StatChat 2025 - Cup Series Championship at Phoenix

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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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 1^st, 35 for 2^nd, 34 for 3^rd, 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 36^th 

Todd Gilliland finished 9^th 

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 2^nd at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 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!