NASCAR’s most surprising drought gets even crazier

Just 20 races were not won by Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. We have already matched that total in 2021.

The two dominant drivers throughout much of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season were Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.

While neither driver won the championship and Harvick didn’t even make it to the Championship 4, they combined to win 16 of the 36 races on the schedule. Only three other drivers won more than once.

Harvick himself won nine races, the most since Carl Edwards won nine times back in the 2008 season.

He led the regular point standings after each of the final 33 races of the season.

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But his struggles this season have been well-documented. While he is tied for the series lead with 14 top 10 finishes through 20 races in the 2021 season, he and the entire Stewart-Haas Racing team have lacked the speed needed to compete for wins.

Harvick only sits in ninth place in the point standings and 13th in the playoff picture, just one season after entering the playoffs as the top-seeded driver.

As for Hamlin, he has had a solid 2021 season. He took the lead of the point standings after the second race and has not relinquished it, giving him an active 19-race streak as the top driver. He leads the series with an average finish of 8.4 and is tied for the series lead in top five finishes (11) and top 10 finishes (14).

But despite the fact that we have seen 11 winners already this year, just one shy of the entire 2020 season’s total, Harvick and Hamlin are both still seeking their first wins of the 2021 season.

The 2021 season is not even five months old, and there are still four months remaining. But there have already been as many races this season won by drivers other than Harvick or Hamlin than there were throughout all of last season (20).

In last year’s regular season, Harvick and Hamlin combined for 13 wins in 26 races, so it has been mathematically impossible for them to match that total for several weeks.

Last season, they actually ended the year without winning any of the final five races. Harvick’s last win of the year came in the 29th race at Bristol Motor Speedway while Hamlin’s came in the 31st race at Talladega Superspeedway.

So after starting last year with 16 wins in 31 races — meaning that just 15 races were contested without one of them winning — neither driver has won any of the 25 races that have been contested since.

The 21st race on the 2021 schedule is the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from Atlanta Motor Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 11. Harvick won at the track last year ahead of Hamlin in fifth place. In the first race there this season back in March, Hamlin finished in fourth while Harvick limped home to 10th. Will one of these drivers end their win droughts in this race?