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StatChat 2025 - Cup Series Championship at Phoenix

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By Adam Carabine


Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Avondale, Arizona for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway.

 

Phoenix is a 1-mile oval track with a unique dogleg corner just past the start-finish line.  The track opened in 1964, but NASCAR didn’t start racing there until 1988.  Alan Kulwicki won the first race there that year.  Christopher Bell won in Phoenix earlier this year.  Joey Logano won this race last year en route to his 3rd Cup Series Championship.

 

Tomorrow’s race will be 312 laps long (for a total of 312 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 60 – 185 – 312.  Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 50 mph.  The fuel window is between 95-105 laps, but tire wear may force pit stops to happen sooner than that.

 

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 9,261 laps, for 12,540.89 miles so far this season.  No driver has completed every single lap - Tyler Reddick is closest, running 15 laps down.

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Phoenix:

Denny Hamlin

10.60 over 40 races (2 wins)

Kyle Larson

10.68 over 22 races (1 win)

William Byron

10.80 over 15 races (1 win)

Kyle Busch

11.40 over 40 races (3 wins)

Ryan Blaney

11.42 over 19 races

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Phoenix:

Riley Herbst

37.00 over 1 race

SVG

31.00 over 1 race

Cody Ware

30.38 over 8 races

Michael McDowell

28.34 over 29 races

Zane Smith

27.00 over 4 races

 

For the purposes of this article, Phoenix is a Short Track.

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Joey Logano

11.23 over 195 races (13 wins)

Chase Elliott

11.53 over 108 races (4 wins)

Ryan Blaney

12.10 over 112 races (4 wins)

Christopher Bell

12.14 over 64 races (7 wins)

William Byron

12.56 over 86 races (5 wins)

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Michael McDowell

26.39 over 172 races

Ty Dillon

25.49 over 84 races

Zane Smith

24.55 over 25 races

Noah Gragson

24.22 over 33 races

JH Nemechek

23.05 over 33 races

 

Kevin Harvick is the winningest driver at Phoenix, with 9 wins.  Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano are tied for 2nd with 4 wins each.

 

Drivers who WON their first Cup Series race at Phoenix:

Chase Briscoe

40th Career Cup Series Start


Notable drivers who have not won at Phoenix:

Brad Keselowski

(has won at 17 other tracks)

Ryan Blaney

(has won at 11 other tracks)

Tyler Reddick

(has won at 8 other tracks)

Alex Bowman

(has won at 8 other tracks)

Chris Buescher

(has won at 6 other tracks)

 

Based on average finish, no driver lists Phoenix 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 2024

Chase Briscoe

+337 pts

Ryan Preece

+238 pts

JH Nemechek

+235 pts

Erik Jones

+143 pts

Zane Smith

+124 pts

 

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Noah Gragson

-205 pts

Brad Keselowski

-190 pts

Daniel Suarez

-151 pts

Alex Bowman

-97 pts

Ty Gibbs

-75 pts

 

Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:

 

Best Career Year

Christopher Bell

11.20

Chase Briscoe

12.51

Ryan Preece

15.89

JH Nemechek

20.00

Todd Gilliland

20.77

 

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer

23.54

Carson Hocevar

21.40

Zane Smith

20.86

 

Rookie of the Year Battle

SVG

2,189 (5 wins)

Riley Herbst

370

 

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

1,276

Toyota

1,247

Ford

1,177

 

Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:

 

Chartered Team Standings

Joe Gibbs

1,217

Hendrick

1,186

Penske

1,008

RFK

997

Trackhouse

963

23XI

932

Spire

877

Front Row

805

Legacy MC

788

RCR

786

Kaulig

716

Wood Bros

532

Hyak

493

Haas Factory

471

Rick Ware

231

 

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

317

Kyle Larson

297

Ryan Blaney

296

Denny Hamlin

232

Tyler Reddick

213

Christopher Bell

205

Bubba Wallace

203

Chase Elliott

192

Chase Briscoe

184

Alex Bowman

165

 

Milestone Watch

Kyle Busch

This will be his 750th Career Cup Series Start

SVG

This will be his 50th Career Cup Series Start

Brad Keselowski

Looking for his 160th Career Top 5

Christopher Bell

Looking for his 60th Career Top 5

Joey Logano

Looking for his 300th Career Top 10

Chase Briscoe

Looking for his 50th Career Top 10

Michael McDowell

Looking for his 50th Career Top 10

Ryan Preece

Looking for his 30th Career Top 10

 

Scorigami Update

Martinsville was the first time that:

Riley Herbst finished 36th 

Todd Gilliland finished 9th 

 

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

 

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley

176 races

Cole Custer

132 races

Erik Jones

114 races

Kyle Busch

92 races

Michael McDowell

83 races

Daniel Suarez

69 races

Brad Keselowski

58 races

AJ Allmendinger

55 races

Alex Bowman

51 races

Chris Buescher

43 races

 

The race begins Sunday, November 2nd at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 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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