StatChat - NASCAR Cup Series @ Kansas
Last week we highlighted that Denny Hamlin was having a great season despite not having yet won a race. He went on to score his worst performance of the season so far, crossing the finish line at Talladega 3 laps down in 32nd. Sorry Denny – we’ll keep out of it next time.
Instead of singling out a driver this week, let’s examine the track itself. This weekend, the Cup Series makes its way to Kansas Speedway for the Buschy McBusch Race 400. Kansas Speedway is a 1.5 mile tri-oval track that was built in 2001. The inaugural race was won by Jeff Gordon that same year.
In order to find a comparable track this season, one has to look back 7 races. Talladega was a Super Speedway, Richmond, Martinsville and Bristol were Short Tracks before that, though Dirty Bristol was its own different beast. Atlanta before that was of a similar length to Kansas, but the worn track surface there turns the race into a tire war more than anything. Before that was the shorter and unique layout of Phoenix. Finally, 7 races ago, the Cup Series ran a comparable track in Las Vegas. Kyle Larson led a dominant 103 laps on his way to victory lane. Can he recapture that success on Sunday?
This weekend’s race will be 267 laps (for a total of 400.5 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 80 – 160 – 267, and a competition caution at lap 25. The fuel window is approximately 57-60 laps.
NASCAR has run 3,572.11 miles so far this year, and with Denny Hamlin finishing last week off of the lead lap, no driver has raced all of them!
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Kansas:
| Kevin Harvick | 9.33 over 30 races |
| Cole Custer | 10.50 over 2 races |
| Chase Elliott | 11.00 over 10 races |
| Brad Keselowski | 11.64 over 22 races |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 13.24 over 25 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Kansas:
| Ross Chastain | 30.75 over 4 races |
| Quin Houff | 30.33 over 3 races |
| Michael McDowell | 29.84 over 19 races |
| Bubba Wallace | 28.00 over 6 races |
| Corey LaJoie | 25.75 over 8 races |
Kansas is an intermediate track.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
| Kevin Harvick | 11.73 over 362 races |
| Brad Keselowski | 12.64 over 214 races |
| Kyle Busch | 12.71 over 293 races |
| Denny Hamlin | 13.17 over 277 races |
| Chase Elliott | 13.36 over 98 races |
The winningest drivers at Kansas are all fairly evenly spread out. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick each only have 3 wins, with other current drivers Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano each having 2.
Notable drivers who have not won at Kansas:
| Kurt Busch | (has won at 17 other tracks) |
| Kyle Larson | (has won at 5 other tracks) |
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No current drivers list Kansas as their best track. Cody Ware is the only driver to list it as his worst, though that is only based on a single race where he finished 40th.
Based on their point pace, let’s have a look at who’s having a better year than last year.
Drivers Faring Better than in 2020
| Denny Hamlin | +302 pts |
| Christopher Bell | +290 pts |
| Daniel Suarez | +287 pts |
| Michael McDowell | +283 pts |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | +233 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2020
| Aric Almirola | -444 pts |
| Kevin Harvick | -315 pts |
| Erik Jones | -302 pts |
| Kurt Busch | -219 pts |
| Alex Bowman | -169 pts |
While some drivers may be doing better this year than they did in 2020, how does this year stack up against their entire career? This statistic does not include rookies, as this is their first full year in the Cup Series.
Drivers Having their BEST Career Year
| Denny Hamlin | 7.00 |
| William Byron | 10.30 |
| Ryan Blaney | 12.90 |
| Austin Dillon | 13.70 |
| Michael McDowell | 14.70 |
| Chris Buescher | 17.30 |
Drivers Having their WORST Career Year
| Tyler Reddick | 18.60 |
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In 2017, NASCAR introduced the concept of Stage Racing, which pauses the race at certain intervals and awards bonus points for the top 10 at that moment. Here are the Top-5 Stage Point earners so far this year:
Stage Point Leaders:
| Denny Hamlin | 146 pts |
| Ryan Blaney | 80 pts |
| Brad Keselowski | 71 pts |
| Chase Elliott | 69 pts |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 68 pts |
For those that aren’t aware, the Manufacturer Standings are calculated by awarding points to the highest finisher for each manufacturer according to their finishing position. (40 for 1st, 35 for 2nd, 34 for 3rd, etc.) No stage points or playoff points count.
Manufacturer Standings
| Ford | 362 |
| Chevrolet | 360 |
| Toyota | 342 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
| Hendrick | 350 |
| Joe Gibbs | 341 |
| Penske | 336 |
| Stewart-Haas | 285 |
| JTG-Daugherty | 259 |
| Richard Childress | 254 |
| Chip Ganassi | 241 |
| Front Row | 232 |
| Roush Fenway | 226 |
| Wood Brothers | 193 |
| Trackhouse | 164 |
| 23XI | 157 |
| Richard Petty | 154 |
| Spire | 129 |
| Rick Ware | 92 |
| Live Fast | 69 |
| StarCom | 53 |
The race begins Sunday, May 2nd at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 pm PST) – Enjoy the race everyone!
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Or you can email directly: acarabine@racingrefresh.com
Is there an error? Is there a stat missing that you’d like to see? Let us know!
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