By Adam Carabine
Happy NASCAR Opening Day everyone! Yes, the Clash has already come and gone, but this is the real deal. This weekend NASCAR travels to Daytona, Florida for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Daytona is a 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval which opened in 1959. The first NASCAR winner at Daytona was Lee Petty that same year.
Tomorrow’s race will be 200 laps long (for a total of 500 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 65 – 130 – 200. The fuel window is between 45-50 laps, though with drafting and fuel saving, it could be stretched longer. Pit road speed is 55 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 70 mph.
This is the first race of the season, so no one has logged any laps just yet!
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
John Hunter Nemechek | 11.00 over 4 races |
Bubba Wallace | 11.93 over 15 races |
Zane Smith | 13.00 over 3 races |
Alex Bowman | 15.24 over 17 races |
Austin Cindric | 17.00 over 7 races (1 win) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Daytona:
SVG | 35.00 over 1 race |
Todd Gilliland | 28.83 over 6 races |
Daniel Suarez | 27.06 over 16 races |
Carson Hocevar | 25.50 over 2 races |
Tyler Reddick | 24.91 over 11 races |
Daytona is a Super Speedway
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:
John Hunter Nemechek | 15.50 over 8 races |
Bubba Wallace | 16.15 over 29 races (1 win) |
Denny Hamlin | 17.11 over 76 races (5 wins) |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 17.70 over 48 races (4 wins) |
Ryan Blaney | 17.82 over 40 races (4 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Super Speedways:
Carson Hocevar | 23.75 over 5 races |
Daniel Suarez | 23.59 over 32 races |
Ty Gibbs | 23.20 over 10 races |
Cody Ware | 22.38 over 16 races |
Tyler Reddick | 22.10 over 21 races (1 win) |
Richard Petty is the winningest driver at Daytona, with 10 wins. Cale Yarborough is next with 8. Of current drivers, Denny Hamlin has the most with 3 wins.
Notable drivers who have not won at Daytona:
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Chase Elliott | (has won at 15 other tracks) |
Christopher Bell | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Tyler Reddick | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Alex Bowman | (has won at 8 other tracks) |
Drivers who have scored their first win at Daytona – Justin Haley (his 3rd race), Austin Cindric (his 8th race), Erik Jones (his 67th race), William Byron (his 98th race), and Michael McDowell (his 356th race).
Based on average finish, both John Hunter Nemechek and Bubba Wallace list Daytona as their BEST track, meanwhile SVG, Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, and Chase Elliott list it as their WORST.
Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:
Riley Herbst | 0 |
SVG | 0 |
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 |
Kyle Larson | Looking for his 120th Career Top 5 |
Ryan Blaney | Looking for his 150th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 142 races |
Cole Custer | 98 races |
Bubba Wallace | 80 races |
Erik Jones | 80 races |
Kyle Busch | 58 races |
Michael McDowell | 49 races |
Daniel Suarez | 35 races |
William Byron | 29 races |
Chase Elliott | 28 races |
Denny Hamlin | 26 races |
The race begins Sunday, February 16th at 1:30pm ET (10:30am 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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