StatChat 2025 - Goodyear 400 at Darlington

By Adam Carabine

Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend NASCAR travels to Darlington, South Carolina for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

Darlington is a uniquely egg-shaped oval, with corners 1 and 2 being quite a bit wider than 3 and 4.  The track is 1.366 miles long.  It was built in 1950, and Johnny Mantz won the first NASCAR race there that same year.

Tomorrow’s race will be 293 laps long (for a total of 400.24 miles), with stage breaks occurring at 90 – 185 – 293.  Pit road speed is 45 mph, and the caution vehicle runs at 50 mph.  The fuel window is between 69-75 laps.

This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has run 1,808 laps, for 2,459.36 miles so far this season.  Only 4 drivers have completed all of them – Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick.

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Darlington:

Denny Hamlin	8.20 over 25 races (4 wins)
Kyle Larson	10.79 over 14 races (1 win)
Brad Keselowski	11.05 over 22 races (2 wins)
Tyler Reddick	13.09 over 11 races
Erik Jones	13.21 over 14 races (2 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Darlington:

Cody Ware	31.00 over 5 races
Zane Smith	29.00 over 2 races
JH Nemechek	27.20 over 5 races
SVG	26.00 over 1 race
Michael McDowell	25.95 over 19 races

Darlington is an Intermediate Track

Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:

Denny Hamlin	12.00 over 337 races (27 wins)
Kyle Larson	12.14 over 175 races (17 wins)
Kyle Busch	12.44 over 353 races (29 wins)
Joey Logano	12.50 over 283 races (18 wins)
Chase Elliott	12.53 over 156 races (6 wins)

Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks:

Riley Herbst	23.50 over 5 races
JH Nemechek	23.15 over 42 races
Ryan Preece	22.45 over 89 races
Ty Dillon	22.42 over 123 races
Josh Berry	21.60 over 24 races (1 win)

David Pearson is the winningest driver at Darlington, having won there 10 times.  Dale Earnhardt had 9 wins.  Denny Hamlin is the winningest of current full-time drivers, having scored 4 career wins there.

Notable drivers who have not won at Darlington:   

Chase Elliott	(has won at 15 other tracks)
Christopher Bell	(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 Darlington.

Based on average finish, no drivers list Darlington as their BEST or 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	+625 pts
Bubba Wallace	+585 pts
Chris Buescher	+498 pts
William Byron	+367 pts
Ryan Preece	+351 pts

Drivers Faring Worse than in 2024

Ty Gibbs	-462 pts
Brad Keselowski	-413 pts
Todd Gilliland	-223 pts
Josh Berry	-193 pts
Joey Logano	-160 pts

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

Best Career Year          

William Byron	10.57
Christopher Bell	11.00
Alex Bowman	12.14
Tyler Reddick	12.86
Chase Briscoe	14.86
Michael McDowell	15.71
Ryan Preece	16.71
JH Nemechek	17.00
Todd Gilliland	19.71
Josh Berry	20.29

Worst Career Year

Cole Custer	28.43
Brad Keselowski	25.14
Erik Jones	24.00
Carson Hocevar	23.86
Ty Gibbs	23.86
Ryan Blaney	20.00
Zane Smith	19.29

Rookie of the Year Battle

Riley Herbst	89
SVG	80

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	254
Chevrolet	252
Ford	227

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

Chartered Team Standings

Joe Gibbs	251
Hendrick	249
RFK	203
23XI	200
Trackhouse	191
Penske	188
Spire	174
Front Row	160
Kaulig	157
RCR	154
Legacy MC	148
Hyak	135
Wood Bros	122
Haas Factory	60
Rick Ware	44

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	71
William Byron	62
Bubba Wallace	59
Joey Logano	55
Kyle Larson	52
Alex Bowman	49
Chase Elliott	46
Austin Cindric	43
Tyler Reddick	37
Denny Hamlin	31

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
Christopher Bell	Looking for his 90th Career Top 10
Ryan Blaney	This will be his 350th Career Cup Series Start

Here are the top 10 longest active winless streaks:

Winless Streaks

Justin Haley	148 races
Cole Custer	98 races
Bubba Wallace	86 races
Erik Jones	86 races
Kyle Busch	64 races
Michael McDowell	55 races
Daniel Suarez	41 races
Chase Elliott	34 races
Brad Keselowski	30 races
Austin Cindric	28 races

The race begins Sunday, April 6th 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!