standings:
Steve Luvender: 985
r/NASCAR Community: -118
Cameron Richardson: -163
Dustin Albino: -168
Here are some closing thoughts from our pickers. Let’s pretend this is our awards banquet.
Fourth Place: Jayski’s Dustin Albino
Total season points: 817 (-168 points from first place)
Best moment: “If we’re basing this off points accumulated for a single race, it would go to the retiring Martin Truex Jr. at Dover, earning a whopping 51 points. But I enjoy giving some credit to the underdogs, and some of my picks rose to the occasion. My Harrison Burton choice at Talladega was his only top 10 in 2024 outside of his summer Daytona triumph. Michael McDowell was caught up in multiple incidents at Sonoma and rebounded to finish runner-up. It was a challenging transition to Toyota for Legacy Motor Club, but the 30-point day Erik Jones tallied at Pocono was the most points he earned on a non-superspeedway this year. Also recorded a strong seventh-place result with Zane Smith at Michigan.”
Worst luck: “I don’t think we have enough space to list the worst luck here. After taking the championship lead during the summer months, Ross Chastain was wrecked from the lead in overtime at Nashville. The following week, Shane van Gisbergen was taken out in the rain after dominating the opening stage. Right before the two-week Olympic break, Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel from the lead. Let’s jump to the regular season finale at Darlington; William Byron was having a top-five day and was involved in a late wreck. Kicked off the Round of 8 with a Tyler Reddick flip after winning Stage 1. Kyle Larson had a mediocre Homestead race, and by then, I was finally mathematically eliminated from the championship. If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”
Overall thoughts: “Fun first year — this was a blast! Caught myself every race checking out where my opponents’ picks were running. It felt real.”
Third Place: NASCAR.com’s Cameron Richardson
Total season points: 822 (-163 points from first place)
Best moment: “My best moment was probably going with Stewart-Haas Racing early in the season as Preece, Briscoe and Berry all netted me 28 points or more at the flatter and smaller tracks.”
Worst luck: “My season practically ended at Nashville when Ross Chastain was wrecked in overtime battling for the win. It just led to one bad result after another and I never could fight back to the lead, but I’m glad I didn’t finish last.”
Overall thoughts: “I really enjoyed participating in the inaugural 36 for 36 run. I like being able to strategize for weeks in advance, just like a survivor pool in other sports, and I love our take on it here. This was incredibly fun. Maybe we could throw in some new ideas like bonus points or more players but other than that, I loved this and hope we can continue on with it next season.”
Second Place: r/NASCAR Community
Total season points: 867 (-118 points from first place)
The NASCAR subreddit dutifully participated in weekly voting threads each Thursday throughout the season that delivered lively debate, thoughtful strategy decisions and plenty of laughs along the way. Each week, individual Redditors would upvote the driver they thought would make the best 36 for 36 pick in a blind vote — vote totals weren’t visible while selections were taking place — and the driver with the most votes would get the nod on the board.
Highlights of the season for the r/NASCAR community included picking four race winners: Denny Hamlin at Richmond, Christopher Bell at New Hampshire, Harrison Burton at Daytona and Tyler Reddick at Homestead. None of our individual pickers scored as many wins.
There were only a few missteps or bad luck throughout the year. The community confidently picked Kyle Larson in the Coca-Cola 600 — or so they thought — but Larson didn’t race, and Justin Allgaier piloted the car. And, at Bristol in the spring, the community couldn’t quite come to a consensus on a pick, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended up with the most votes; the No. 47 only scored four points.
As it turns out, getting a community of 1.4 million readers to reach a weekly consensus was good enough for second place overall. Score one for the hivemind.
2024 Champion: NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender
Total season points: 950
Best moment: “I had a feeling my opponents would select defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen in the No. 16 at the Chicago Street Race — and they all did. Of course, SVG ran into some bad luck and crashed out in Stage 2. But, I saved my No. 16 for AJ Allmendinger at the Charlotte Roval, where he’s, like, otherworldly-good. It paid off: my Chicago pick of Michael McDowell scored 32 points, while the ‘Dinger delivered a huge 44-point day at the Roval. Other than that, I’ll admit I got lucky on a few picks — like 43 points from Austin Cindric at Atlanta in February.”
Worst luck: “I picked the No. 3 at Richmond in the spring. The No. 3 car won at Richmond … in the fall. That one stings a little bit. Other standouts include Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Dover, who was in contention for a top-five finish until he found the wall and crashed out, and Kyle Busch at Las Vegas in March, who might have won the race without a late-race pit-road speeding penalty.”
Overall thoughts: “36 for 36 is a great game not only because it has a nice balance of luck and skill, but also because you can have fun whether you spend an hour analyzing Racing Reference for past results or if you make your pick based on vibes and vibes alone. (I did both throughout the year.) Maybe next time, I’ll fill out my board with a random-number generator and see if I can win again. Thanks for following along!”
