NASCAR Cup Series: When will a Chevrolet driver win another race?

A Chevrolet driver hasn’t won a NASCAR Cup Series race since Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 in mid-February. When will that change?

The date was Sunday, February 18, 2018 when a Chevrolet driver last won a NASCAR Cup Series race. That race was the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the driver who won that race was Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon.

Dillon led just one lap of that 207-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Daytona International Speedway oval in his #3 Chevrolet — the final lap.

Since then, 15 Cup Series races and nearly four and a half months have passed. Of those 15 races, eight were won by Ford drivers, while the other seven were won by Toyota drivers. Three Ford drivers and two Toyota drivers combined for those 15 victories.

When will a driver get Chevrolet back into victory lane?

The 2018 season is the first season during which Chevrolet teams and drivers have used the new Camaro ZL1, so it was expected that there would be a learning curve and that Chevrolet teams and drivers would not immediately start dominating the competition right off the bat.

However, with no wins in non-restrictor plate races and with the final non-restrictor plate race before the halfway mark of the season scheduled to take place tomorrow, should Chevrolet teams and drivers be the least bit concerned at this point in the year?

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That depends on how you look at it. More likely than not, a win for a Chevrolet driver will come sooner rather than later. Since Dillon won the Daytona 500 and Richard Petty Motorsports rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. finished in second place in his #43 Chevrolet, Chevrolet drivers have come close to winning races on several occasions.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Jamie McMurray finished in third place in the race at Texas Motor Speedway in his #1 Chevrolet. Kyle Larson, McMurray’s teammate, finished in fourth in the race at Kansas Speedway, third in the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and second in the races at Auto Club Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway in his #42 Chevrolet.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson finished in third place in the race at Bristol Motor Speedway in his #48 Chevrolet. Chase Elliott, one of Johnson’s three teammates, finished in fourth in the race at Sonoma Raceway, third in the races at ISM Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway and second in the race at Richmond Raceway in his #9 Chevrolet.

The sport’s top Chevrolet drivers have had a decent amount of excellent results so far this season. Aside of the Daytona 500, there have been 15 races that have taken place so far this season, and in 10 of those 15 races, at least one Chevrolet driver has finished in the top four. In eight of those races, at least one Chevrolet driver has finished in the top three, and in four of those races, one Chevrolet driver has finished in second place.

Those Chevrolet drivers just don’t have any wins to show for their strong runs since Dillon’s Daytona 500 victory, and it is putting a lot of pressure on them and their teams as the halfway point of the 2018 season rapidly approaches.

Will Chevrolet teams and drivers start dominating the sport in the near future? Will they start winning on a more regular basis than the Ford and Toyota teams and drivers? While the likelihood that at least one Chevrolet driver wins at least one race in the near future is fairly high, the likelihood of these things happening before the 2018 season comes to an end is extremely small.

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When will a Chevrolet driver win another NASCAR Cup Series race? Will that happen tomorrow in the Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway? Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET to watch the live broadcast of that 267-lap race from the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Joliet, Illinois.

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