StatChat 2025 - Xfinity 500 at Martinsville

By Adam Carabine

Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Ridgeway, Virginia for the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Martinsville is a 0.526-mile oval, nicknamed “The Paperclip,” because of its shape. It’s the only track that has concrete in the turns, but asphalt on the straightaways.  Martinsville is also the oldest track that is still run on the NASCAR schedule.  It opened in 1947, and Red Byron was the first to win there in 1949.  Denny Hamlin won this race in the spring, and Ryan Blaney won last fall at this exact race.

Tomorrow’s race will be 500 laps long (for a total of 263 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 130 – 160 – 500.  Pit road speed is 30 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 35 mph.  The fuel window is between 155-170 laps, though tire wear will probably come into play before fuel does.

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 8,761 laps, for 12,277.89 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 Martinsville:

Ryan Blaney	8.47 over 19 races (2 wins)
Denny Hamlin	9.82 over 39 races (6 wins)
Joey Logano	10.70 over 33 races (1 win)
Chase Elliott	11.75 over 20 races (1 win)
Chase Briscoe	12.33 over 9 races

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Martinsville:

Cody Ware	31.00 over 6 races
Riley Herbst	31.00 over 1 race
Justin Haley	30.00 over 9 races
JH Nemechek	28.60 over 5 races
Michael McDowell	27.76 over 29 races

Martinsville is a Short Track.

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Joey Logano	11.23 over 194 races (13 wins)
Chase Elliott	11.58 over 107 races (4 wins)
Ryan Blaney	12.14 over 111 races (4 wins)
Christopher Bell	12.23 over 63 races (7 wins)
William Byron	12.66 over 85 races (4 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Michael McDowell	26.41 over 171 races
Ty Dillon	25.45 over 83 races
Zane Smith	24.56 over 24 races
Noah Gragson	24.07 over 32 races
JH Nemechek	23.21 over 32 races

Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Martinsville, with 15 wins.  Darrell Waltrip has the second-most, with 11.  Denny Hamlin has the most of any active driver with 6.

Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Martinsville:

Michael McDowell	2008, P26
Chase Elliott	2015, P38

Notable drivers who have not won at Martinsville:

Tyler Reddick	(has won at 8 other tracks)
Ross Chastain	(has won at 6 other tracks)
Chris Buescher	(has won at 6 other tracks)
SVG	(has won at 5 other tracks)
Chase Briscoe	(has won at 4 other tracks)

Based on average finish, no driver lists Martinsville as their BEST track, but Justin Haley lists it as his 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	+363 pts
JH Nemechek	+238 pts
Ryan Preece	+226 pts
Erik Jones	+158 pts
Zane Smith	+130 pts

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Noah Gragson	-199 pts
Brad Keselowski	-186 pts
Daniel Suarez	-149 pts
Alex Bowman	-86 pts
Ty Gibbs	-85 pts

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

Best Career Year

Christopher Bell	11.32
Chase Briscoe	11.79
Ryan Preece	16.18
JH Nemechek	19.97

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer	23.74
Carson Hocevar	21.12
Zane Smith	20.74

Rookie of the Year Battle

SVG	2,172 (5 wins)
Riley Herbst	384

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	1,236
Toyota	1,217
Ford	1,142

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

Chartered Team Standings

Joe Gibbs	1,187
Hendrick	1,146
Penske	973
RFK	966
Trackhouse	930
23XI	906
Spire	859
Front Row	777
Legacy MC	772
RCR	762
Kaulig	705
Wood Bros	505
Hyak	483
Haas Factory	451
Rick Ware	226

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	297
Ryan Blaney	293
Kyle Larson	280
Denny Hamlin	227
Tyler Reddick	211
Bubba Wallace	203
Christopher Bell	194
Chase Briscoe	179
Chase Elliott	178
Alex Bowman	165

Milestone Watch

Austin Cindric	This will be his 150th Career Cup Series Start
Brad Keselowski	Looking for his 160th Career Top 5
Christopher Bell	Looking for his 60th Career Top 5
William Byron	Looking for his 120th Career Top 10
Ross Chastain	Looking for his 70th Career Top 10
Chase Briscoe	Looking for his 50th Career Top 10
Michael McDowell	Looking for his 50th Career Top 10

Scorigami Update

Talladega was the first time that:

Riley Herbst finished

SVG finished

Todd Gilliland finished 2^nd

Chase Elliott finished 40^th (and he completes the Scorigami)

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley	175 races
Cole Custer	131 races
Erik Jones	113 races
Kyle Busch	91 races
Michael McDowell	82 races
Daniel Suarez	68 races
Brad Keselowski	57 races
AJ Allmendinger	54 races
Alex Bowman	50 races
Chris Buescher	42 races

The race begins Sunday, October 26^th at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am 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!