StatChat 2025 - YellaWood 500 at Talladega

By Adam Carabine

Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Lincoln, Alabama for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega SuperSpeedway.

Talladega is the largest oval on the NASCAR circuit, at 2.66 miles long.  The track opened in 1969, and Richard Brickhouse was the first to win a NASCAR race at the facility that same year.  Last year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won this race in the fall.  Earlier this season, the race was won by Austin Cindric.

Tomorrow’s race will be 188 laps long (for a total of 500.08 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 60 – 120 – 188.  Pit road speed is 55 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 75 mph.  The fuel window is between 40-50 laps.

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 8,568 laps, for 11,764.51 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 Talladega:

William Byron	13.67 over 15 races
Chase Elliott	14.05 over 19 races (2 wins)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	14.42 over 24 races (2 wins)
Todd Gilliland	14.71 over 7 races
Brad Keselowski	15.64 over 33 races (6 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Talladega:

Cody Ware	26.80 over 10 races
Zane Smith	26.50 over 4 races
Josh Berry	26.00 over 3 races
Michael McDowell	26.00 over 29 races
Ty Gibbs	25.67 over 6 races

Talladega is a Super Speedway.

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:

JH Nemechek	16.50 over 11 races
Bubba Wallace	16.97 over 32 races (1 win)
Chase Elliott	17.25 over 39 races (2 wins)
Denny Hamlin	17.33 over 79 races (5 wins)
Ryan Blaney	17.55 over 43 races (5 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:

Carson Hocevar	23.38 over 8 races
Michael McDowell	23.28 over 58 races (1 win)
Cody Ware	23.07 over 19 races
Daniel Suarez	22.18 over 35 races
Ryan Preece	22.17 over 23 races

Dale Earnhardt is the winningest driver at Talladega, with 10 wins over his Cup Series career.  His son, Dale Jr. is tied for second all-time with Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski – they each have 6 wins.

Drivers who ran their first Cup Series race at Talladega:

Justin Haley

2019, P32

Drivers who WON their first Cup Series race at Talladega:

Brad Keselowski	5th career race
Bubba Wallace	143rd career race
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	158th career race

Drivers whose most recent Cup Series Victory was at Talladega:

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	38 races ago, 2024
Austin Cindric	23 races ago, 2025

Notable drivers who have not won at Talladega:

Kyle Larson	(has won at 18 other tracks)
William Byron	(has won at 11 other tracks)
Christopher Bell	(has won at 10 other tracks)
Alex Bowman	(has won at 8 other tracks)
Chris Buescher	(has won at 6 other tracks)

Based on average finish, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Dillon list Talladega as their BEST track.  No drivers 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	+342 pts
Ryan Preece	+228 pts
JH Nemechek	+222 pts
Erik Jones	+176 pts
Zane Smith	+114 pts

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Brad Keselowski	-193 pts
Noah Gragson	-187 pts
Daniel Suarez	-158 pts
Ty Gibbs	-115 pts
Alex Bowman	-69 pts

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

Best Career Year

Christopher Bell	11.42
Chase Briscoe	12.12
Ryan Preece	16.21
JH Nemechek	20.15

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer	24.30
Carson Hocevar	21.58
Zane Smith	21.09
Ty Gibbs	18.39

Rookie of the Year Battle

SVG	2,146 (5 wins)
Riley Herbst	379

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	1,205
Toyota	1,177
Ford	1,107

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

Chartered Team Standings

Joe Gibbs	1,147
Hendrick	1,134
Penske	952
RFK	939
Trackhouse	904
23XI	873
Spire	828
Legacy MC	749
RCR	744
Front Row	742
Kaulig	688
Wood Bros	501
Hyak	482
Haas Factory	419
Rick Ware	220

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	290
Ryan Blaney	282
Kyle Larson	271
Denny Hamlin	227
Tyler Reddick	202
Bubba Wallace	197
Christopher Bell	187
Chase Elliott	178
Chase Briscoe	169
Alex Bowman	164

Milestone Watch

Kyle Larson	This will be his 400th 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
Bubba Wallace	Looking for his 60th Career Top 10
Michael McDowell	Looking for his 50th Career Top 10
Zane Smith	Looking for his 10th Career Top 10

Scorigami Update

Las Vegas was the first time that:

Noah Gragson finished 13^th

Ty Dillon finished 37^th 

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley	174 races
Cole Custer	130 races
Erik Jones	112 races
Kyle Busch	90 races
Michael McDowell	81 races
Daniel Suarez	67 races
Brad Keselowski	56 races
AJ Allmendinger	53 races
Alex Bowman	49 races
Chris Buescher	41 races

The race begins Sunday, October 19^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!