NASCAR announced today that STATS LLC, the world's leading sports information provider, will be creating and analyzing new, in-depth racing statistics designed to enhance how its racing series are viewed and enjoyed.

For the first time ever, NASCAR is utilizing its "loop data" to help provide a more complete picture of the exciting action that occurs during every lap in America's second most popular sport on television. With multiple loops now placed at various locations throughout each track, NASCAR will now provide an additional collection of statistics from NASCAR's three national series. This new data will complement and enhance the current NASCAR statistics that are generated each week.

"Along with knowing who won a race, fans and media will know how the race was won," said NASCAR Managing Director of Corporate Communications Ramsey Poston. "The new loop data provided to NASCAR by STATS will help fans identify which drivers and teams excel in certain race situations," said Poston.

The first ever "NASCAR Box Score" will be made available after each race by STATS. This box score provides an expanded look at each race utilizing both standard and loop data in the four prominent categories of Performance, Position, Passes and Laps. A sample NASCAR Box Score can be found at www.nascarmedia.com. In total, more than 20 new reports will be offered after each race.

Among the numerous new statistics, reports from NASCAR and STATS will analyze driver speeds and the number of cars passed in the straightaways and corners. Additionally, the reports will track "quality passes" - the number of cars in the top 15 a driver passes - and "closers," the number of positions a driver picks up at the end of the race.

"Our new partnership with NASCAR is extremely exciting to all of us at STATS. It is very gratifying that an organization of NASCAR's stature recognized our talents and capabilities to help them tell the story of NASCAR racing through numbers and analysis," said Jim Capuano, STATS Vice President of Sales.

Each week NASCAR and STATS will offer a pre-race report that offers a glimpse into past performance at the upcoming track, a post-race report that analyzes each race soon after its conclusion, and a season-to-date report showing which drivers have excelled in each statistical category. NASCAR's new in-depth data and analysis from STATS for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is available beginning today with the racing at Daytona International Speedway.