By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday! This weekend NASCAR travels to Darlington, South Carolina for the “Cook Out Southern 500” at Darlington Raceway.
Darlington is a 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval track also known as “The Lady in Black,” and “The Track Too Tough to Tame.” The track was built in 1950, with Johnny Mantz winning the first race that same year.
Tomorrow’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.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 6,969 laps, for 9,285.73 miles so far this season. No driver has completed 100% of them, but Daniel Hemric is the closest, having driven 94.23% of them.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Darlington:
Denny Hamlin | 8.25 over 24 races (4 wins) |
Brad Keselowski | 10.90 over 21 races (2 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 11.31 over 13 races (1 win) |
Erik Jones | 12.38 over 13 races (2 wins) |
Tyler Reddick | 13.40 over 10 races (0 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Darlington:
Zane Smith | 35.00 over 1 race |
Daniel Hemric | 31.00 over 4 races |
JH Nemechek | 27.75 over 4 races |
Corey LaJoie | 26.23 over 13 races |
Michael McDowell | 25.83 over 18 races |
For the purposes of this article, we’re classifying Darlington as an Intermediate track.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
Denny Hamlin | 12.05 over 329 races (27 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 12.18 over 167 races (16 wins) |
Kyle Busch | 12.37 over 345 races (29 wins) |
Brad Keselowski | 12.45 over 266 races (19 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.49 over 148 races (6 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
Ryan Preece | 23.12 over 81 races |
Harrison Burton | 22.48 over 40 races |
Josh Berry | 21.71 over 16 races |
Zane Smith | 21.50 over 12 races |
Todd Gilliland | 20.74 over 40 races |
David Pearson is the winningest driver at Darlington, with 10 career wins. Dale Earnhardt had 9, and Jeff Gordon has 7. Denny Hamlin is the winningest current driver with 4.
Notable drivers who have not won at Darlington:
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Ryan Blaney | (has won at 9 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Alex Bowman | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Tyler Reddick | (has won at 7 other tracks) |
No current driver has earned their first Cup Series win at Darlington.
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 2023
Noah Gragson | +456 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Chase Elliott | +334 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Ty Gibbs | +198 pts |
Alex Bowman | +161 pts |
Todd Gilliland | +149 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2023
William Byron | -189 pts |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -150 pts |
Kyle Busch | -145 pts |
Martin Truex Jr. | -113 pts |
Joey Logano | -110 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 | 11.20 |
Ty Gibbs | 14.48 |
Bubba Wallace | 15.80 |
Todd Gilliland | 19.76 |
Drivers Having their WORST Career Year
Erik Jones | 21.96 |
Justin Haley | 23.16 |
Austin Dillon | 23.20 |
Harrison Burton | 25.88 |
Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:
Carson Hocevar | 467 |
Josh Berry | 448 |
Zane Smith | 316 |
Kaz Grala | 166 |
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 | 909 |
Toyota | 895 |
Ford | 868 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 848 |
Joe Gibbs | 838 |
23XI | 761 |
RFK | 726 |
Penske | 702 |
Stewart-Haas | 677 |
Trackhouse | 676 |
RCR | 585 |
Spire | 552 |
Front Row | 522 |
Kaulig | 441 |
Legacy Motor Club | 441 |
Rick Ware | 438 |
JTG-Daugherty | 372 |
Wood Bros | 285 |
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 | 233 |
Denny Hamlin | 220 |
Ryan Blaney | 193 |
Martin Truex Jr. | 175 |
Christopher Bell | 174 |
Tyler Reddick | 160 |
Chase Elliott | 158 |
William Byron | 150 |
Brad Keselowski | 138 |
Joey Logano | 122 |
Milestone Watch
Chase Elliott | Looking for his 20th Career Win |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 10th Career Win |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
William Byron | Looking for his 50th Career Top 5 |
Corey LaJoie | Looking for his 10th Career Top 10 |
Erik Jones | Looking for his 90th Career Top 10 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Looking for his 60th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 130 races |
Chase Briscoe | 93 races |
Erik Jones | 70 races |
Bubba Wallace | 68 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 60 races |
Kyle Busch | 46 races |
Martin Truex Jr. | 41 races |
Michael McDowell | 37 races |
Chris Buescher | 35 races |
Ross Chastain | 26 races |
The race begins Sunday, Sept 1st at 6:00 pm EST (3:00 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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