NASCAR Cup Series StatChat 2026 - COTA
- Adam Carabine
- 9 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels to Austin, Texas for the DureMAX Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, or COTA.
The portion of the track that NASCAR uses at COTA is a 17-turn 2.4-mile road course. The facility opened in 2012, and NASCAR first visited in 2021. Christopher Bell won this race last year.
Tomorrow’s race will be 95 laps long (for a total of 223.82 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 20 – 45 – 95. Pit road speed is 40 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 45 mph. The fuel window is approximately 34-36 laps.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 566 laps, for 1,141.16 miles so far this season. 15 drivers have completed 100% of them so far.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at COTA:
Tyler Reddick | 4.60 over 5 races (1 win) |
Alex Bowman | 5.20 over 5 races |
Ross Chastain | 5.60 over 5 races (1 win) |
William Byron | 6.20 over 5 races (1 win) |
Chase Elliott | 6.25 over 4 races (1 win) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at COTA:
Connor Zilisch | 37.00 over 1 race |
Josh Berry | 30.50 over 2 races |
Daniel Suarez | 30.20 over 5 races |
Bubba Wallace | 29.80 over 5 races |
Cody Ware | 28.75 over 4 races |
COTA is a Road Course.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
SVG | 6.36 over 12 races (6 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 7.72 over 41 races (7 wins) |
Tyler Reddick | 11.17 over 32 races (3 wins) |
Chris Buescher | 12.48 over 43 races (1 win) |
Christopher Bell | 12.85 over 32 races (3 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
Cody Ware | 30.57 over 21 races |
Josh Berry | 27.17 over 11 races |
Ty Dillon | 26.92 over 31 races |
Riley Herbst | 24.83 over 6 races |
Noah Gragson | 24.44 over 15 races |
Since this race has only been run five times, there is no winningest driver at COTA. There are actually five different winners here, each with one win.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at COTA:
Connor Zilisch | 2025, P37 |
Drivers who WON their first Cup Series race at COTA:
Ross Chastain | 121st Career Cup Series Start |
Notable drivers who have not won at COTA:
Kyle Busch | (has won at 24 other tracks) |
Denny Hamlin | (has won at 20 other tracks) |
Joey Logano | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Brad Keselowski | (has won at 17 other tracks) |
Based on average finish, no driver lists COTA as their BEST track, but Connor Zilisch, Dnaiel Suarez, and Bubba Wallace list it as their 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 | +1217 pts |
Zane Smith | +663 pts |
Bubba Wallace | +628 pts |
Daniel Suarez | +575 pts |
Carson Hocevar | +468 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2025
Christopher Bell | -893 pts |
Denny Hamlin | -629 pts |
Kyle Larson | -608 pts |
Alex Bowman | -570 pts |
Ty Gibbs | -513 pts |
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
Toyota | 110 |
Chevrolet | 69 |
Ford | 64 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
23XI | 110 |
Front Row | 61 |
Penske | 61 |
RFK | 60 |
Hendrick | 59 |
Spire | 57 |
Trackhouse | 51 |
Joe Gibbs | 49 |
Kaulig | 48 |
Hyak | 36 |
Legacy Motor Club | 34 |
RCR | 30 |
Rick Ware | 30 |
Haas Factory | 29 |
Wood Bros | 29 |
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 | 29 |
Ryan Blaney | 21 |
Austin Cindric | 19 |
William Byron | 16 |
Tyler Reddick | 15 |
Chase Elliott | 12 |
Carson Hocevar | 12 |
Kyle Busch | 11 |
Zane Smith | 10 |
Chris Buescher | 9 |
Milestone Watch
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Chase Briscoe | Looking for his 30th Career Top 5 |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 60th Career Top 5 |
Ryan Blaney | Looking for his 170th Career Top 10 |
Scorigami Update
Atlanta was the first time that:
Connor Zilisch finished 30th
Carson Hocevar finished 4th
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Cole Custer | 135 races |
Erik Jones | 119 races |
Kyle Busch | 95 races |
Michael McDowell | 86 races |
Daniel Suarez | 72 races |
Brad Keselowski | 61 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 58 races |
Alex Bowman | 50 races |
Chris Buescher | 46 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 43 races |
The race begins Sunday, March 1st 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!
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