NASCAR: Should even the race winners be alarmed?
By Asher Fair
Seven different winners in the first seven races of a NASCAR Cup Series season isn’t super rare, but there is one thing about this year’s group that stands out.
I’m sure you’ve heard by now how the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series has started out with x many winners in x amount of races, because it’s a trend that began in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and is still intact as we enter into April’s action.
Through seven races, the series has seen seven different drivers visit victory lane, something which hadn’t happened since 2014.
Prior to that, it hadn’t happened since 2003, when the season began with nine different winners in nine races. The all-time record is 10 different winners in the first 10 races, and it was set in the 2000 season.
The 2021 season’s winners are listed below.
- Daytona International Speedway oval – Michael McDowell
- Daytona International Speedway road course – Christopher Bell
- Homestead-Miami Speedway – William Byron
- Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Kyle Larson
- Phoenix Raceway – Martin Truex Jr.
- Atlanta Motor Speedway – Ryan Blaney
- Bristol Motor Speedway – Joey Logano
Save for McDowell’s win for Front Row Motorsports, all wins so far this season have gone to either Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske, with each team taking a pair. So it’s not as if we’ve seen a ton of true “upset” winners thus far.
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However, it’s what we haven’t seen so far that stands out and makes this season a threat to produce at least 16 regular season winners — and thus at least one winner without a playoff spot.
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It goes without saying that drivers don’t want to rely on points to get them into the playoffs. We’ve already seen cases where drivers comfortably inside the top 16 in points have failed to get into the postseason due to a lack of a victory.
For example, Clint Bowyer finished the 2017 regular season in 11th place in points but failed to qualify for the playoffs. But this season, even the winners may want to be concerned, particularly those who aren’t doing super hot in overall points (specifically McDowell).
Why? Because look at the drivers who haven’t won.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski combined for 25 wins in 36 races last year.
They’re all 0 for 7 this season. Last season, their maximum combined win drought was three races, and it happened just once.
You’ve got to think that these guys are going to start winning.
Logano is the only 2021 race winner from last year’s Championship 4, and Truex is the only other winner from last year’s round of 8 — and the round of 12!
Logano is also the only winner so far in the 2021 season who won more than one race last season, and Truex is the only other one who won more than one race in any of the last three seasons.
How long is this going to last??
Two drivers, McDowell and Bell, are first-time winner and two others, Byron and Blaney, have never been victorious more than once in a single season. Larson hasn’t had a multi-win season since 2017, and that is still his only one.
Five other drivers were victorious last season who haven’t yet won in 2021: Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer.
That gives us 16 drivers right there, and that’s without including several other drivers who many feel are capable of finding victory lane — surely we should see at least another winner who didn’t win last year.
We still have 19 races remaining on the regular season schedule, and seven of them are what you might call “wild card” races: five on road courses and two on superspeedways.
So will a single win be enough to lock into the playoffs when the time comes? How long will this streak of different winners continue, and how many winners will the regular season end up with this year?
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The eighth race on the 2021 calendar, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Martinsville Speedway beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET this evening.