NASCAR Cup Series StatChat 2026 - Southern 500 @ Darlington
- Adam Carabine
- 3 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 Darlington, SC for the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Darlington is one of the oldest tracks on the NASCAR schedule, opening in 1950. It’s known for its unique egg-shaped 1.366-mile oval, with sharper corners in turns 3 and 4. Johnny Mantz won the inaugural race there in the Cup Series in 1950. Tyler Reddick won the race here earlier this year, and Chase Briscoe won the Southern 500 here last year.
Sunday’s race will be 367 laps long (for a total of 501.32 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 115 – 230 – 367. Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 50 mph. The fuel window is 69-75 laps.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 6,747 laps, for 9,350.22 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 Darlington:
Denny Hamlin | 8.00 over 28 races (5 wins) |
Tyler Reddick | 10.79 over 14 races (1 win) |
Brad Keselowski | 11.72 over 25 races (2 wins) |
Erik Jones | 12.65 over 17 races (2 wins) |
Ty Gibbs | 13.38 over 8 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Darlington:
Riley Herbst | 32.33 over 3 races |
Cody Ware | 31.88 over 8 races |
Michael McDowell | 26.14 over 22 races |
Josh Berry | 25.83 over 6 races |
JH Nemechek | 24.63 over 8 races |
Darlington is an Intermediate track.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediates:
Denny Hamlin | 11.57 over 361 races (34 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.51 over 180 races (9 wins) |
Joey Logano | 12.72 over 307 races (19 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 12.88 over 199 races (18 wins) |
Brad Keselowski | 12.98 over 298 races (19 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediates:
Cody Ware | 27.94 over 73 races |
Connor Zilisch | 26.58 over 14 races |
Michael McDowell | 25.67 over 264 races |
Josh Berry | 22.28 over 48 races (1 win) |
Ty Dillon | 22.26 over 147 races |
David Pearson is the winningest driver at Darlington, with 10 victories. Dale Earnhardt follows behind with 9 wins. As far as current drivers go, Denny Hamlin has 5 wins.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Darlington:
No One | -- |
Drivers who earned their first Cup Series win at Darlington:
No One | -- |
Drivers whose most recent Cup Series Victory was at Darlington:
Erik Jones | 2022 |
Brad Keselowski | 2024 |
Notable drivers who have not won at Darlington:
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Ryan Blaney | (has won at 12 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, No drivers list Darlington 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
Ty Gibbs | +449 pts |
Daniel Suarez | +371 pts |
Denny Hamlin | +250 pts |
Carson Hocevar | +217 pts |
Tyler Reddick | +205 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2025
Alex Bowman | -309 pts (missed 4 races with vertigo) |
William Byron | -278 pts |
Kyle Larson | -229 pts |
Ross Chastain | -185 pts |
Christopher Bell | -177 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Denny Hamlin | 8.23 |
Ryan Blaney | 11.46 |
Tyler Reddick | 12.23 |
Ty Gibbs | 12.35 |
Daniel Suarez | 14.69 |
Carson Hocevar | 16.73 |
SVG | 18.38 |
Riley Herbst | 21.81 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 24.58 |
Josh Berry | 23.31 |
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 | 1,152 |
Chevrolet | 1,020 |
Ford | 967 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Joe Gibbs | 986 |
23XI | 946 |
Penske | 902 |
Hendrick | 831 |
Spire | 758 |
RFK | 741 |
Trackhouse | 696 |
Front Row | 587 |
Legacy MC | 530 |
RCR | 488 |
Kaulig | 483 |
Hyak | 393 |
Wood Bros | 358 |
Haas Factory | 335 |
Rick Ware | 197 |
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 | 209 |
Ryan Blaney | 205 |
Denny Hamlin | 198 |
Kyle Larson | 195 |
Chase Briscoe | 156 |
Christopher Bell | 156 |
Tyler Reddick | 154 |
Joey Logano | 138 |
William Byron | 123 |
Bubba Wallace | 116 |
Milestone Watch
Ryan Preece | This will be his 250th Career Cup Series Start |
Ty Gibbs | This will be his 150th Career Cup Series Start |
Joey Logano | Looking for his 180th Career Top 5 |
William Byron | Looking for his 70th Career Top 5 |
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Looking for his 30th 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 | 159 races |
Erik Jones | 143 races |
Michael McDowell | 110 races |
Brad Keselowski | 85 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 82 races |
Chris Buescher | 70 races |
Alex Bowman | 70 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 67 races |
Josh Berry | 57 races |
Austin Cindric | 52 races |
The race begins Sunday, September 6th at 5:00 pm EST (2:00 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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