Medal Winners: Who Are NASCAR's Best as of the Olympic Break?

The Olympics are in full force in Paris, France, and as the games roll on, the NASCAR Cup Series will observe a two-week break. In the spirit of the Olympics, let's hand out some medals for how drivers have performed through the opening 22 races of the 2024 season, shall we?

Overall Best Driver

Gold Medal: Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports

There is no denying this one, Kyle Larson has been an absolute force to be reckoned with this season. Even with missing an entire race -- the Coca-Cola 600 -- Larson holds a 10-point advantage over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for the Regular Season championship with four races left.

Larson has amassed four race wins, including last week's Brickyard 400, and he has eight Stage Wins to go along with it all. Overall, Larson has piled up 28 Playoff Points, and he stands to gain 15 more if he can hold onto the Regular Season championship.

Silver Medal: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing

At 43-years old, Hamlin is not slowing down. The driver in his 19th full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series has three wins this season, and he also snagged a couple of runner-up runs at Pocono Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway in Gateway.

Heading into the Brickyard 400, Hamlin had worked his way back into the hunt for the Regular Season championship, despite a blown engine on Lap 2 at Sonoma Raceway in June. However, a crash not of his doing in Overtime on Lap 162 of the Brickyard 400 has likely dashed his Regular Season championship bid.

Still, Hamlin has shown that when he and crew chief Chris Gabehart are on they are among the very best in the sport. Hamlin will look to work his way into the Championship 4 for the fifth time in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

Bronze Medal: Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing

He may only have one win so far this season, but Reddick has been the most consistent driver in the NASCAR Cup Series garage as of late. Since a 30th-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway in the spring, Reddick has reeled off 13 top-10 finishes over his last 17 starts, and in that span, he has a win, which came at Talladega Superspeedway, as well as runner-up finishes at the Chicago Street Course, and in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Reddick has one finish outside of the top 22 in that 17-race stretch, which was a 32nd-place effort at Darlington Raceway. However, Reddick led 174 laps of that event, and was in the mix for the win before contact with Chris Buescher while battling for the lead cut down his tire, and ended his bid at a solid finish.

In the last 15 races, Reddick has clawed his way from 10th in the championship standings to third, and he now sits just 15 points behind Larson for the Regular Season Championship.

Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com

Laps Led

Gold Medal: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing

Hamlin has the most laps led in the NASCAR Cup Series this season with 772 laps led. The driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota Camry XSE started the season off by leading at least one lap in each of the opening 13 races of the season, an incredible feat.

Hamlin has led AT LEAST 10 laps in 14 of the 22 races contested so far this season.

Silver Medal: Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports

Larson ranks second to Hamlin with 762 laps led so far this season, and the main reason for Larson not ranking first in this statistical category is the lack of laps led for the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet over the last five races.

The eight laps that Larson led in his race win at the Brickyard 400 were the only laps the driver had led during that five-race stretch.

Bronze Medal: Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing

While Hamlin and Larson are out on an island by themselves in the 700-plus laps led group, Christopher Bell sits third on the season with 598 laps led.

Bell asserted himself as a lap leader early in the season, but he has really come on strong since leading 90 laps in his win in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 80 laps the following week at Gateway, and racked up 149 laps led in a win at New Hampshire as well as 131 laps led at Nashville Superspeedway the following week.

Photo Credit: Craig White, TobyChristie.com

Cleanest Driver

Gold Medal: Justin Haley, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing

Among drivers who have competed in all 22 NASCAR Cup Series races so far this season, no driver has had a cleaner record on track than Rick Ware Racing's driver of the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Haley has just recorded six on-track incidents (per the TobyChristie.com incident tracker). Haley has been incident-free in 17 races so far this year, including the last three races.

Silver Medal (three-way tie): Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing, Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports, Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports

Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland, and Alex Bowman have been extremely clean on track in their own right this season as all three drivers are tied with seven incidents each through the opening 22 races of the season.

With a three-way tie for silver, there will be no bronze medal awarded in this category.

Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com

Best Average Finish

Gold Medal: Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports

While he hasn't been super flashy with just one race win, and one Stage Win this season, Elliott has certainly found his groove from a consistency standpoint. The Dawsonville, GA native has the best average finish of anyone in the series (10.5) through the opening 22 races.

A big part of the success for Elliott this season has been salvaging decent finishes on bad days. He has no DNFs yet this year, and just one finish outside of the top 20, a 21st-place finish at the Chicago Street Course.

Silver Medal: Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing

Reddick has four more sub-20th-place finishes than Elliott, yet due to incredible results over the last couple of months, he has clawed to second-best in average finish among full-time drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series with an 11.3 average finish.

While he hasn't picked up a second win yet this season, Reddick has recorded an average finish of 3.8 over his last five starts. Another win is certainly on the horizon.

Bronze Medal: William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports

Kyle Larson (13.05 average finish) missed the Coca-Cola 600 due to running the Indianapolis 500, which made him ineligible for this medal. As a result, his teammate William Byron takes the bronze in the average finish category.

Byron, who started the season off on fire by winning three of the opening eight races, has cooled as of late, but still has churned out enough solid results to have an average finish of 13.95, even after a 38th-place finish in the Brickyard 400.

Photo Credit: Craig White, TobyChristie.com