StatChat 2025 - Xfinity 500 at Martinsville
- Adam Carabine
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
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 1st, 35 for 2nd, 34 for 3rd, 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 2nd
Chase Elliott finished 40th (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 26th at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am 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!