Intermediate Track Driver Ranking Debut: Monday Night Racing
Podium eSports is proud to present to you the inaugural set of Monday Night Racing Intermediate Track Driver Rankings for season 5. Below you will find the top 25 ranked drivers in Monday Night Racing as ranked per this track type.
On June 20th at 8 PM EST, Monday Night Racing will head to World Wide Technology Raceway for the next race of the season and we encourage you to tune in on the Podium eSports Twitch Channel to witness all of the action.
How are the ratings determined?
Driver Rankings for a specific racing genre are determined by several factors, including wins, laps led, starts, a driver’s average finishing position, and more. Winning the race on a last-lap pass will improve your ranking but winning the race and leading multiple laps will improve it more. After 34 intermediate track races under the MNR banner, let’s see how the drivers are ranked.
Head of the Class: Adam Cabot – Intermediate Track Driver Ranking 94
The MNR season 4 champion leads all drivers in this ranking due to his incredible consistency on this track type. In his 15 starts, Cabot has scored 11 top-10 finishes (73%) and 9 top-5 finishes (60%). On top of his ability to finish up front, Cabot has led 130 laps and is credited for only one DNF.
While it doesn’t affect his ranking, it’s also worth noting that Cabot won his season 4 title at an intermediate track. Back in February of this year, Cabot finished 2nd at Auto Club Speedway and secured his championship at the live event in Charlotte, North Carolina. A few weeks prior this event, Cabot scored his most recent MNR win at Chicagoland, another intermediate track.
Season 5 has felt like a struggle for Cabot. In the six season five races, Cabot has scored worse than 30th on two occasions, the latter of which resulted in a DNF. Compared to the first six races of season 4, where Cabot started the season with back-to-back top 5 finishes.
With only 3 races to go before the playoffs begin, Cabot finds himself only a few points above the playoff cut line. A win would be enormous, due to the win and in playoff structure used in Monday Night Racing. One would have to imagine that Cabot has circled this week and next week at Charlotte on his calendar due to his strong performance at this track type.
A Half Step Behind: Rajah Caruth – Intermediate Track Driver Ranking 93
The real-life NASCAR driver is a veteran of Monday Night racing, as this is his 4th season in the league, and this will be his 25th race at this track type. In his previous 24 races, Caruth has won 4 times, including the last race at Auto Club Speedway in the season finale. It is also worth noting that with 4 wins, Caruth is tied for 1st for wins at intermediate tracks. Therefore, a win on Monday would put him in first place all by himself. Those four victories are also a contributing factor in Caruth leading 624 laps, the most across all drivers. His 624 leaps led is nearly double of 2nd place which is 317, that accolade belongs to Anthony Alfredo.
So why is Caruth only a 93? The 7 times that Caruth has not finished the race is the biggest factor. This is also a stat in which Caruth is tied for first place, not an award to be proud of. The impact of this can also be seen if you compare Caruth’s and Cabot’s Average finish position stats.
| Driver | Races | Avg Finish | DNF | DNF% |
| Cabot | 15 | 8.8 | 1 | 6.67% |
| Caruth | 24 | 15.04 | 7 | 29.17% |
Seeing as a driver’s average finishing position and DNFs count towards your driver ranking, this explains why Caruth is 1 point behind in the driver rankings despite having more wins and laps led.
Season 5 has been a struggle for Caruth, only one time has he finished in the top-10 so far. Minus a victory in the next three weeks, Caruth will likely not be part of the playoffs this year.
When the green flag falls on Monday, it will have been 364 days since the last MNR raced this same car and track combo. In that race, Caruth racked up one of his 7 DNFs finishing 37 laps down in 29th place. A win by Caruth this time, will not only lock him into the playoffs but also likely jump him ahead of Cabot in the Driver Rankings.
Riding a Wave of Momentum: Anthony Alfredo – Intermediate Track Driver Rating 91
Anthony Alfredo is becoming a mainstay in these articles. He’s previously been featured in our Dirt rankings and Superspeedway rankings articles due to his success in MNR. (Spoiler: He will appear again next week)
As mentioned, Alfredo has led 317 laps on intermediate tracks, a stat that has helped him achieve his 3 wins. Those occurred once at Auto Club Speedway and twice at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Another factor in his driver rating is his 12 top-5 finishes, the most of any driver in MNR history. Another factor that helps Alfredo achieve his 91 ranking is his pole qualifying position at Dover in February 2021.
Last week, with his win at Talladega, Alfredo boosted his Superspeedway Driver Rating to a 96. A win this week could help him come close to doing the same for intermediate tracks. Also of note, of the drivers mentioned, Alfredo had the best finish one year ago at this track, finishing 3rd.
His Best Track Specific Racking: Ford Martin – Intermediate Track Driver Rating 84
MNR owner Ford Martin is the only driver in MNR history to have competed in every race of this track type. In those 34 races, he has achieved a top-10 finish in nearly half of them. His numerous top-10 finishes help contribute to him having an average finishing position of 15.06. This will nearly tie him with Rajah Caruth who has an average of 15.04. His driver rating of 84 ties him for 13th place with Maxwell Kennon, DJ Cummings, and Matthew Stallknecht. A rating of 84 also puts him only one point behind drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Will Rodgers, and Kyle Busch.
Early on in season 4, in back-to-back intermediate tracks races, Martin put together back-to-back 6th place finishes, one of which was in the Super Late Model vehicles. However, season 5 has not seen Martin crack the top-10 in the finishing order yet. Per his track-specific rankings, this week at WWT Raceway, or next week at Charlotte seem to be his best shot.
