Alright folks, lemme tell you ’bout my little NASCAR DNF adventure. Buckle up, it’s a bumpy ride!
So, I got this wild hair, see? Figured I’d dive into some NASCAR data, specifically them dreaded DNFs – Did Not Finish. You know, when a car bites the dust ‘fore the checkered flag waves. I always wondered, like, who’s the king of DNFs? Who’s had the most bad luck, or maybe just pushed their equipment too hard?
First thing I did was start diggin’ around for some data. Ended up cobbling together info from a few different spots online. It was messy, lemme tell ya. Spreadsheets everywhere! Had to wrangle that data into something usable. Thinkin’ like a mechanic here, I cleaned it up, got rid of the junk, and made sure everything was lined up right.
Next, I wanted to see who had the most DNFs. I basically just counted ’em up for each driver. It was kinda tedious, going row by row, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do. I used some simple code to help, nothing fancy, just counting each time “DNF” showed up next to a driver’s name.
Then, I started to wonder about car numbers. Like, is there a number that’s just cursed? I mean, number 69 has a lot of DNFs, I saw it online and wanted to check it out. So I grouped all the DNFs by car number. Same deal, counted ’em up. Turns out, some numbers definitely have more DNFs than others. Whether that’s luck or just ’cause certain teams ran those numbers for a long time, who knows?
But here’s where things got interesting. I wanted to see if certain tracks were DNF magnets. You know, those tracks that just chew up cars. So I grouped the DNFs by track. Talladega and Daytona, those big superspeedways, they always seem to have a ton of wrecks, so I figured they’d be up there. And sure enough, they were! Seems like pushin’ it to the limit on those tracks often ends in disaster.
Of course, this ain’t no scientific study or nothin’. Just a little fun with data. But it was cool to see some patterns emerge. Makes you appreciate just how tough it is to finish a NASCAR race, especially when you’re pushin’ it to the ragged edge every single lap.
Anyway, that’s my NASCAR DNF story. Hope you enjoyed the ride!
