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Denny Hamlin and William Byron extended their lead in the active lead lap finishes after the race last week at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has finished with a lead lap for the past 20 consecutive races.
This has given him a huge margin at the top of the table. While Hamlin leads it with 20 races under his belt, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron follows him with seven. Both drivers have remained extremely consistent this season and have already qualified for the playoffs. Byron took victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, which gave him a head start on the season, but a 27th-place finish at Atlanta hampered his streak and he is currently sitting with seven consecutive active lap finishes.
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Other drivers on the consecutive active-lap finishers list are Ty Gibbs (5), Chase Briscoe (5), Ross Chastain (3), Ryan Blaney (3), Christopher Bell (3), AJ Allmendinger (2).
Denny Hamlin has managed to achieve an active-lap finish since the start of the 2024 playoffs. He was a strong contender for the Cup Series championship, which would have been his first, but he was eliminated after the Round of 8.
He is also the co-owner of 23XI Racing alongside NBA legend Michael Jordan, making him one of the few team owners in the current Cup Series field.
Denny Hamlin comments on NASCAR's packed racing schedule
The NASCAR Cup Series is prepared to race on 28 consecutive weekends this year, marking a new challenge for teams and crew members. It can sometimes be extremely tough for the team members to carry on with such closely packed racing action throughout the year.
Denny Hamlin agreed on the same as he discussed the current schedule. Commenting on the situation from the perspective of a team owner, he mentioned that it becomes important for him to keep the crew happy with such challenging conditions.
"I mean there's always a breaking point," Hamlin commented via the Cup Scene on YouTube (07:40 onwards) when asked about the consecutive race weekends. "I think we've seen it's been harder and harder to keep people over the years. The one thing that I do feel good about is our track record for keeping people at 23XI and keeping them happy."
Furthermore, Hamlin stated that NASCAR is a tough sport to be a part of because of the many races in a single stretch and how closely packed they are.
"But it's just generally a hard sport to be a part of because of the schedule and the task that we ask our people to do and how long we ask them to do it," he added.
Highlighting his racing part of the sport, Denny Hamlin has been rather consistent this year. He won back to back races in Martinsville and Darlington and four other top 10 finishes have kept him in winning contention.
