NASCAR Cup Series StatChat 2026 - Bristol 1

By Adam Carabine

Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Bristol, Tennessee for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bristol is a 0.533-mile short track oval, with a concrete surface and heavy banking in the corners.  The track was built in 1961, and has been a staple on the Cup Series calendar ever since.  Jack Smith won the first Cup race there that same year.  Christopher Bell won the most recent race at Bristol last fall, and Kyle Larson won it in the spring last year.

Tomorrow’s race will be 500 laps long (for a total of 266.5 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 125 – 250 – 500.  Pit road speed is 30 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 35 mph.  The fuel window is approximately 165-180 laps, but tire wear may be more of a factor determining pit stops.

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 1,838 laps, for 2,464.30 miles so far this season.  Four drivers have completed 100% of them so far (Keselowski, Elliott, Reddick, and Preece).

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Bristol:

Christopher Bell	11.58 over 12 races (2 wins)
Chase Elliott	12.42 over 19 races
Ty Gibbs	12.43 over 7 races
Kyle Larson	13.09 over 22 races (3 wins)
Chase Briscoe	13.50 over 10 races

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Bristol:

SVG	32.00 over 2 races
Cody Ware	28.00 over 5 races
Noah Gragson	25.33 over 6 races
Michael McDowell	24.84 over 31 races
Ty Dillon	24.50 over 16 races

Bristol is a Short Track

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Joey Logano	11.23 over 198 races (13 wins)
Chase Elliott	11.52 over 111 races (5 wins)
Christopher Bell	11.94 over 67 races (7 wins)
Ryan Blaney	11.96 over 115 races (6 wins)
William Byron	12.63 over 89 races (5 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Cody Ware	31.81 over 42 races
Riley Herbst	27.75 over 14 races
Connor Zilisch	27.50 over 2 races
Michael McDowell	26.19 over 175 races
Ty Dillon	25.76 over 87 races

Darrell Waltrip is the king of Bristol, having won there 12 times – the most of any driver.  Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, and Rusty Wallace all are tied for 2^nd-most wins, with 9 each.

Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Bristol:

AJ Allmendinger

2007 – P40

Drivers who earned their first Cup Series win at Bristol:

No one

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Drivers whose most recent Cup Series Victory was at Bristol:

Christopher Bell

2025

Notable drivers who have not won at Bristol:

Chase Elliott	(has won at 15 other tracks)
Ryan Blaney	(has won at 12 other tracks)
William Byron	(has won at 11 other tracks)
Tyler Reddick	(has won at 11 other tracks)
Alex Bowman	(has won at 8 other tracks)

Based on average finish, no driver lists Bristol as their BEST or WORST track.

Based on their point pace, let’s have a look at how this season is comparing to last season for drivers:

Drivers Faring Better than in 2025

Tyler Reddick	+782 pts
Ty Gibbs	+348 pts
Daniel Suarez	+279 pts
Brad Keselowski	+261 pts
Chris Buescher	+170 pts

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2025

Alex Bowman	-641 pts (Currently not racing due to vertigo)
Chase Briscoe	-450 pts
Kyle Larson	-202 pts
Ross Chastain	-197 pts
Christopher Bell	-163 pts

Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:

Best Career Year

Tyler Reddick	5.71
Chase Elliott	9.00
Ryan Blaney	10.14
William Byron	10.86
Ty Gibbs	11.86
Ryan Preece	14.43
SVG	15.71
Carson Hocevar	16.57
Riley Herbst	25.00

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer	28.00
Todd Gilliland	25.29
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	25.14
Josh Berry	23.29
Austin Dillon	23.29
Austin Cindric	22.57
Kyle Busch	21.57
Chase Briscoe	20.86

The Manufacturer Standings are calculated by awarding points to the highest finisher for each manufacturer according to their finishing position.  (55 for 1^st, 35 for 2^nd, 34 for 3^rd, etc.)  No stage points or playoff points count.

Manufacturer Standings

Toyota	345
Chevrolet	261
Ford	248

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

Chartered Team Standings

23XI	301
Hendrick	243
Joe Gibbs	239
Penske	235
RFK	194
Spire	189
Trackhouse	181
Front Row	154
Legacy MC	141
RCR	130
Kaulig	124
Wood Bros	98
Hyak	83
Haas Factory	64
Rick Ware	58

At each stage break, the Top 10 drivers are awarded points based on their finishing positions.  Here are the leaders this year:

Stage Point Leaders

Bubba Wallace	60
Tyler Reddick	58
Ryan Blaney	55
William Byron	55
Denny Hamlin	50
Austin Cindric	47
Kyle Larson	44
Ty Gibbs	43
Chris Buescher	41
Christopher Bell	37

Milestone Watch

Ross Chastain	Looking for his 40th Career Top 5
Chase Briscoe	Looking for his 30th Career Top 5
Cody Ware	This will be his 150th Career Cup Series Start
Tyler Reddick	Looking for his 50th Career Top 5
Austin Cindric	Looking for his 30th Career Top 10
Brad Keselowski	Looking for his 280th Career Top 10
Chris Buescher	Looking for his 90th Career Top 10

Scorigami Update

Martinsville was the first time that:

Connor Zilisch finished 26^th 

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

Winless Streaks

Cole Custer	140 races
Erik Jones	124 races
Kyle Busch	100 races
Michael McDowell	91 races
Daniel Suarez	77 races
Brad Keselowski	66 races
AJ Allmendinger	63 races
Alex Bowman	51 races
Chris Buescher	51 races
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	48 races

The race begins Sunday, March 29^th  at 3:30 pm EST (12:30 pm PST) – Enjoy the race everyone!

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