NASCAR Cup Series StatChat 2026 - Daytona 2
- Adam Carabine
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday, this time on a Friday. This weekend the Cup Series travels to Daytona Beach, Florida for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Daytona is a 2.5-mile Super Speedway oval, with high banking and a tri-oval at the start-finish line. The track was opened in 1959, and Lee Petty won the inaugural race there in the Cup Series that same year. Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 here earlier this year, and Ryan Blaney won the late summer race here last year.
Saturday’s race will be 160 laps long (for a total of 400 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 35 – 95 – 160. Pit road speed is 55 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 70 mph. The fuel window is 45-50 laps.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 6,581 laps, for 8,935.22 miles so far this season. No drivers have completed all of them, but Denny Hamlin is the closest, running just two laps down.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
JH Nemechek | 13.14 over 7 races |
Bubba Wallace | 14.17 over 18 races |
Alex Bowman | 17.05 over 20 races |
Chris Buescher | 17.67 over 21 races (1 win) |
Ty Gibbs | 17.75 over 8 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
Connor Zilisch | 33.00 over 1 race |
SVG | 28.50 over 4 races |
Todd Gilliland | 27.78 over 9 races |
Carson Hocevar | 26.60 over 5 races |
Ryan Preece | 24.31 over 13 races |
Daytona is a Super Speedway.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedway:
Bubba Wallace | 16.88 over 35 races (1 win) |
JH Nemechek | 17.00 over 14 races |
Chase Elliott | 17.24 over 42 races (2 wins) |
Denny Hamlin | 17.57 over 82 races (5 wins) |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 17.80 over 54 races (4 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:
Connor Zilisch | 29.50 over 2 races |
Josh Berry | 25.07 over 11 races |
SVG | 24.55 over 9 races |
Michael McDowell | 23.25 over 61 races (1 win) |
Cody Ware | 22.88 over 22 races |
Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Daytona, with 10 wins under his belt. Cale Yarborough is in 2nd with 8 wins. As far as current drivers go, both Denny Hamlin and William Byron have three wins.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Daytona:
Riley Herbst | 2023 – P10 |
Austin Cindric | 2021 – P15 |
Chase Briscoe | 2021 – P19 |
Christopher Bell | 2020 – P21 |
William Byron | 2018 – P23 |
Drivers who earned their first Cup Series win at Daytona:
Austin Cindric | 8th Start |
Erik Jones | 67th Start |
William Byron | 98th Start |
Michael McDowell | 356th Start |
Drivers whose most recent Cup Series Victory was at Daytona:
No One | -- |
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Notable drivers who have not won at Daytona:
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
Alex Bowman | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Ross Chastain | (has won at 6 other tracks) |
Based on average finish, JH Nemechek and Cody Ware list it as their BEST track, while Chase Elliott lists it as his WORST.
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
Ty Gibbs | +481 pts |
Daniel Suarez | +354 pts |
Denny Hamlin | +270 pts |
Carson Hocevar | +253 pts |
Tyler Reddick | +205 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2025
Alex Bowman | -326 pts (missed 4 races with vertigo) |
William Byron | -273 pts |
Kyle Larson | -212 pts |
Ross Chastain | -175 pts |
Christopher Bell | -164 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Denny Hamlin | 8.12 |
Ryan Blaney | 10.60 |
Ty Gibbs | 11.48 |
Tyler Reddick | 12.60 |
Daniel Suarez | 15.20 |
Carson Hocevar | 15.88 |
SVG | 18.00 |
Riley Herbst | 22.20 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 25.16 |
Josh Berry | 23.88 |
The Manufacturer Standings are calculated by awarding points to the highest finisher for each manufacturer according to their finishing position. (55 for 1st, 35 for 2nd, 34 for 3rd, etc.) No stage points or playoff points count.
Manufacturer Standings
Toyota | 1,118 |
Chevrolet | 985 |
Ford | 912 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Joe Gibbs | 960 |
23XI | 912 |
Penske | 871 |
Hendrick | 802 |
Spire | 723 |
RFK | 686 |
Trackhouse | 683 |
Front Row | 569 |
Legacy MC | 508 |
Kaulig | 469 |
RCR | 458 |
Hyak | 361 |
Wood Bros | 330 |
Haas Factory | 308 |
Rick Ware | 195 |
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
Ty Gibbs | 200 |
Denny Hamlin | 198 |
Ryan Blaney | 195 |
Kyle Larson | 185 |
Christopher Bell | 156 |
Tyler Reddick | 154 |
Chase Briscoe | 146 |
Joey Logano | 130 |
William Byron | 116 |
Austin Cindric | 112 |
Milestone Watch
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Daniel Suarez | This will be his 350th Career Cup Series Start |
Joey Logano | Looking for his 180th Career Top 5 |
William Byron | Looking for his 70th Career Top 5 |
Joey Logano | Looking for his 310th Career Top 10 |
Ty Gibbs | Looking for his 50th Career Top 10 |
Scorigami Update – AKA The All-40 Challenge
Pocono was the first time that:
Riley Herbst finished 16th
Noah Gragson finished 35th
Austin Cindric finished 14th
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Cole Custer | 158 races |
Erik Jones | 142 races |
Michael McDowell | 109 races |
Brad Keselowski | 84 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 81 races |
Chris Buescher | 69 races |
Alex Bowman | 69 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 66 races |
Josh Berry | 56 races |
Austin Cindric | 51 races |
The race begins Saturday, August 29th at 4:00 pm EST (1:00 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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