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The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series so far has seen different winners in each race up to this point, making it one of the most exciting seasons to date.
The Cup Series has featured seven different winners in seven weekends, including several drivers who have earned their first career wins in the Cup Series. However, some former champions have struggled throughout the season so far.
Austin Cindric in his maiden Cup Series won the Daytona 500. Chase Briscoe won in Phoenix and Ross Chastain collected the victory in Austin, with both also claiming their first wins of the season.
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Out of the eight former champions in the 2022 NASCAR season, only Kyle Larson has notched a win of the season at the Auto Club Speedway. While the other seven former champions have just seven top-five finishes combined.
Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch each have one top-five finish, placing in second, fifth, and 10th place, respectively in the latest release of the points table. Kyle Busch, brother of Kurt Busch, has two top-five finishes thus far.
Young drivers have performed better than experienced drivers in the 2022 NASCAR season
Young drivers such as Tyler Reddick of Richard Childress Racing, Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing and Erik Jones of Petty GMS Racing have already recorded as many top-five finishes as the entire group of former champions.
However, there are 19 weekends left before the start of the playoffs. It’s going to be challenging for all seven former champions to win at least one of those races, keeping in mind that every driver in that group except Elliott is older than 30.
Denny Hamlin’s (aged 41) win on Sunday at Richmond Raceway ended the Cup Series’ record-long-streak of wins by drivers under the age of 30. Interestingly, Hamlin was the first driver in 30 years to win the Cup race at the age of 40 in Vegas last October.
