NASCAR Cup Series StatChat 2026 - Pocono
- Adam Carabine
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the Cup Series travels to Long Pond, Pennsylvania for the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Pocono is a unique triangle-shaped track that only has three corners rather than the traditional four. It is 2.5 miles long, and features three distinctly different corners, each modelled after other race tracks. Turn One is modelled after Trenton Speedway, Turn Two is from Indianapolis, and Turn Three is modelled after the Milwaukee Mile. The track in its current form opened in 1971, and has hosted NASCAR races since 1974. Richard Petty was the first winner at Pocono, and Chase Briscoe is the most recent Cup Series winner there.
Tomorrow’s race will be 160 laps long (for a total of 400 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 30 – 95 – 160. Pit road speed is 55 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 75 mph. The fuel window is approximately 37-42 laps.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 4,045 laps, for 5,649.84 miles so far this season. No drivers have completed all of them, but Denny Hamlin and Carson Hocevar are the closest, running just two laps down.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Pocono:
Brad Keselowski | 10.71 over 28 races (1 win) |
William Byron | 10.83 over 12 races |
Denny Hamlin | 11.00 over 36 races (7 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 11.39 over 18 races |
Ryan Blaney | 12.75 over 16 races (2 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Pocono:
Riley Herbst | 37.00 over 1 race |
SVG | 31.00 over 1 race |
Cody Ware | 28.83 over 6 races |
Ross Chastain | 28.30 over 10 races |
Zane Smith | 27.00 over 2 races |
Though Pocono is a unique track, we are lumping it in with the Intermediates, as it doesn’t have the same characteristics of your traditional 2.5-mile drafting tracks.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
Denny Hamlin | 11.68 over 357 races (33 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.32 over 176 races (9 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 12.38 over 195 races (18 wins) |
Joey Logano | 12.75 over 303 races (19 wins) |
Brad Keselowski | 12.85 over 294 races (19 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
Cody Ware | 27.66 over 69 races |
Michael McDowell | 25.80 over 260 races |
Connor Zilisch | 24.61 over 10 races |
Riley Herbst | 23.38 over 25 races |
Ty Dillon | 22.26 over 143 races |
Denny Hamlin is the winningest driver at Pocono, with 7 wins over his career. Jeff Gordon has 6 wins, followed by Bill Elliott who won there 5 times.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Pocono:
Ty Gibbs | 2022 – P16 |
Bubba Wallace | 2017 – P26 |
Drivers who earned their first Cup Series win at Pocono:
Denny Hamlin | 21st Race |
Chris Buescher | 27th Race |
Ryan Blaney | 68th Race |
Drivers whose most recent Cup Series Victory was at Pocono:
No One | -- |
Notable drivers who have not won at Pocono:
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
William Byron | (has won at 11 other tracks) |
Tyler Reddick | (has won at 11 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
Ross Chastain | (has won at 6 other tracks) |
Based on average finish, no driver lists Pocono as their BEST track, but Riley Herbst and Ross Chastain have it as their 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
Tyler Reddick | +573 pts |
Daniel Suarez | +435 pts |
Ty Gibbs | +340 pts |
Denny Hamlin | +309 pts |
Carson Hocevar | +304 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2025
Alex Bowman | -361 pts (missed 4 races with vertigo) |
William Byron | -295 pts |
Ross Chastain | -278 pts |
Christopher Bell | -250 pts |
Chase Briscoe | -233 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Tyler Reddick | 7.53 |
Denny Hamlin | 8.27 |
Ryan Blaney | 11.87 |
Daniel Suarez | 13.73 |
Ty Gibbs | 14.00 |
Carson Hocevar | 14.20 |
SVG | 17.60 |
Riley Herbst | 21.53 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 25.73 |
Josh Berry | 26.07 |
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 | 693 |
Chevrolet | 616 |
Ford | 500 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
23XI | 575 |
Joe Gibbs | 564 |
Hendrick | 510 |
Spire | 475 |
Penske | 468 |
RFK | 418 |
Trackhouse | 394 |
Front Row | 342 |
Legacy MC | 322 |
RCR | 293 |
Kaulig | 283 |
Hyak | 240 |
Haas Factory | 181 |
Wood Bros | 166 |
Rick Ware | 127 |
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
Tyler Reddick | 132 |
Kyle Larson | 125 |
Denny Hamlin | 125 |
Ryan Blaney | 105 |
Ty Gibbs | 102 |
Christopher Bell | 94 |
Bubba Wallace | 83 |
Chase Elliott | 75 |
Chris Buescher | 73 |
William Byron | 71 |
Milestone Watch
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Kyle Larson | Looking for his 140th Career Top 5 |
Ryan Blaney | Looking for his 100th Career Top 5 |
AJ Allmendinger | Looking for his 90th Career Top 10 |
Scorigami Update – AKA The All-40 Challenge
Michigan was the first time that:
Riley Herbst finished 13th
Carson Hocevar finished 5th
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Cole Custer | 148 races |
Erik Jones | 132 races |
Michael McDowell | 99 races |
Brad Keselowski | 74 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 71 races |
Chris Buescher | 59 races |
Alex Bowman | 59 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 56 races |
Josh Berry | 46 races |
Austin Cindric | 41 races |
The race begins Sunday, June 14th at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 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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