A Look At Safe Drivers

As I mentioned previously, the irony of the season that started with the tragic death of Paul Dana was the 14 races in 2006 featured significantly less accidents then previous seasons. Analyzing the overall numbers at the driver level reveals who specifically were the best drivers at bringing home the equipment in one piece.

Last season only one driver started and finished every race. Wanna guess? Here’s a hint: he was one of the Big 4. Here’s another hint: Ice cold, baby.

In fact the Ganassi team of Dixon and Wheldon paired together had but one accident between them, and that was the yellow flag passing fiasco with Uncle Sam in St. Petersburg. This is a HUGE improvement over the 13 accidents Dixon, Darren Manning and Ryan Briscoe compiled for Team Chip in 2005.

Among other drivers who started at least half of the races, there were three others who were not listed as retired due to Accident for any race: Mr. Judd, Danica!, and Buddy Lazier. Many had one or two accidents consistent with the statistical average, but there were three drivers who had at least three Accidents: Matsuura, Simmons and Buddy Rice. It should be noted Jeff Bucknum had only two wrecks in a mere seven races.

Breaking down the numbers at the career level is even more informative. Note the stark contrast between the guys on the top of the list versus the bottom.

Driver Starts Accident Accident%
Dan Wheldon 63 2 3%
Bryan Herta 58 4 7%
Marco Andretti 14 1 7%
Helio Castroneves 80 6 8%
Dario Franchitti 50 4 8%
Vitor Meira 60 5 8%
Tony Kanaan 64 6 9%
Felipe Giaffone 61 6 10%
Sam Hornish Jr 99 11 11%
Buddy Lazier 98 11 11%
Scott Dixon 63 8 13%
Danica Patrick 30 4 13%
Buddy Rice 63 9 14%
Scott Sharp 129 21 16%
Sarah Fisher 50 9 18%
Eddie Cheever Jr 77 15 19%
Kosuke Matsuura 47 10 21%
Ed Carpenter 48 12 25%
Tomas Scheckter 75 22 29%
Jeff Simmons 14 5 36%
Jeff Bucknum 11 4 36%

Four of the top five are current or former Andretti green drivers. Wow. Also, I’m willing to bet The Wrecker’s 22 Accidents are a league career record, but I don’t have the initiative to actually verify this. Still it should be noted that he only had one accident in 2006 so maybe he’s, umm, turned a corner.

And as I said before, it’s really creepy how drivers with similar names compare.
• Buddys Lazier and Rice, 11 and 14% respectively.
• Scotts Dixon and Sharp, 13 and 16%.
• Ed and Eddie, 25 and 19%.
• Jeffs Simmons and Bucknum, 36% each. (Good thing I’m not a driver.)

For viewing problems (accident or otherwise) in a larger sense, there is the rate of simply completing races. A look at the stats for Running At Finish show results similar to the accident rate but with some shuffling around.

Driver Starts Running Running%
Helio Castroneves 80 70 88%
Tony Kanaan 64 55 86%
Dan Wheldon 63 52 83%
Bryan Herta 58 47 81%
Sam Hornish Jr 99 80 81%
Danica Patrick 30 24 80%
Marco Andretti 14 11 79%
Vitor Meira 60 47 78%
Dario Franchitti 50 39 78%
Felipe Giaffone 61 47 77%
Scott Dixon 63 47 75%
Buddy Rice 63 46 73%
Scott Sharp 129 94 73%
Buddy Lazier 98 69 70%
Ed Carpenter 48 31 65%
Jeff Simmons 14 9 64%
Kosuke Matsuura 47 30 64%
Eddie Cheever Jr 77 45 58%
Sarah Fisher 50 29 58%
Tomas Scheckter 75 41 55%
Jeff Bucknum 11 5 45%

To be fair, some of the more experienced drivers like Sharp, Lazier and Cheever are probably penalized a bit more than their contemporaries. The hardware in the IRL seems to be more sound these days, as evidenced by the lack of engine failure in the Hondas used recently.

Still, it looks like if you want to keep your high-speed billboard on the track you should consider a Brazilian. Five of the top seven drivers in Running At Finish are current or former AGR drivers, and the other two are current Penske employees.

So how important are these stats? You be the judge, but remember Penske and AGR drivers have combined to win 24 of 31 races in the last two seasons.