A quarter of the way through the NASCAR Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have clearly separated themselves from the competition.

The two organizations have combined to win eight of the nine races;  Trackhouse Racing being the only other team in the win column. And that was nearly two months ago in the three-wide photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Cup Series teams have visited all styles of racetracks through the first quarter. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a fast superspeedway or intermediate or a difficult-to-pass short track, the favorites have been the same each week.

Hendrick Motorsports has won five of the first nine races. Chase Elliott’s triumph at Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday, snapping a winless streak that went back to the fall of 2022, made it three out of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to have won a race. Kyle Larson leads the overall championship standings and William Byron has a series-high three victories.

April has thus far been all about Hendrick Motorsports. The team went 1-2-3 at Martinsville Speedway in its 40th anniversary race, and Texas made it two victories in a row. As a result, Hendrick leads the way as we measure how the series stacks up through the first quarter.

1: Hendrick Motorsports

The numbers speak for themselves with five wins in nine races, including three of the last four. Larson has led a whopping 531 laps already this season, but all four drivers have combined to lead 812 laps. Larson, Elliott, and Byron sit inside the top 10 in points while Alex Bowman fell to 14th after his DNF in Texas. But all four drivers have shown strength in recent weeks and there are plenty of wins still to come.

2: Joe Gibbs Racing

Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell have victories, but arguably all four could have won at this point. All four also have speed every weekend. Truex and Hamlin are second and third in points respectively, while Ty Gibbs is sixth. Gibbs is getting closer and closer to his first career win. Bell is 10th in the standings as the one of the most underrated and underestimated drivers in the series.

3: 23XI Racing

There are still things the organization needs to clean up, such as pit road, but the speed is there. Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick have had opportunities to lead races and contend for wins, and that’s much better than searching for speed and execution. The duo sits eighth and ninth in the championship standings with legitimate pace and ability to win races. Reddick, in fact, is tied with William Byron for a series-leading six top-10 finishes.

4: RFK Racing

Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski are grinding away. Buescher has five top-10 finishes and Keselowski has four, which continues a theme we’ve seen developing over the last year where the two teams are pretty much on par with each other. There are weeks where both cars are top 10 contenders, and then a week where they struggle on a particular track. But overall, they are in the mix for a playoff spot and will continue to chip away at being top 10 teams over the course of a long season.

5: Team Penske

Ryan Blaney and the reigning series champion No. 12 team is carrying the banner for Roger Penske, and helps place them high on this list. There have been multiple occasions where he has contended with top 10 and top five speed. He had such speed at Texas Motor Speedway before being wrecked by Ryan Preece. Blaney is seventh in the standings while his teammates are 15th (Joey Logano) and 21st (Austin Cindric). The three drivers have a combined eighth top-10 finishes and 302 laps led. But it’s been more hot or cold for Logano and Cindric than it has been for Blaney.

Blaney has been Penske’s main threat through the early part of the season. Motorsport Images

6: Trackhouse Racing

Ross Chastain is the leader of the clubhouse at 11th in the standings with four top-10 finishes. The No. 1 team has the ability to contend for wins or run a solid top 10 or top five. Texas Motor Speedway would have been one of those days before the last lap crash with William Byron. On the other hand, Daniel Suarez and the No. 99 team admittedly have work to do. Atlanta is going to put them in the postseason but they haven’t shown the same consistent strength from track to track as their teammate.

7: Stewart-Haas Racing

It would be easy at first glance to say SHR is all over the place. But an important piece of information to know is not all four cars are doing the same thing each weekend. As the team continues to build its way back to the top, they are working together but each trying something different to see what works. There have been solid moments from each team. Chase Briscoe leads the way with four top-10 finishes while Noah Gragson has two and Ryan Preece one. Josh Berry’s team has had speed, but needs to find consistency in their execution. The good news is there’s potential here, but there is still work to be done.

8: Legacy Motor Club

The transition to Toyota wasn’t going to bear overnight fruit and there have been good and bad weekends for the team. Erik Jones had speed at Texas Motor Speedway but cautions didn’t fall his way. John Hunter Nemechek has also been hot or cold on any given weekend, but he does have two top-10 finishes to the one of Jones. And yet they are right there together in points at 19th (Jones) and 20th (Nemechek). It’s going to be a season of building and improving, but both teams sitting top 20 in points through the first quarter is a good start.

9: Richard Childress Racing

There is a lot of work to be done here for both teams, and they would admit as much. Kyle Busch is 16th in the standings with three top-10 finishes but the No. 8 team doesn’t look as strong as it did a year ago when they had speed and were contending for wins. Austin Dillon and the No. 3 team have already made a crew chief change and 28th in the standings with one top-10 finish. It’s a fight for speed, handling, and execution for both teams and right now they are trying to take the good days where they can get them – like Texas, where they weren’t contenders but came away with both cars in the top 10.

10: Front Row Motorsports

It was a fast start for McDowell with back-to-back superspeedway races, and Todd Gilliland also showed flashes of being a contender. While things have cooled off a bit and there haven’t always been results indicative of speed and performance, both the No. 34 and No. 38 team look good and have led laps. We’ve seen the organization take solid steps forward in the Next Gen era, and there should be an expectation for more as this season goes on. And there will be opportunity races along the way for solid top 15 or top 10 days.