StatChat 2025 - Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis
- Adam Carabine
- Jul 26
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy Saturday everyone! This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Speedway, Indiana for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Indianapolis is a 2.5-mile long rectangular oval. The track was built in 1909, though the Cup Series didn’t start racing there until 1994. Jeff Gordon won the first Cup Series race at Indianapolis. Last year’s winner at this race was Kyle Larson.
Tomorrow’s race will be 160 laps long (for a total of 400 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 50 – 100 – 160. The fuel window is approximately 40-43 laps. Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 55 mph.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 5,343 laps, for 7,668.24 miles so far this season. No driver has completed every single lap, but Chase Elliott is one lap behind, and Tyler Reddick is five behind.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Indianapolis:
Cole Custer | 5.00 over 1 race |
Tyler Reddick | 5.00 over 2 races |
Todd Gilliland | 6.00 over 1 race |
Austin Cindric | 7.00 over 1 race |
Christopher Bell | 8.00 over 2 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Indianapolis:
Josh Berry | 35.00 over 1 race |
Alex Bowman | 33.00 over 6 races |
Ryan Preece | 27.33 over 3 races |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 27.00 over 9 races |
Erik Jones | 26.60 over 5 races |
While Indianapolis is a long track, we are lumping it in with the Intermediates for the purpose of this article.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
Denny Hamlin | 11.97 over 345 races (29 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 12.24 over 183 races (18 wins) |
Kyle Busch | 12.40 over 361 races (29 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.41 over 164 races (7 wins) |
Joey Logano | 12.46 over 291 races (19 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:
SVG | 22.71 over 15 races |
JH Nemechek | 22.62 over 50 races |
Ty Dillon | 22.21 over 131 races |
Ryan Preece | 22.18 over 97 races |
Josh Berry | 21.03 over 32 races (1 win) |
Jeff Gordon is the winningest driver at Indianapolis, having won 5 races there. Next is Jimmie Johnson with 4, and Kevin Harvick with 3. As far as current drivers go, Kyle Busch has the most with 2.
Notable drivers who have not won at Indianapolis:
Denny Hamlin | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Joey Logano | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Ryan Blaney | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
No current drivers earned their first Cup Series victory at Indianapolis.
Based on average finish, Todd Gilliland, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson and Cody Ware all list Indianapolis as their BEST track. Alex Bowman 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 2024
JH Nemechek | +242 pts |
Chase Briscoe | +229 pts |
Ryan Preece | +211 pts |
Erik Jones | +179 pts |
Zane Smith | +165 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024
Brad Keselowski | -321 pts |
Noah Gragson | -182 pts |
Daniel Suarez | -176 pts |
Ryan Blaney | -112 pts |
Ty Gibbs | -96 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Chase Elliott | 10.00 |
Christopher Bell | 12.57 |
Chase Briscoe | 14.05 |
Ty Gibbs | 17.05 |
Ryan Preece | 17.10 |
JH Nemechek | 19.43 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 24.57 |
Carson Hocevar | 23.57 |
Zane Smith | 19.76 |
Rookie of the Year Battle
SVG | 374 (3 wins) |
Riley Herbst | 251 |
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 | 770 |
Toyota | 751 |
Ford | 697 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 734 |
Joe Gibbs | 727 |
Trackhouse | 596 |
Penske | 582 |
RFK | 576 |
23XI | 554 |
Spire | 511 |
RCR | 485 |
Legacy MC | 483 |
Front Row | 476 |
Kaulig | 454 |
Hyak | 352 |
Wood Bros | 329 |
Haas Factory | 261 |
Rick Ware | 155 |
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
William Byron | 198 |
Ryan Blaney | 162 |
Denny Hamlin | 153 |
Kyle Larson | 150 |
Tyler Reddick | 144 |
Chase Elliott | 128 |
Bubba Wallace | 123 |
Alex Bowman | 121 |
Christopher Bell | 109 |
Austin Cindric | 99 |
Milestone Watch
Kyle Larson | Looking for his 130th Career Top 5 |
Joey Logano | Looking for his 170th Career Top 5 |
Kyle Busch | Looking for his 390th Career Top 10 |
Denny Hamlin | Looking for his 370th Career Top 10 |
Ty Gibbs | Looking for his 30th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 162 races |
Cole Custer | 118 races |
Bubba Wallace | 100 races |
Erik Jones | 100 races |
Kyle Busch | 78 races |
Michael McDowell | 69 races |
Daniel Suarez | 55 races |
Brad Keselowski | 44 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 41 races |
Alex Bowman | 37 races |
The race begins Sunday, July 26th at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am 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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