As the 2020 NASCAR season winds down, the stakes have never been higher. With Joey Logano’s spot in the Final 4 being the only guarantee, the remaining seven playoff drivers hope they can make their mark at Texas this weekend. But what does Texas have in store for them? Let’s take a closer look:
Texas is a 1.5 mile quad-oval, and this weekend’s race will be called the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500. While NASCAR has been racing in Texas for many years, the track they will visit on Sunday was built in 1996, and began hosting the Cup Series a year later.
The race will be 334 laps long (for a total of 501 miles), and just as it was in July, stage breaks will occur at 105 – 210 – 334. The fuel window is approximately 60-63 laps.
This year, the Cup Series has raced a total of 12,437.83 miles.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Texas:
Erik Jones
9.00 over 8 races
Matt Kenseth
9.74 over 31 races
Kevin Harvick
10.23 over 35 races
Jimmie Johnson
10.85 over 34 races
Chase Elliott
11.11 over 9 races
Bottom 5 Career Average Finishers at Texas:
Joey Gase
35.17 over 6 races
JJ Yeley
33.61 over 18 races
Quin Houff
33.50 over 2 races
Corey LaJoie
32.17 over 6 races
Michael McDowell
30.62 over 21 races
Since Texas Motor Speedway is 1.5 miles long, it is classified as an intermediate track. An intermediate track is seen as anything between 1 and 2 miles in length.
Top 5 Career Average Finishers at Intermediate Tracks
Kevin Harvick
11.72 over 358 races
Brad Keselowski
12.63 over 210 races
Jimmie Johnson
12.81 over 343 races
Kyle Busch
12.83 over 289 races
Matt Kenseth
12.84 over 346 races
Jimmie Johnson is by far and away the winningest driver at Texas, as he holds 7 wins at this track. Carl Edwards is a distant 2nd with 4 wins. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin each have 3 wins.
Notable drivers who have not won at Texas:
Brad Keselowski
(has won at 17 other tracks)
Martin Truex Jr.
(has won at 14 other tracks)
Clint Bowyer
(has won at 7 other tracks)
Chase Elliott
(has won at 6 other tracks)
Tyler Reddick and Matt Kenseth both list Texas as their BEST track. Cole Custer is the only driver to list Texas as his WORST track. It’s important to note that both Reddick and Custer have only raced at Texas once in the Cup Series, where they finished P2 and P39, respectively.
Compared to last year, some drivers have seen a big change in their performance. Some changes may be performance-related, but it is also potentially a product of the driver joining a new team who may have more or less speed. This statistic is based on their current point pace.
Drivers Faring Better than in 2019
Matt DiBenedetto
+205 pts
Chase Elliott
+178 pts
Kevin Harvick
+141 pts
Bubba Wallace
+132 pts
Austin Dillon
+130 pts
Drivers Faring Worse than in 2019
Daniel Suarez
-475 pts
Kyle Busch
-278 pts
Joey Logano
-94 pts
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-85 pts
William Byron
-75 pts
While some drivers may be doing better this year than they did in 2019, 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
Kevin Harvick
6.79
Denny Hamlin
9.42
Matt DiBenedetto
15.30
Michael McDowell
20.48
Bubba Wallace
20.76
Corey LaJoie
25.24
Drivers Having their WORST Career Year
Daniel Suarez
26.41
Ryan Preece
24.39
Matt Kenseth
20.90
For those that aren’t aware, 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
Ford
1225
Toyota
1157
Chevrolet
1120
If this same formula were used for each Team, you could determine which team has been the most successful this season. For some reason NASCAR does not calculate or showcase these stats, but here they are regardless:
Chartered Team Standings
Joe Gibbs
1159
Penske
1097
Stewart-Haas
1093
Hendrick
1049
Chip Ganassi
864
Richard Childress
845
Wood Brothers
716
Roush-Fenway
715
Front Row
667
JTG-Daugherty
612
Richard Petty
542
Leavine Family
535
Germain
493
Go Fas
392
Rick Ware
297
Spire
228
StarCom
205
The race begins Sunday, October 25th at 3:30pm EST/12:30pm PST.
Is there an error? Is there a stat missing that you’d like to see? Let us know!
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