Dr. Diandra: Christopher Bell finishes better, but stats show Denny Hamlin still JGR’s top driver

RICHMOND, Va. — Denny Hamlin remains the top driver at Joe Gibbs Racing despite Christopher Bell’s rapid ascendancy. While Bell has better finishes, Hamlin’s stats show him to be more competitive.

In 2022 — just his second year with Joe Gibbs Racing — Christopher Bell led the team in wins, top-five and top-10 finishes. He was the only JGR driver to make the Championship Four.

Six races into 2023, Bell again seems to be JGR’s top dog, as the table below shows. Although no JGR driver has won a race yet, Bell has logged the most top-five, top-10 and even top-15 finishes.

It’s tempting to herald a changing of the guard at JGR, especially with Kyle Busch’s departure to Richard Childress Racing. Such a story might remind Hamlin of his first full-time season with JGR in 2006.

Tony Stewart was in his eighth year in the Cup Series. He won five races, had 15 top-five finishes, 20 top-10 finishes and just missed making the playoffs (which were then called The Chase.) Stewart finished 11th in the standings. Rookie Hamlin had two wins, eight top-five finishes and 20 top-10 finishes — but he made the Chase and finished the season in third.

That was 17 years and two generations of car ago.

Like most experienced drivers, Hamlin needed some time to adapt to the Next Gen car. Although he made the playoffs, Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon move kept Hamlin out of the Championship Four.

Hamlin’s 2023 season is off to a much better start, as the table below shows.

Hamlin’s improvement is helped by having completed all the laps in the first six races this year. Last year at this time, he had a 50% DNF rate. Hamlin has earned 76 more points this year than last and spent almost 90% of all laps in the top 15.

Although he finished sixth at Fontana and