StatChat 2025 - Food City 500 at Bristol

By Adam Carabine

Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Bristol, Tennessee for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bristol is a 0.533-mile oval with heavy banking in the corners, and two pit roads to make room for all of the teams.  The track opened in 1961, and Jack Smith won the first NASCAR race there that same year.

Tomorrow’s race will be 500 laps long (for a total of 266.50 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 125 – 250 – 500.  Pit road speed is 30 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 35 mph.  The fuel window is between 165-180 laps.

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 2,105 laps, for 2,865.06 miles so far this season.  Only 3 drivers have completed all of them – Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick.

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Bristol:

Chase Elliott	10.76 over 17 races
Kyle Larson	12.75 over 20 races (2 wins)
Christopher Bell	13.00 over 10 races (1 win)
Denny Hamlin	13.82 over 38 races (4 wins)
Kyle Busch	14.64 over 39 races (9 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Bristol:

Noah Gragson	26.50 over 4 races
Zane Smith	26.00 over 2 races
Cody Ware	25.00 over 3 races
Michael McDowell	24.93 over 29 races
Ty Dillon	23.79 over 14 races

Bristol is a Short Track

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Joey Logano	11.08 over 187 races (13 wins)
Chase Elliott	11.21 over 100 races (4 wins)
Christopher Bell	11.63 over 56 races (6 wins)
Ryan Blaney	12.66 over 104 races (3 wins)
William Byron	12.99 over 78 races (3 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Short Tracks:

Michael McDowell	26.54 over 164 races
Zane Smith	26.31 over 17 races
JH Nemechek	24.51 over 25 races
Ty Dillon	23.62 over 76 races
Noah Gragson	23.31 over 25 races

Darrell Waltrip is the winningest driver at Bristol, with 12 wins at the track.  There’s a four-way tie after that, with Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, and Kyle Busch each having 9 wins.

Notable drivers who have not won at Bristol: 

Chase Elliott	(has won at 15 other tracks)
William Byron	(has won at 10 other tracks)
Ryan Blaney	(has won at 9 other tracks)
Tyler Reddick	(has won at 8 other tracks)
Alex Bowman	(has won at 8 other tracks)

No current driver has scored their first ever Cup Series win at Bristol.

Based on average finish, Ryan Preece lists Bristol as his BEST track – no drivers list it as their WORST track.

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	+676 pts
Bubba Wallace	+571 pts
Chris Buescher	+561 pts
William Byron	+453 pts
Ryan Preece	+330 pts

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Brad Keselowski	-439 pts
Ty Gibbs	-382 pts
Josh Berry	-256 pts
Todd Gilliland	-204 pts
Joey Logano	-136 pts

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

Best Career Year          

William Byron	9.50
Christopher Bell	10.00
Chase Elliott	11.13
Tyler Reddick	11.75
Chase Briscoe	16.50
Ryan Preece	17.88
JH Nemechek	18.63
Todd Gilliland	19.00

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer	27.63
Brad Keselowski	26.13
Carson Hocevar	24.88
Erik Jones	23.13
Ty Gibbs	22.00
Zane Smith	18.38

Rookie of the Year Battle

SVG	97
Riley Herbst	92

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        

Toyota	294
Chevrolet	287
Ford	259

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

Chartered Team Standings

Joe Gibbs	291
Hendrick	284
RFK	234
23XI	233
Trackhouse	221
Penske	220
Spire	187
Front Row	185
RCR	181
Kaulig	178
Legacy MC	168
Hyak	147
Wood Bros	123
Haas Factory	75
Rick Ware	54

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

Ryan Blaney	82
William Byron	81
Bubba Wallace	68
Joey Logano	64
Kyle Larson	52
Alex Bowman	50
Austin Cindric	47
Chase Elliott	46
Tyler Reddick	45
Denny Hamlin	39

Milestone Watch

Chase Elliott	Looking for his 20th Career Win
Josh Berry	Looking for his 10th Career Top 10
Noah Gragson	Looking for his 10th Career Top 10
JH Nemechek	Looking for his 10th Career Top 10
Daniel Suarez	Looking for his 70th Career Top 10
Ryan Preece	Looking for his 20th Career Top 10
Bubba Wallace	Looking for his 50th Career Top 10
William Byron	Looking for his 110th Career Top 10

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley	149 races
Cole Custer	98 races
Bubba Wallace	87 races
Erik Jones	87 races
Kyle Busch	65 races
Michael McDowell	56 races
Daniel Suarez	42 races
Chase Elliott	35 races
Brad Keselowski	31 races
Austin Cindric	29 races

The race begins Sunday, April 13th at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 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!