StatChat 2025 - Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona
- Adam Carabine
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy Friday everyone! This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Daytona, Florida for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Daytona is a 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval which opened in 1959. The first NASCAR winner at Daytona was Lee Petty that same year. The winner of this event last year was Harrison Burton.
Tomorrow’s race will be 160 laps long (for a total of 400 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 35 – 95 – 160. The fuel window is approximately 45-50 laps. Pit road speed is 55 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 70 mph.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 6,351 laps, for 8,915.35 miles so far this season. No driver has completed every single lap - Tyler Reddick is closest, running 14 laps down.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
JH Nemechek | 9.80 over 5 races |
Bubba Wallace | 13.00 over 16 races |
Alex Bowman | 14.72 over 18 races |
Austin Cindric | 15.88 over 8 races (1 win) |
Austin Dillon | 17.79 over 24 races (2 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
SVG | 34.00 over 2 races |
Todd Gilliland | 28.57 over 7 races |
Josh Berry | 27.50 over 4 races |
Carson Hocevar | 27.00 over 3 races |
Daniel Suarez | 26.24 over 17 races |
Daytona is a Super Speedway.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:
JH Nemechek | 15.90 over 10 races |
Bubba Wallace | 16.27 over 31 races (1 win) |
Austin Cindric | 16.29 over 15 races (2 wins) |
Denny Hamlin | 17.24 over 78 races (5 wins) |
Chase Briscoe | 17.39 over 18 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:
Cody Ware | 23.03 over 18 races |
Daniel Suarez | 22.85 over 34 races |
Ryan Preece | 22.64 over 22 races |
Zane Smith | 22.63 over 8 races |
Carson Hocevar | 22.50 over 7 races |
Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Daytona, with 10 victories to his name. Cale Yarborough comes in second with 8 wins, followed by a three-way tie for third – Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Jeff Gordon all each have 6. As far as current drivers go, Denny Hamlin and William Byron both each have 3.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Daytona:
Riley Herbst | Feb 2023 – P10 |
Austin Cindric | Feb 2021 – P15 |
Chase Briscoe | Feb 2021 – P19 |
Christopher Bell | Feb 2020 – P21 |
William Byron | Feb 2018 – P23 |
Alex Bowman | Feb 2014 – P23 |
Tyler Reddick | Feb 2019 – P27 |
Daniel Suarez | Feb 2017 – P29 |
Noah Gragson | Feb 2022 – P31 |
Todd Gilliland | Feb 2022 – P33 |
Drivers who WON their first Cup Series race at Daytona:
Justin Haley | 3rd Career Start |
Austin Cindric | 8th Career Start |
Erik Jones | 67th Career Start |
William Byron | 98th Career Start |
Michael McDowell | 356th Career Start |
Notable drivers who have not won at Daytona:
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 10 other tracks) |
Tyler Reddick | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Alex Bowman | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Based on average finish, Cody Ware lists Daytona as his BEST track, while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott list 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 2024
Chase Briscoe | +257 pts |
Ryan Preece | +232 pts |
JH Nemechek | +218 pts |
Erik Jones | +157 pts |
Zane Smith | +135 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024
Brad Keselowski | -224 pts |
Noah Gragson | -202 pts |
Daniel Suarez | -137 pts |
Ty Gibbs | -127 pts |
Kyle Larson | -89 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Christopher Bell | 12.48 |
Chase Briscoe | 13.32 |
Ryan Preece | 16.64 |
JH Nemechek | 20.12 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 24.80 |
Carson Hocevar | 21.84 |
Zane Smith | 20.40 |
Rookie of the Year Battle
SVG | 464 (4 wins) |
Riley Herbst | 293 |
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 | 925 |
Toyota | 888 |
Ford | 832 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 877 |
Joe Gibbs | 858 |
Penske | 710 |
RFK | 705 |
Trackhouse | 700 |
23XI | 664 |
Spire | 608 |
RCR | 586 |
Legacy MC | 566 |
Front Row | 561 |
Kaulig | 530 |
Wood Bros | 399 |
Hyak | 386 |
Haas Factory | 305 |
Rick Ware | 174 |
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 | 232 |
Ryan Blaney | 214 |
Denny Hamlin | 169 |
Kyle Larson | 168 |
Tyler Reddick | 161 |
Bubba Wallace | 152 |
Alex Bowman | 149 |
Chase Elliott | 138 |
Austin Cindric | 125 |
Christopher Bell | 122 |
Milestone Watch
Chris Buescher | Looking for his 30th Career Top 5 |
Kyle Busch | Looking for his 390th Career Top 10 |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 100th Career Top 10 |
Ty Gibbs | Looking for his 30th Career Top 10 |
SVG | Looking for his 10th Career Top 10 |
Scorigami Update
Richmond was the first time that Josh Berry ever finished P8 in a Cup Series race.
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 166 races |
Cole Custer | 122 races |
Erik Jones | 104 races |
Kyle Busch | 82 races |
Michael McDowell | 73 races |
Daniel Suarez | 59 races |
Brad Keselowski | 48 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 45 races |
Alex Bowman | 41 races |
Chris Buescher | 33 races |
The race begins Saturday, August 23rd at 7:30 pm EST (4:30 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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