With 36 races in a year and 40 available finishing positions on the track, it’s practically inevitable a driver ends up finishing in every possible place at some point — you win some, you lose some, as they say. Quoth Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

Aric Almirola joined the list at Texas Motor Speedway when he finished second in the Round of 8 playoff race — the only finishing position he was missing. He joins Ryan Blaney as drivers to accomplish this during the 2019 Playoffs. Blaney’s 21st-place finish at Kansas Speedway was the last piece to his puzzle.



As you continue to watch the 2019 postseason, keep in mind some drivers might be chasing more than a championship trophy — a few are in position to complete the massive 40-row bingo board that is the list of possible finishing positions in NASCAR.

Drivers who have completed the ‘All 40 Challenge’

• Aric Almirola

• Ryan Blaney

• Alex Bowman

• Clint Bowyer

• Kurt Busch

• Kyle Busch

• Denny Hamlin

• Kevin Harvick

• Jimmie Johnson

• Joey Logano

• Paul Menard

• Ryan Newman

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

• Martin Truex Jr.

One Position Remaining

• David Ragan: 9th

David Ragan has driven for plenty of teams in his 13 full-time seasons at NASCAR’s top level, but he’s somehow never finished in ninth place. He’s retiring from full-time racing at the end of the season, too.

Two Positions Remaining

• Austin Dillon: 2nd and 40th

• Brad Keselowski: 28th and 40th

• Kyle Larson: 22nd and 32nd

Three Positions Remaining

• Erik Jones: 28th, 32nd and 37th

Four Positions Remaining

• Matt DiBenedetto: 1st, 3rd, 10th and 11th

• Chase Elliott: 25th, 26th, 28th and 40th

• Daniel Suarez: 1st, 25th, 27th, 39th



Bonus Data: Never Last

Since we were already analyzing the data anyway, you might want to keep these names in your back pocket: six full-time drivers have never finished in exactly 40th place (also known as last place in a 40-car field):

• William Byron

• Austin Dillon*

• Ty Dillon

• Chase Elliott

• Brad Keselowski*

• Bubba Wallace

*finished worse than 40th before field size rules were changed, but never finished exactly 40th



Here’s the complete list of non-rookie full-time drivers and their status entering the 2019 ISM Raceway playoff race. If a driver hasn’t finished in a particular position, it’s highlighted in gold. Drivers with grayed-out names have completed the challenge.