Will Formula 1, NASCAR or IndyCar ever have an 8-time champion?

There are five Formula 1, NASCAR or IndyCar drivers who have won seven championships, but none have ever won eight. Will this ever change?

Five drivers have won seven championships in either Formula 1, the NASCAR Cup Series or IndyCar. However, a driver has never won eight championships in any of these three series. Will a driver ever become an eight-time champion in any one of them?

Winning one championship is hard to do. Winning seven championships is naturally a lot harder. But once drivers win their seventh championship, is it really that hard to win their eighth?

History shows that yes, it is, and it may be hard for this to change.

Michael Schumacher is the lone seven-time Formula 1 champion. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson are the three seven-time Cup Series champions. A.J. Foyt is the lone seven-time IndyCar champion.

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Schumacher won his seven Formula 1 championships in the 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons. Petty won his seven Cup Series championships in the 1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1979 seasons. Earnhardt won his seven Cup Series championships in the 1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994 seasons.

Johnson, the only active driver of these five drivers, won his seven Cup Series championships in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2016 seasons. Foyt won his seven IndyCar championships in the 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1975 and 1979 seasons.

Schumacher competed in five full Formula 1 seasons as a seven-time champion and failed to win his eighth championship. Petty competed in 13 full Cup Series seasons as a seven-time champion and Earnhardt competed in six seasons as a seven-time champion and both drivers failed to win their eighth championships. Foyt competed in three full IndyCar seasons as a seven-time champion and failed to win his eighth championship.

Johnson is still pursuing what would be his eighth career Cup Series championship. However, since winning his seventh championship in the 2016 season, he has finished in 10th (2017) and 14th place (2018) in the championship standings, two of the worst results of his career.

In total, seven-time champions are 0 for 29 when going for their eighth career championships in either Formula 1, the NASCAR Cup Series or IndyCar.

In only four of these 29 seasons did a seven-time champion finish in second or third place in the championship standings. Schumacher finished in second in the 2006 Formula 1 season and third in the 2005 season while Earnhardt finished in second in the 1995 and 2000 Cup Series seasons.

Simply put, seven-time champions just seem to stop performing at an elite level once they win their seventh championship. Yes, they still tend to win races and many times finish in decent positions in the championship standings, but they aren’t typically true championships contenders.

Look no further than the only active driver who could become an eight-time champion in any season now to demonstrate this. Johnson set new career-lows in nearly ever major statistical category in the 2017 season after winning the 2016 championship, and he ended up setting new career-lows in many of those categories and more in the 2018 season.

I’m not saying that Johnson will never add to his career Cup Series win total of 83 before he retires. But his days as a championship contender appear to be in the rearview mirror, meaning that as long as he keeps driving, the “29” in the “0 for 29” statistic will likely keep rising while the “0” stays at “0”.

Other active drivers with several championships to their names are five-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton and four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel as well as five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and four-time Champ Car (IndyCar) champion Sebastien Bourdais.

Do any of these drivers have a chance to win seven championships? Hamilton and Dixon probably have pretty good chances to do so with all things considered. But would either one of them have what it takes to become the “1” in the “1 for 30+” statistic when it comes to seven-time champions attempting to win their eighth championship if they do end up winning their seventh championships?

It is hard to pick against Hamilton or Dixon no matter the situation. As such, it would not be surprising to see either one of them become an eight-time champion, and it would not be surprising to see either one of them do so on his first attempt as a seven-time champion.

But the fact that Schumacher, Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson and Foyt — five of the greatest drivers of all-time with five of the greatest names in racing history and five of the most illustrious racing careers of all-time — have combined to go 0 for 29 when attempting to win their eighth championships makes me believe that Formula 1, the NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar may never see an eight-time champion.

Will Formula 1, NASCAR or IndyCar have an eight-time champion? If so, which series will produce an eight-time champion or champions, and which driver or drivers will win eight championships?