StatChat - NASCAR Cup Series @ Daytona 2

This weekend’s race will take place at Daytona International Speedway.  Daytona is a 2.5-mile Super Speedway that opened in 1959. 

 

Saturday’s race is set to be 160 laps (400 miles) with stage breaks at 50 – 100 – 160, with a competition caution at lap 20.  The fuel window is approximately 38-42 laps.

 

NASCAR has run 8.678.53 miles so far this year.  Denny Hamlin has completed 99.89% of them, the most of any driver.

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:

Austin Dillon

14.75 over 16 races

Bubba Wallace

15.13 over 8 races

Denny Hamlin

15.97 over 31 races

Christopher Bell

16.67 over 3 races

Kevin Harvick

17.23 over 40 races

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:

Daniel Suarez

32.11 over 9 races

Quin Houff

32.00 over 4 races

Josh Bilicki

31.00 over 2 races

Cody Ware

30.00 over 2 races

Tyler Reddick

27.75 over 4 races

 

Daytona is a Super Speedway.

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:

Chase Briscoe

15.00 over 2 races

Kevin Harvick

16.49 over 81 races

Denny Hamlin

16.58 over 62 races

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16.75 over 34 races

Austin Dillon

17.06 over 32 races

 

Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Daytona, having won 10 times.  Cale Yarborough won there 8 times, followed by Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Jeff Gordon who each won 6 times.  As for current drivers, Denny Hamlin has 3 wins, and Kevin Harvick has 2.

 

Notable drivers who have not won at Daytona:

Martin Truex Jr.

(has won at 15 other tracks)

Chase Elliott

(has won at 11 other tracks)

Kyle Larson

(has won at 9 other tracks)

Ryan Blaney

(has won at 5 other tracks)

Alex Bowman

(has won at 5 other tracks)

 

Four drivers have earned their first Cup Series victory at Daytona.  Erik Jones in his 57th start, William Byron in his 98th, Aric Almirola in his 124th, and Michael McDowell in his 356th.

 

No drivers list Daytona as their BEST or WORST track.

 

Milestone Watch!

Martin Truex Jr.

Currently has 124 Career Top 5s

Chris Buescher

Currently has 24 Career Top 10s

Brad Keselowski

This will be his 25th start @ Daytona

 

 

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

William Byron

+294 pts

Daniel Suarez

+254 pts

Tyler Reddick

+196 pts

Christopher Bell

+172 pts

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

+135 pts

 

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2020

Aric Almirola

-367 pts

Kevin Harvick

-318 pts

Erik Jones

-252 pts

Brad Keselowski

-189 pts

Joey Logano

-121 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

8.92

Kyle Larson

9.32

Chase Elliott

11.16

William Byron

12.12

Ryan Blaney

12.20

Austin Dillon

15.04

Chris Buescher

17.04

Ross Chastain

18.68

Michael McDowell

18.88

Bubba Wallace

19.84

Ryan Preece

22.80

Bubba Wallace

25.00

 

Drivers Having their WORST Career Year

Ryan Newman

21.56

Erik Jones

20.52

 

 

 

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

274 pts

Kyle Larson

274 pts

Chase Elliott

190 pts

William Byron

190 pts

Kyle Busch

178 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

Chevrolet

927

Ford

862

Toyota

847

 

Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:

 

Chartered Team Standings

Hendrick

904

Joe Gibbs

843

Penske

805

Stewart-Haas

730

Chip Ganassi

649

Richard Childress

635

JTG-Daugherty

573

Roush-Fenway

558

Wood Brothers

512

Front Row

464

23XI

432

Richard Petty

415

Trackhouse

400

Spire

364

Rick Ware

230

Live Fast

161

StarCom

123

 

 

 

The race is Saturday, August 28that 7:00pm EST (4:00pm PST) – Enjoy the races everyone!

 

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @StatChat_RR

Or you can email directly: acarabine@racingrefresh.com

Get all your StatChat Merch from the Racing Refresh online store!

 

Is there an error? Is there a stat missing that you’d like to see? Let us know!

 

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