Some good insight. I think my current plugs have ~15K on them with the engine at ~92K-93K.
With your .50 gap, it is possible that you may be getting a better burn at your freeway cruising rpm. The ideal spark plug would be able to adapt to the conditions inside the cylinder. It may be possible a wider gap is giving you a cleaner, more complete burn when under load.
Since you have three posts, I'm wondering how long have you been accurately tracking fuel mileage? I could put down 24-26mpg winter and 26-28 spring just by temperature changes alone. I also would put down 18-23mpg gallon tanks before I toned down the aggressive driving.
__________________
|