StatChat 2025 - Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Gateway
- Adam Carabine
- Sep 6
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Madison, Illinois for the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, also known as Gateway.
WWT-Gateway is a 1.25-mile oval just east of St. Louis, Missouri. Similar to Darlington last week, the track is slightly egg-shaped – turns 1 and 2 are tighter than turns 3 and 4. The track was built in 1997, but the Cup Series didn’t start racing there until 2022. Joey Logano won the inaugural Cup Series race there that year.
Tomorrow’s race will be 240 laps long (for a total of 300 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 45 – 140 – 240. The fuel window is approximately 72-78 laps. Pit road speed is 40 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 50 mph.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 6,878 laps, for 9,816.67 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 WWT Gateway:
Joey Logano | 3.00 over 3 races (1 win) |
Austin Cindric | 8.33 over 3 races (1 win) |
Kyle Larson | 8.67 over 3 races |
Christopher Bell | 9.00 over 3 races |
Ryan Blaney | 11.33 over 3 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at WWT Gateway:
Josh Berry | 36.00 over 1 race |
Cody Ware | 34.00 over 2 races |
Cole Custer | 29.00 over 1 race |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 28.00 over 3 races |
Noah Gragson | 27.50 over 2 races |
WWT Gateway is being classified as a Short Track for the purposes of this article.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Shorts:
Joey Logano | 11.27 over 191 races (13 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.09 over 104 races (4 wins) |
Christopher Bell | 12.54 over 60 races (6 wins) |
Ryan Blaney | 12.58 over 108 races (3 wins) |
Brad Keselowski | 12.89 over 181 races (10 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Shorts:
Michael McDowell | 26.67 over 168 races |
Zane Smith | 25.48 over 21 races |
Ty Dillon | 25.00 over 80 races |
Noah Gragson | 24.59 over 29 races |
JH Nemechek | 24.12 over 29 races |
Because WWT Gateway is so new to the Cup Series, there is no ‘winningest driver.’ After 3 races, there are three different winners – Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric.
Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at WWT Gateway:
Zane Smith | 2022 – P17 |
Carson Hocevar | 2023 – P36 |
Notable drivers who have not won at WWT Gateway:
Denny Hamlin | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Kyle Larson | (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 11 other tracks) |
Based on average finish, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Justin Haley all list WWT Gateway as their BEST track, while Josh Berry and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 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 | +289 pts |
JH Nemechek | +255 pts |
Ryan Preece | +238 pts |
Erik Jones | +206 pts |
Zane Smith | +128 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024
Brad Keselowski | -222 pts |
Noah Gragson | -203 pts |
Daniel Suarez | -121 pts |
Ty Gibbs | -120 pts |
Christopher Bell | -96 pts |
Next, let’s look at who’s having their best and worst career year by Average Finish:
Best Career Year
Chase Briscoe | 13.22 |
Ryan Preece | 16.52 |
JH Nemechek | 19.41 |
Worst Career Year
Cole Custer | 24.00 |
Carson Hocevar | 21.81 |
Zane Smith | 20.52 |
Rookie of the Year Battle
SVG | 2,027 (4 wins) |
Riley Herbst | 303 |
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 | 992 |
Toyota | 960 |
Ford | 899 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 927 |
Joe Gibbs | 927 |
Penske | 775 |
RFK | 763 |
Trackhouse | 761 |
23XI | 715 |
Spire | 670 |
Legacy MC | 632 |
RCR | 628 |
Front Row | 611 |
Kaulig | 577 |
Wood Bros | 429 |
Hyak | 395 |
Haas Factory | 351 |
Rick Ware | 192 |
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 | 240 |
Ryan Blaney | 228 |
Kyle Larson | 191 |
Tyler Reddick | 179 |
Denny Hamlin | 177 |
Bubba Wallace | 162 |
Alex Bowman | 149 |
Chase Elliott | 138 |
Christopher Bell | 136 |
Austin Cindric | 128 |
Milestone Watch
Chris Buescher | Looking for his 30th Career Top 5 |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 100th Career Top 10 |
SVG | Looking for his 10th Career Top 10 |
Chase Elliott | This will be his 350th Career Cup Series Start |
Scorigami Update
Darlington was the first time in the Cup Series that:
- JH Nemechek finished 4th
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 168 races |
Cole Custer | 124 races |
Erik Jones | 106 races |
Kyle Busch | 84 races |
Michael McDowell | 75 races |
Daniel Suarez | 61 races |
Brad Keselowski | 50 races |
AJ Allmendinger | 47 races |
Alex Bowman | 43 races |
Chris Buescher | 35 races |
The race begins Sunday, September 7th 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!
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