NASCAR: Longest active Cup Series win streaks
By Asher Fair
Kurt Busch recently made the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season his ninth consecutive winning season. Where does his streak rank among active streaks?
With his win three Sundays ago in the AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch became the 11th different winner through the first 13 races of the 2022 season.
The win made Busch the first driver to win for Toyota, Ford, Dodge, and Chevrolet. The 2022 season is his 23rd season in the Cup Series, but it is his first with Toyota and 23XI Racing behind the wheel of the #45 Camry. It was his 34th career victory, and it was the second for 23XI Racing, which joined the Cup Series last year.
As a result, Busch has now won at least one race in nine consecutive seasons dating back to 2014. His most recent winless season came in 2013, his lone full season driving the #78 Chevrolet for Furniture Row Racing.
Since then, the only race that has been contested took place this past Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and that race was won by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had already won at Richmond Raceway earlier this season.
With 11 different winners through 14 races in 2022, 11 drivers have either extended their winning streaks or begun new ones.
Who owns the longest active winning streak?
That would be Kurt’s brother, Kyle. Kyle’s win in the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway last month made the 2022 season his 18th consecutive winning season, which tied the all-time record set by Richard Petty from 1960 to 1977. Busch has won at least one race every year since 2005, his first full season in the series.
Have a look at the active winning streaks, including those that include 2021 but might not necessarily include 2022 (yet).
NOTE: * = can still be extended — or ended — in 2022. Accurate as of Sunday, May 29, 2022.
- Kyle Busch – 18 (2005 to 2022)
- Brad Keselowski – 11 (2011 to 2021)*
- Joey Logano – 11 (2012 to 2022)
- Kurt Busch – 9 (2014 to 2022)
- Martin Truex Jr. – 7 (2015 to 2021)*
- Chase Elliott – 5 (2018 to 2022)
- Ryan Blaney – 5 (2017 to 2021)*
- Alex Bowman – 4 (2019 to 2022)
- Denny Hamlin – 4 (2019 to 2022)
- William Byron – 3 (2020 to 2022)
- Kyle Larson – 2 (2021 to 2022)
- Austin Cindric – 1 (2022)
- Chase Briscoe – 1 (2022)
- Ross Chastain – 1 (2022)
- Michael McDowell – 1 (2021)*
- Christopher Bell – 1 (2021)*
- Aric Almirola – 1 (2021)*
- A.J. Allmendinger – 1 (2021)*
- Bubba Wallace – 1 (2021)*
Next. 3 landing spots for Kyle Busch in 2023. dark
Notably absent from this list is Kevin Harvick. Harvick saw an 11-year winning streak end last year. Just one season after winning a series-high nine races, the most of any driver in a single season since 2008, he failed to win a race in 2021. He has yet to win a race in 2022 also, making his most recent win his triumph at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2020.