Srigley Stats: NCS Field Features Two Powerhouses, Many Great Stories in First Six Weeks

With the opening six rounds of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign in the books, drivers and teams are beginning to settle into a rhythm and further understand where they stand in the hierarchy of performance at NASCAR's top level.

Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing clearly find themselves at the top of the pile in the NASCAR Cup Series, for the time being, winning five of the opening six races via drivers William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell, while also occupying eight of the top-11 spots in point standings.

The two organizations have combined to lead more than 63% of the laps in the NASCAR Cup Series this season (1,013 of 1,607 laps), with drivers Denny Hamlin (275), Kyle Larson (224), and Ty Gibbs (195) individually leading the laps led category in the NASCAR Cup Series.

If there's anybody amongst that group that deserves an additional shoutout, it's second-year driver Ty Gibbs, who has three top-five runs already this season, plus a streak of five consecutive top-10s, which is officially the longest of his NASCAR Cup Series career. Being second in points at 21, in your second full season, is nothing to scoff at, for sure.

Beyond those eight entries, which are stretched across two of the series' most dominant teams, there are no other driver-team combinations that have shown consistent enough strength to mount a challenge against JGR and HMS at the top.

However, there are still multiple organizations that have begun the year on a positive note, whether that be through solid runs of significant year-over-year increases in performance, leaving them with something to celebrate as the calendar flips to April.

After a breakout season in the NASCAR Cup Series last year, Chris Buescher is off to a strong start again in 2024, earning four top-10s in the first six races. Before this year, the Prosper, Texas-native had never scored his fourth top-10 before the 11th points-paying race of a Cup Series campaign.

John Hunter Nemechek is back in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, driving the No. 42 for the newly Toyota-aligned LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, and he is on a mission. After the opening six races of the year, Nemechek is sitting an impressive 15th place in points, on the strength of two top-10 results at Daytona and Bristol.

Despite the unfortunate circumstances in post-race inspection at COTA, Justin Haley and Rick Ware Racing are still having a pretty solid start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, showing major year-over-year improvements. Placing both entries inside the top-20 at Bristol, and running around the top-15 all afternoon at Circuit of The Americas, it's clear RWR is on an upward trajectory.

Spire Motorsports is on that same upward trajectory, highlighted further this weekend by Corey LaJoie who managed to qualify top five at Circuit of The Americas -- especially impressive considering LaJoie's previous experiences on road courses.

As for the team's rookies, Zane Smith scored his second top-20 in what has been a difficult season for the No. 71 Chevrolet, while Carson Hocevar has remained quiet and stayed out of major trouble, scoring his fourth top-25 of the year, but continues to be near his teammates, in terms of results and standings.

With the positives, unfortunately, come the negatives too.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano continues to ride outside the top-20 in points after six races, only managing to collect a single top-10 result in 2024 -- a ninth-place finish at Las Vegas. An 11th-place result at COTA on Sunday, helped to stop the bleeding somewhat, but the Team Penske driver is going to need his luck to pivot.

It's certainly not all negative for Stewart-Haas Racing this year, who has shown strength at times this season with drivers Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, and Chase Briscoe, plus a noticeable improvement across the board in terms of raw speed.

But, the season thus far has been a story of copious amounts of bad luck thrown the way of the four-car organization, all of which has prevented the organization from being collectively higher in NASCAR Cup Series points than they are currently, with vehicles 17th, 28th, 30th, and 34th.

There's without a doubt a ton of upside for Stewart-Haas Racing this season, though, with Gragson and Briscoe both having recorded a pair of top-10 finishes. The team has also shown great pace on intermediates this year (Las Vegas), as well as with NASCAR's brand-new aerodynamic package, which will be in action for the next two weekends at Richmond Raceway and Martinsville Speedway.

Much like Joey Logano, Stewart-Haas Racing is very much in need of a change in fortune, as they look to build the organization back up to the consistent contender they were in the NASCAR Cup Series a short time ago.

Photo: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

BYRON PUTS TOGETHER PERFECT WEEKEND AT COTA

This past weekend at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) was one of the strongest in the career of 26-year-old William Byron, who led the field in practice and scored the pole position, before dominating the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix for his second win of the season.

It's the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career that Byron has won from the pole, and the first driver to accomplish that since Ross Chastain at Nashville Superspeedway last Summer.

In doing so, Byron became the first driver to win practice, qualifying, and the race in the era of NASCAR's seventh-generation vehicle, which debuted in 2022, and the first to win in each of the three sessions since Denny Hamlin did so in August 2019 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Charlotte, North Carolina native led a race-high 42 of 68 laps in Sunday's sixth event of the season, marking the most dominant performance by any driver in the four-year history of NASCAR Cup Series competition at the 3.41-mile road course in Austin, Texas.

Interestingly enough, though, despite the level of dominance from Byron on Sunday, the 0.692-second margin of victory between race-winner William Byron and runner-up Christopher Bell was the closest ever at Circuit of The Americas, despite each of the previous two events going into NASCAR Overtime.

With the victory, Byron has now won two of the last three road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series, after breaking through for his first non-oval win last Summer at Watkins Glen International.

Photo Credit: Harold Hinson, HHP, Chevy Racing

TY GIBBS CASHING IN ON ROAD COURSE PROWESS

Ty Gibbs has had an unbelievable start to his second full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series, scoring three top-five and five top-10 results in the opening six races of the 2024 season, driving the No. 54 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The 21-year-old driver currently leads the NASCAR Cup Series in both top-10 finishes (five) and average finish (7.83), which has placed him second-place in series point standings, just five markers behind veteran teammate Martin Truex, Jr.

His performance in Sunday's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) signaled once again what many have talked about throughout the current season: Ty Gibbs is going to win a NASCAR Cup Series race, soon.

Could it happen on a road course? The 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion has sneakily been one of the best road racers in the NASCAR Cup Series as of late, further backed by his third-place finish on Sunday.

In the previous three NASCAR Cup Series road course events at COTA, Charlotte's ROVAL, and Watkins Glen, Gibbs has only spent a single lap running outside of the top-15 per NASCAR's Loop Data.

Including both Indianapolis and the Chicago Street Course, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been inside the top-15 for at least 99% of the laps in four of his last five non-oval starts, including three races where he never dropped lower than 15th.

Photo: Rusty Jarrett, LAT, Toyota Racing

TRUCKS: TRICON CLAIMS HALF OF THE TOP-10 AT COTA

TRICON Garage had what can easily be considered its best performance in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this past weekend at COTA, placing five entries inside the top-10.

In doing so, the team co-owned by former NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland became just the second organization in series history to place five entries inside the top-10, joining ThorSport Racing, who did so at Martinsville Speedway in 2019.

Corey Heim and Taylor Gray also earned the organization its first-ever 1-2 finish in the meantime, while road racing specialist Jack Hawksworth finished in sixth place.

Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray rounded out the top-10 in ninth and tenth and greatly benefitted from a 30-second penalty assessed to Matt Crafton to make this piece of history possible.

To make an already great afternoon even better, four of the team's five trucks were out front at one point during the event -- although Taylor Gray never officially led a lap.

Hawksworth's result in the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro also marked the third top-six finish for the rotisserie entry in the last six races, dating back to the season-finale of 2023 with Jesse Love finishing in fourth.

Photo: Lesley Ann Miller, LAT, Toyota Racing