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StatChat 2025 - Toyota Save/Mart 350 at Sonoma

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By Adam Carabine


Happy Saturday everyone!  This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Sonoma, California for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

 

Sonoma is a road course.  The track is 1.99 miles long, and features 12 turns and 160 feet of elevation change.  The track was built in 1968, though NASCAR didn’t start racing there until 1989.  Ricky Rudd won that first race at Sonoma.  Last year’s winner at this race was Kyle Larson. 

 

Tomorrow’s race will be 110 laps long (for a total of 218.9 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 25 – 55 – 110.  Pit road speed is 40 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 45 mph.

 

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 4,826 laps, for 7,042.34 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 Sonoma:

Chase Elliott

11.13 over 8 races

Ross Chastain

12.40 over 5 races

Chris Buescher

12.75 over 8 races

Kyle Larson

13.00 over 10 races (2 wins)

Joey Logano

13.47 over 15 races

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Sonoma:

Cody Ware

34.50 over 4 races

Josh Berry

32.00 over 1 race

JH Nemechek

29.00 over 1 race

Ty Gibbs

27.50 over 2 races

Ty Dillon

26.80 over 5 races

 

Sonoma is a Road Course

 

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:

Chase Elliott

7.61 over 38 races (7 wins)

SVG

7.83 over 9 races (3 wins)

Tyler Reddick

11.66 over 29 races (3 wins)

Chris Buescher

12.73 over 40 races (1 win)

Christopher Bell

13.45 over 29 races (3 wins)

 

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:

Austin Dillon

24.33 over 42 races

Ryan Preece

24.33 over 26 races

Noah Gragson

22.94 over 12 races

JH Nemechek

22.92 over 10 races

Justin Haley

22.77 over 27 races

 

Jeff Gordon is the winningest driver at Sonoma, with 5 victories there.  Martin Truex Jr. is 2nd with 4 wins at the track.  As far as current drivers go, both Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch each have 2 wins.

 

Notable drivers who have not won at Sonoma:

Denny Hamlin

(has won at 19 other tracks)

Joey Logano

(has won at 19 other tracks)

Brad Keselowski

(has won at 17 other tracks)

Chase Elliott

(has won at 15 other tracks)

Christopher Bell

(has won at 10 other tracks)

 

Daniel Suarez earned his first Cup Series victory at Sonoma, it was his 195th career start.

 

Based on average finish, no drivers list Sonoma as their BEST track, but both Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick 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

Tyler Reddick

+655 pts

Chris Buescher

+573 pts

Bubba Wallace

+387 pts

Chase Briscoe

+369 pts

Ryan Preece

+338 pts

 

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Brad Keselowski

-356 pts

Todd Gilliland

-306 pts

Joey Logano

-272 pts

Ty Gibbs

-257 pts

Josh Berry

-256 pts

 

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

 

Best Career Year

Chase Elliott

10.58

Christopher Bell

12.68

Chase Briscoe

15.32

Ryan Preece

17.26

JH Nemechek

18.89

 

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer

24.42

Brad Keselowski

23.00

Carson Hocevar

22.53

Zane Smith

19.26

 

Rookie of the Year Battle

SVG

308 (2 wins)

Riley Herbst

226

 

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

696

Toyota

676

Ford

640

 

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

 

Chartered Team Standings

Hendrick

666

Joe Gibbs

652

Trackhouse

545

Penske

525

RFK

522

23XI

493

Legacy MC

458

Spire

454

Front Row

446

RCR

432

Kaulig

417

Hyak

334

Wood Bros

296

Haas Factory

239

Rick Ware

151

 

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

179

Ryan Blaney

155

Tyler Reddick

144

Denny Hamlin

137

Kyle Larson

134

Chase Elliott

110

Bubba Wallace

107

Alex Bowman

106

Austin Cindric

99

Carson Hocevar

91

 

Milestone Watch

Chase Briscoe

Looking for his 20th Career Top 5

Joey Logano

Looking for his 170th Career Top 5

Christopher Bell

This will be his 200th Career Cup Series Start

Joey Logano

This will be his 600th Career Cup Series Start

 

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

 

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley

160 races

Cole Custer

116 races

Bubba Wallace

98 races

Erik Jones

98 races

Kyle Busch

76 races

Michael McDowell

67 races

Daniel Suarez

53 races

Brad Keselowski

42 races

AJ Allmendinger

39 races

Alex Bowman

35 races

 

The race begins Sunday, July 13th at 3:30 pm EST (12:30 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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