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StatChat 2024 - Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma




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!

 

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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