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StatChat 2024 - Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead


By Adam Carabine


Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Homestead, Florida for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

 

Homestead is a 1.5-mile oval-shaped speedway, known for its progressive banking in the corners.  It opened in 1995, though NASCAR didn’t venture there until four years later.  Tony Stewart won the first NASCAR race there in 1999.  It’s also known for having hosted the Championship Race from 2002-2019.

 

Tomorrow’s race will be 267 laps long (for a total of 400.5 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 80 – 165 – 267.  Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 55 mph. 

 

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 8,665 laps, for 11,755.86 miles so far this season.  No driver has completed 100% of them, but Daniel Hemric is the closest, having driven 99.39% of them. 

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Homestead:

Christopher Bell

10.00 over 4 races (1 win)

Chase Elliott

10.38 over 8 races

Martin Truex Jr.

10.68 over 19 races (1 win)

Denny Hamlin

10.89 over 19 races (3 wins)

Tyler Reddick

11.00 over 4 races

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Homestead:

Corey LaJoie

29.14 over 7 races

Todd Gilliland

28.00 over 2 races

Harrison Burton

28.00 over 2 races

Michael McDowell

27.77 over 13 races

Justin Haley

25.67 over 3 races

 

Homestead is an Intermediate Track.

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediates:

Denny Hamlin

12.04 over 333 races (27 wins)

Kyle Larson

12.29 over 171 races (26 wins)

Kyle Busch

12.33 over 349 races (29 wins)

Joey Logano

12.45 over 279 races (18 wins)

Chase Elliott

12.51 over 152 races (6 wins)

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediates:

Ryan Preece

22.91 over 85 races

Josh Berry

22.82 over 20 races

Harrison Burton

22.41 over 44 races

Todd Gilliland

20.91 over 44 races

Noah Gragson

20.34 over 33 races

 

Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin are all tied for the winningest driver at Homestead, as they have each won 3 races there.  Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are next with 2 each.

 

Notable drivers who have not won at Homestead:

Brad Keselowski

(has won at 17 other tracks)

Chase Elliott

(has won at 15 other tracks)

Ryan Blaney

(has won at 9 other tracks)

Alex Bowman

(has won at 8 other tracks)

Tyler Reddick

(has won at 7 other tracks)

 

No driver has scored their first Cup Series win at Homestead. 

 

Based on average finish, Austin Dillon lists Homestead as his BEST track, meanwhile no driver 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 2023

Noah Gragson

+420 pts (incomplete 2023 season)

Chase Elliott

+297 pts (incomplete 2023 season)

Alex Bowman

+215 pts

Ty Gibbs

+164 pts

Austin Cindric

+115 pts

 

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2023

William Byron

-152 pts

Martin Truex Jr.

-147 pts

Kyle Busch

-139 pts

Erik Jones

-131 pts

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

-129 pts

 

While some drivers may be doing better this year than they did in 2023, how does this year stack up against their entire career?  This statistic does not include rookies, as this is their first full year in the Cup Series.

 

Drivers Having their BEST Career Year

Tyler Reddick

13.15

Bubba Wallace

15.36

Ty Gibbs

15.73

Todd Gilliland

20.76

 

Drivers Having their WORST Career Year

Harrison Burton

25.76

Erik Jones

23.10

Justin Haley

22.79

Austin Dillon

22.79

 

Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:

Carson Hocevar

618

Josh Berry

519

Zane Smith

481

Kaz Grala

185

 

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        

Chevrolet

1208

Ford

1160

Toyota

1154

 

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

 

Chartered Team Standings

Hendrick

1120

Joe Gibbs

1096

23XI

974

RFK

949

Penske

940

Trackhouse

896

Stewart-Haas

863

RCR

779

Spire

760

Front Row

676

Kaulig

619

Rick Ware

575

Legacy Motor Club

558

JTG-Daugherty

501

Wood Bros

382

 

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

Kyle Larson

293

Denny Hamlin

254

Ryan Blaney

246

Christopher Bell

232

William Byron

227

Martin Truex Jr.

226

Tyler Reddick

206

Chase Elliott

199

Joey Logano

172

Alex Bowman

164

 

Milestone Watch

Chase Elliott

Looking for his 20th Career Win

Kyle Larson

Looking for his 30th Career Win

Christopher Bell

Looking for his 10th Career Win

Austin Cindric

Looking for his 10th Career Top 5

Austin Dillon

Looking for his 80th Career Top 10

Chris Buescher

Looking for his 70th Career Top 10

William Byron

This will be his 250th Career Cup Series Race

 

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

 

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley

138 races

Erik Jones

78 races

Bubba Wallace

76 races

Kyle Busch

54 races

Martin Truex Jr.

49 races

Michael McDowell

45 races

Daniel Suarez

31 races

William Byron

25 races

Chase Elliott

24 races

Denny Hamlin

22 races

 

The race begins Sunday, October 27th at 2:30 pm EST (11:30 am PST) – Enjoy the race everyone!

 

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @RacingRefresh

 

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

 

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