The Next Gen car, or Gen 7 car as it’s being called more often now, debuted at the Clash in the Coliseum in 2022. Since that California event, the car has run 82 points-paying races, or two years and 10 races. So how has your driver or team performed in that time? That’s what we found out. And the numbers don’t lie.
When it comes to statistics, the one that everyone cares about the most is wins. The drivers from Hendrick Motorsports are leading the way with William Byron (11 wins) followed by Kyle Larson (8), Denny Hamlin (7), with Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick — the only non-big team driver — all recording six wins each.
The numbers are interesting because they remind everyone that Elliott had a really good season in 2022 before last year’s performance, which was hindered by his time away from the car due to injury and suspension.
What makes these win totals even more interesting is when you combine the victories for each team all together. It definitely paints a more complete picture. In 82 races, HMS has won 26 times while JGR has recorded 17 victories. Team Penske is third at nine, followed by a tie for fourth, between Trackhouse and Richard Childress Racing with seven wins apiece (Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch’s numbers are combined in the No. 8 car).
Rounding out the team win totals is 23XI Racing at five, including three from Reddick, followed by RFK Racing — all of them Chris Buescher —and Stewart-Haas Racing coming in with three. The teams with one win each include: Kaulig Racing, Front Row Motorsports, JTG Daugherty, and Legacy Motor Club.
By the percentages, it’s even more eye-opening with the top two teams winning more than 50% of the time — HMS winning almost a third of the time at 31.7% and JGR standing in Victory Lane 20.7%.
Individual Driver Numbers Reveal Crazy Kyle Larson Stat
When looking at individual statistics, wins are the most important, but it’s all the other numbers combined that ultimately determine whether or not a race ends in Victory Lane. And unsurprisingly, many of the winning drivers have the best numbers in many of these categories. In average finishing position, Chase Elliott is top of the board at 12.5, and is followed by Byron (12.9), Martin Truex Jr. (13.6), Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell (tied at 13.9) and Ross Chastain (14.0).
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the agony of defeat or DNFs. The fewest includes some surprising names. Elliott has lowest number at five, followed by Justin Haley at six and Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney tied for third with seven each.
But the biggest surprise in all of the numbers through 82 races comes in the most DNFs category. Unsurprisingly, Austin Dillon, whose struggles have been well-documented over the last year-plus, is the leader in this unfortunate category at 17. The shocker is who is sitting at No. 2 and it’s the same driver with the second-most wins in Kyle Larson, who has failed to finish 15 times. Larson is followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (13) and both 23XI Racing drivers of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick (12 each).