By Adam Carabine
Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Austin, Texas for the Echopark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, or COTA.
Relatively new to the NASCAR schedule, COTA is a road course facility that opened in 2012. NASCAR first visited in 2021 with Chase Elliott taking the inaugural victory. This year the race has been changed – it will be on the 2.356-mile layout.
Tomorrow’s race will be 95 laps long (for a total of 223.82 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 20 – 45 – 95. Pit road speed is 40 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 50 mph.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 467 laps, for 912.14 miles so far this season. 12 drivers have completed all of them.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at COTA:
Ross Chastain | 4.00 over 4 races (1 win) |
Alex Bowman | 4.25 over 4 races |
Tyler Reddick | 5.00 over 4 races (1 win) |
Ty Gibbs | 6.00 over 2 races |
Chase Elliott | 7.00 over 3 races (1 win) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at COTA:
Josh Berry | 35.00 over 1 race |
Bubba Wallace | 32.25 over 4 races |
Cole Custer | 29.50 over 2 races |
Daniel Suarez | 28.75 over 4 races |
Justin Haley | 28.25 over 4 races |
COTA is a Road Course
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
Chase Elliott | 8.19 over 35 races (7 wins) |
Tyler Reddick | 11.10 over 26 races (3 wins) |
Shane Van Gisbergen | 11.90 over 6 races (1 win) |
Chris Buescher | 13.13 over 37 races (1 win) |
Kyle Busch | 14.48 over 58 races (4 wins) |
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Road Courses:
John Hunter Nemechek | 28.28 over 7 races |
Ty Dillon | 27.08 over 25 races |
Ryan Preece | 25.94 over 23 races |
Bubba Wallace | 22.98 over 32 races |
Austin Dillon | 22.98 over 39 races |
With COTA being so new to the schedule, there have only been four Cup Series races there, and four different winners. Chase Elliott, William Byron, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick are all tied for winningest driver at COTA with one each.
Notable drivers who have not won at COTA:
Kyle Busch | (has won at 24 other tracks) |
Denny Hamlin | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Joey Logano | (has won at 19 other tracks) |
Kyle Larson | (has won at 18 other tracks) |
Brad Keselowski | (has won at 17 other tracks) |
Ross Chastain scored his first ever Cup Series win at COTA – it was his 121st start.
Based on average finish, Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs all have COTA as their BEST track, meanwhile Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski all have 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
Tyler Reddick | +748 pts |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | +588 pts |
Bubba Wallace | +539 pts |
John Hunter Nemechek | +432 pts |
Ryan Blaney | +418 pts |
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024
Brad Keselowski | -560 pts |
Josh Berry | -535 pts |
Ty Gibbs | -503 pts |
Ross Chastain | -362 pts |
Noah Gragson | -345 pts |
Here is the current battle for Rookie of the Year:
Riley Herbst | 40 |
Shane Van Gisbergen | 18 |
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 | 75 |
Toyota | 75 |
Ford | 63 |
Here is the same formula, but used on a team-vs-team basis:
Chartered Team Standings
Hendrick | 74 |
Joe Gibbs | 73 |
23XI | 63 |
Penske | 63 |
Spire | 62 |
Legacy Motor Club | 59 |
Trackhouse | 53 |
Hyak | 51 |
Kaulig | 46 |
RFK | 46 |
RCR | 44 |
Front Row | 36 |
Haas Factory | 17 |
Rick Ware | 14 |
Wood Bros | 13 |
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
Joey Logano | 22 |
Ryan Blaney | 21 |
Austin Cindric | 20 |
Bubba Wallace | 18 |
Alex Bowman | 17 |
William Byron | 16 |
Chase Elliott | 14 |
Tyler Reddick | 13 |
Kyle Larson | 10 |
Josh Berry | 10 |
Milestone Watch
Chase Elliott | Looking for his 20th Career Win |
Kyle Larson | Looking for his 30th Career Win |
Tyler Reddick | Looking for his 40th Career Top 5 |
Ross Chastain | Looking for his 60th Career Top 10 |
Denny Hamlin | Looking for his 360th Career Top 10 |
John Hunter Nemechek | Looking for his 10th Career Top 10 |
Tyler Reddick | Looking for his 80th Career Top 10 |
Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:
Winless Streaks
Justin Haley | 139 races |
Erik Jones | 79 races |
Bubba Wallace | 77 races |
Kyle Busch | 55 races |
Martin Truex Jr. | 50 races |
Michael McDowell | 46 races |
Daniel Suarez | 32 races |
William Byron | 26 races |
Chase Elliott | 25 races |
Denny Hamlin | 23 races |
The race begins Sunday, March 2nd at 3:30 pm EST (12:30 pm 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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