NASCAR’s newest race car, dubbed “Next Gen” car, has so far proven to be difficult to get a hold of in this very young 2022 season. At least, it has been for drivers who don’t have a background of racing on dirt.

Okay, yes, drivers with pavement backgrounds have run well too. Ryan Blaney has already led 190 laps this season and most of his racing background is pavement Late Model racing, and Kyle Busch was just two laps away from the win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before a late caution and pit strategy ended his hopes of winning.

But think about the three drivers have won the last three races: Kyle Larson (Auto Club Speedway), Alex Bowman (Vegas) and Chase Briscoe this past weekend at Phoenix Raceway. All three of them have dirt racing experience.

So is there something to this, or is it just a coincidence? Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports asked Briscoe about it after his victory at Phoenix on Sunday and Briscoe attributed it to how quickly dirt racers have to adapt to every variable thrown at them.

“A lot of the dirt guys, when we go to a race track we get three laps (of practice) and then we’re going racing,” Briscoe said. “You get three hot laps and you better figure it out quickly.”

Chase Briscoe explains why he thinks drivers used to competing on dirt have an advantage with the Next Gen car. It might not be what you think. pic.twitter.com/OLCzzu5CTJ

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 14, 2022

Briscoe’s right. Any dirt fan is quick to remind a pavement fan that dirt racers only get a handful of hot laps at the start of the night versus hours of practice on the pavement side. Being able to adapt extremely quickly is a trait that has come in handy over the last year-plus as NASCAR went away from practice altogether, and still even now as NASCAR has brought back a short, 15-minute practice session each weekend. It’s drastically different from the days prior to COVID-19’s existence when the Cup Series would typically get three, 45-minute sessions throughout the weekend.

“I feel like with this new car and not a lot of practice, the dirt guys have always had to figure it out and adapt very quickly,” said Briscoe. “The guys that grew up Late Model racing or pavement racing, they don’t necessarily have that. They’d go and test and run hours of practice.”

Even before this Next Gen car came about, we were starting to see a change in how drivers prepared. 2019 Cup champ Chase Elliott, who grew up racing Super Late Models on pavement, has been running Midgets when he can over the last year and has even run a Sprint Car race. Kyle Busch just competed in four divisions at this year’s Tulsa Shootout and just won a Micro race this past weekend at Arizona’s Adobe Mountain Speedway. Even Joey Logano has gotten a little dirty as he did some UMP Modified racing last year before winning on the Cup Series’ return to the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway a year ago.

VIDEO: Watch Kyle Busch's impressive performance in a Micro Sprint at the Tulsa Shootout.

Really, there’s only been one dirt driver who has struggled so far, and that’s three-time Chili Bowl champion Christopher Bell. Bell currently sits 30^th in points with just one finish better than 26th. He had multiple practice spins at Fontana before an engine issue relegated him to a 36th-place finish, and he had a spin on Sunday on his way to a 26th-place result at Phoenix. Bell’s best weekend yet was at Las Vegas where he finished 10th after starting from the pole. That said, there’s no reason to believe Bell won’t get things turned around as he’s excelled in every single car he’s raced, whether it’s on dirt or pavement, throughout his career.

So to answer the question from earlier if there’s something to this theory, the early results seem to indicate that the answer is yes. Of course, we do need a bigger sample size, but right now it looks like the key to success in NASCAR’s Next Gen Cup car is slinging some dirt at a short track.

And the good thing for those Cup drivers who may be thinking, “Hey, I should probably start doing some dirt racing,” is that there happens to be a big Late Model race called the Kyle Larson Presents, FloRacing Late Model Challenge Powered by Tezos taking place on April 14 at Volunteer Speedway. Located less than an hour away from Bristol Motor Speedway, the race will give drivers a chance to gain dirt experience prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race at Bristol.