Tyler Reddick has been the best driver so far this season, at least by statistics. With five wins in his tally, the 23XI Racing driver broke records coming to the 2026 season. Despite this, he still isn't the best Next Gen driver according to FOX broadcasters, as they have a different name in mind.

Renowned FOX broadcasters, Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer, recently sat with Kevin Harvick on the Happy Hour, where they discussed the driver who performed at his very best this season in the Next Gen era. And they've chosen Reddick's boss over him.

"I think Denny Hamlin's the best driver on the circuit right now," Bowyer said. "One thing that we haven't got to, and I'm sure that little note cards. I usually write them out, but forget it's Toyotas."

Following this, the former NASCAR driver mentioned how the Japanese manufacturers have been the absolute best OEMs coming into the season. Furthermore, they were performing at an optimal level in 2025, making them the best-performing OEMs in recent times.

"No rule changes moving into 2026. Where do we see the Toyotas, and where did we leave off in 2025? Toyotas were dominating races. Same principle applies. No rule changes in the Toyotas have been who everybody's chasing down," Bowyer further added.

Besides his runner-up position last year, Denny Hamlin has the second-most wins (15) since NASCAR rolled out the Next-Gen cars in 2022. Only Kyle Larson has more wins than him (16).

Coming into 2026, Hamlin has won two races so far, one being a non-championship one. However, his performance has not been any less than Reddick's. Hamlin has 624 lead laps under his belt and is the highest on the grid, whereas Reddick has 201.

Besides this, the Joe Gibbs Racing star has the second-best combined statistics when it comes to starting and finishing positions, only behind Reddick. Had he not crashed in the Daytona 500, things could have been different.

Currently, Hamlin is 129 points behind Reddick, after 12 races, and has five top fives and seven top 10s. Although the recent win at Dover did not add anything to the statistics, he cherished the victory nonetheless.

Elated Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts after Dover victory

Denny Hamlin claimed the victory in the recently concluded NASCAR All-Star race at the Dover Motor Speedway. With this, the Joe Gibbs Racing star took home $900,000 and denied his JGR teammate the victory.

"I’ll be honest, when we started that third stage, this car was very easy to drive,” Hamlin said after the race. “They nailed the adjustments."

"I mean, one thing I’ve noticed about this team over the last couple years with (crew chief) Chris Gayle leading it is that we can be leading and dominating, and he’ll still go make adjustments. He does not just leave things as-is. They constantly make it better, and they nailed it through in the third stage," Hamlin further added.

Thanks to this victory, Denny Hamlin picked up four wins at this track, one in 2020, followed by another three in 2024, 2025, and 2026. The victory was also his second in the NASCAR All-Star races.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason