NASCAR viewer’s guide: Charlotte Motor Speedway

The longest race of the season is upon us as NASCAR heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600.

That means the second half of the regular season begins. The opening 13 races of the Next Gen era have provided plenty of storylines heading into Charlotte.

Eleven different drivers have gone to victory lane in 13 races this season, tied for the second-most number of winners in that span in Cup history, according to Racing Insights.

Among those include drivers you’d expect to see celebrating: Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott. But the list of victors also includes names you probably didn’t expect: rookie Austin Cindric winning the Daytona 500; Chase Briscoe winning at Phoenix; Ross Chastain and William Byron tied with two wins apiece as the series’ leaders.

With the exception of Chastain at Trackhouse Racing and Kurt Busch at 23XI Racing, the winners are still coming from the sport’s traditional powerhouses: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing.

But a rotating cast of characters have been in the mix throughout the year, including Richard Childress Racing’s duo of Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick, Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones and JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse has three straight top-10 finishes, tied for the longest streak of his career and the longest streak for JTG.

Expecting another 11 drivers to win between now and the regular season finale at Daytona is unreasonable. But perhaps the parity produces some more surprises heading into this year’s playoffs.

While the list of 2022 winners is long, there are some notable absences this season, including past Cup champions Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex