So, I've been keeping track of this stuff since the beginning of 2013 with the introduction of the Gen 6 car.
There have been a total of 111 Sprint Cup points races run from the 2013 Daytona 500 to last week.
111 races, that produced a grand total of just 21 different winners from 12 different teams.
8 out of the 21 winners over the past 3 seasons have only won 1 race, 4 of the 12 teams have only won 1 race
JGR is the only Toyota team to be significant in this time frame. All Toyota wins in 2014 and 2015 came from JGR.
HMS is the most successful Chevy Team in this time frame
Penske is the only Ford team to do anything in this time frame. All Ford wins in 2015 came from Penske.
So is it any surprise a JGR car, a HMS car and a Penske car make up the first three wins of 2016?
Outside of Daytona and 'Dega, realistically there are only about 10 drivers with a shot to win every week. Even with the four restrictor plate races, there's not much variation in winning recently. Ragan at Talladega in 2013, and previously at the Summer Daytona race in 2012 and Bayne in the 500 the same year and Almirola had the rain shortened Daytona race. Looking at the numbers, what incentive is there for some of the 3rd rate teams when they know they have no chance. Maybe that's why there's only been 39 entries lately. I am really surprised Team Burger King, Front Row and HScott are able to support 2 cars each, with BK and Front Row having 3 in the past