Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday! This weekend NASCAR travels to the west coast for the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Sonoma is a 1.99-mile Road Course featuring 12 turns and plenty of elevation change. It opened in 1968 under the name Sears Point, though the Cup Series didn’t make their way there until 1989. Ricky Rudd won the inaugural race at Sonoma that year.
Tomorrow’s race will be 110 laps long (for a total of 218.9 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 25 – 55 – 110. Pit road speed is 40 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 45 mph.
The NASCAR Cup Series has run 4,343 laps, for 5,425.73 miles so far this season. No driver has completed 100% of them, but Chase Elliott is just one lap short. Ty Gibbs is 3 laps short.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Sonoma:
Chase Elliott | 12.14 over 7 races (0 wins) |
Joey Logano | 12.93 over 14 races (0 wins) |
Daniel Suarez | 13.83 over 6 races (1 win) |
Chris Buescher | 14.14 over 7 races (0 wins) |
Ross Chastain | 14.25 over 4 races (0 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Sonoma:
Zane Smith | 34.00 over 1 race |
Todd Gilliland | 29.50 over 2 races |
Tyler Reddick | 29.00 over 3 races |
Harrison Burton | 27.50 over 2 races |
Noah Gragson | 26.00 over 1 race |
Sonoma is a Road Course
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
Chase Elliott | 7.45 over 31 races (7 wins) |
Chris Buescher | 12.18 over 33 races (0 wins) |
Ty Gibbs | 12.67 over 10 races (0 wins) |
Denny Hamlin | 13.69 over 52 races (1 win) |
Christopher Bell | 14.31 over 22 races (2 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
Zane Smith | 27.67 over 3 races |
Austin Dillon | 24.96 over 35 races |
Bubba Wallace | 24.86 over 28 races |
Noah Gragson | 24.50 over 8 races |
Harrison Burton | 24.43 over 13 races |
Jeff Gordon is the winningest driver at Sonoma, with 5. Martin Truex Jr. is the winningest current driver, sitting just one win behind Gordon.
Notable drivers who have not won at Sonoma:
Denny Hamlin | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Joey Logano | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Brad Keselowski | (has won at 17 other tracks) |
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
William Byron | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
Daniel Suarez won his first Cup Series race at Sonoma – it was his 195th Cup start.
Based on average finish, no drivers list Sonoma as their BEST track, but both Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin 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 2023
Noah Gragson | +488 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Chase Elliott | +383 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Ty Gibbs | +338 pts |
Alex Bowman | +221 pts |
Chase Briscoe | +200 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2023
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -197 pts |
Michael McDowell | -137 pts |
Chris Buescher | -136 pts |
Corey LaJoie | -125 pts |
Joey Logano | -108 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
Chase Elliott | 9.87 |
Ty Gibbs | 11.87 |
Ross Chastain | 13.07 |
Tyler Reddick | 13.27 |
Alex Bowman | 13.47 |
Chase Briscoe | 15.33 |
Todd Gilliland | 21.33 |
Drivers Having their WORST Career Year
Harrison Burton | 28.07 |
Austin Dillon | 24.33 |
Justin Haley | 23.60 |
Austin Cindric | 21.80 |
Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:
Josh Berry | 264 |
Carson Hocevar | 259 |
Zane Smith | 131 |
Kaz Grala | 122 |
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
Toyota | 545 |
Chevrolet | 542 |
Ford | 513 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 511 |
Joe Gibbs | 507 |
RFK | 454 |
23XI | 441 |
Stewart-Haas | 415 |
Trackhouse | 412 |
Penske | 409 |
RCR | 339 |
Spire | 307 |
Front Row | 287 |
Legacy Motor Club | 286 |
Kaulig | 256 |
Rick Ware | 236 |
JTG-Daugherty | 200 |
Wood Bros | 137 |
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 | 159 |
Denny Hamlin | 130 |
Martin Truex Jr. | 113 |
Ryan Blaney | 110 |
Tyler Reddick | 103 |
Christopher Bell | 102 |
William Byron | 98 |
Chase Elliott | 87 |
Ty Gibbs | 85 |
Brad Keselowski | 76 |
Milestone Watch
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 30th Career Top 5 |
Bubba Wallace | Looking for his 20th Career Top 5 |
Michael McDowell | Looking for his 10th Career Top 5 |
Erik Jones | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 50th Career Top 10 |
Corey LaJoie | Looking for his 10th Career Top 10 |
Ty Gibbs | Looking for his 20th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 120 races |
Chase Briscoe | 83 races |
Alex Bowman | 83 races |
Austin Dillon | 61 races |
Erik Jones | 60 races |
Bubba Wallace | 58 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 50 races |
Joey Logano | 46 races |
Kyle Busch | 36 races |
Martin Truex Jr. | 31 races |
The race begins Sunday, June 9th at 3:30 pm EST (12:30 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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