By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Las Vegas, NV for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Vegas is a 1.5-mile tri-oval, with 20 degrees of banking in the corners. While the track facility opened in 1971, NASCAR didn’t make their way there until 1998, where Mark Martin won the first race.
Tomorrow’s race will be 267 laps long (for a total of 400.5 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 80 – 165 – 267. Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 55 mph.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 8,398 laps, for 11,355.36 miles so far this season. No driver has completed 100% of them, but Daniel Hemric is the closest, having driven 99.37% of them.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Las Vegas:
Kyle Larson | 9.31 over 16 races (3 wins) |
Martin Truex Jr. | 9.84 over 25 races (2 wins) |
Joey Logano | 9.91 over 22 races (3 wins) |
Kyle Busch | 11.23 over 26 races (1 win) |
Ryan Blaney | 11.44 over 16 races |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Las Vegas:
Zane Smith | 36.00 over 1 race |
Michael McDowell | 29.14 over 21 races |
Todd Gilliland | 26.00 over 5 races |
Carson Hocevar | 25.50 over 2 races |
Corey LaJoie | 25.38 over 13 races |
Las Vegas is an Intermediate Track.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediates:
Denny Hamlin | 12.05 over 332 races (27 wins) |
Kyle Larson | 12.28 over 170 races (26 wins) |
Kyle Busch | 12.33 over 348 races (29 wins) |
Chase Elliott | 12.44 over 151 races (6 wins) |
Joey Logano | 12.47 over 278 races (17 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers Intermediates:
Ryan Preece | 22.93 over 84 races |
Josh Berry | 22.83 over 19 races |
Harrison Burton | 22.52 over 43 races |
Zane Smith | 21.50 over 12 races |
Todd Gilliland | 20.85 over 43 races |
Jimmie Johnson is the winningest driver at Las Vegas, having scored 4 victories there. Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson are all tied for 2nd with 3 victories each.
Notable drivers who have not won at Las Vegas:
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Ryan Blaney | (has won at 9 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Tyler Reddick | (has won at 7 other tracks) |
Chris Buescher | (has won at 6 other tracks) |
No driver has scored their first Cup Series win at Las Vegas.
Based on average finish, Martin Truex Jr. lists Las Vegas as his BEST track, meanwhile Zane Smith 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 2023
Noah Gragson | +419 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Chase Elliott | +328 pts (incomplete 2023 season) |
Alex Bowman | +204 pts |
Ty Gibbs | +180 pts |
Austin Cindric | +132 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2023
William Byron | -172 pts |
Martin Truex Jr. | -171 pts |
Kyle Busch | -141 pts |
Erik Jones | -128 pts |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -121 pts |
While some drivers may be doing better this year than they did in 2023, how does this year stack up against their entire career? This statistic does not include rookies, as this is their first full year in the Cup Series.
Drivers Having their BEST Career Year
Tyler Reddick | 12.47 |
Ty Gibbs | 15.28 |
Bubba Wallace | 15.47 |
Todd Gilliland | 20.44 |
Drivers Having their WORST Career Year
Harrison Burton | 26.09 |
Erik Jones | 23.03 |
Justin Haley | 22.97 |
Austin Dillon | 22.34 |
Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:
Carson Hocevar | 604 |
Josh Berry | 506 |
Zane Smith | 460 |
Kaz Grala | 185 |
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 | 1174 |
Ford | 1120 |
Toyota | 1119 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 1087 |
Joe Gibbs | 1061 |
23XI | 949 |
RFK | 919 |
Penske | 900 |
Trackhouse | 862 |
Stewart-Haas | 844 |
RCR | 755 |
Spire | 739 |
Front Row | 659 |
Kaulig | 601 |
Rick Ware | 552 |
Legacy Motor Club | 530 |
JTG-Daugherty | 491 |
Wood Bros | 360 |
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
Kyle Larson | 292 |
Denny Hamlin | 254 |
Ryan Blaney | 246 |
Christopher Bell | 213 |
William Byron | 212 |
Martin Truex Jr. | 209 |
Chase Elliott | 199 |
Tyler Reddick | 196 |
Joey Logano | 163 |
Alex Bowman | 159 |
Milestone Watch
Chase Elliott | Looking for his 20th Career Win |
Kyle Larson | Looking for his 30th Career Win |
Christopher Bell | Looking for his 10th Career Win |
Austin Cindric | Looking for his 10th Career Top 5 |
Alex Bowman | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Austin Dillon | Looking for his 80th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 137 races |
Erik Jones | 77 races |
Bubba Wallace | 75 races |
Kyle Busch | 53 races |
Martin Truex Jr. | 48 races |
Michael McDowell | 44 races |
Daniel Suarez | 30 races |
William Byron | 24 races |
Chase Elliott | 23 races |
Denny Hamlin | 21 races |
The race begins Sunday, October 20th at 2:30 pm EST (11:30 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!
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