You have to go all the way back to the 1956 and 1957 seasons to find the one and only time in the history of motorsport that the NASCAR Cup Series, IndyCar, and Formula 1 have had the same set of champions – not just in back-to-back seasons, but in any two seasons.
It has never happened since. On a number of occasions, two of the three champions have been the same from year to year. In fact, over the past four years alone, it's happened several times.
Alex Palou won the IndyCar championship and Max Verstappen won the Formula 1 world championship in 2021. They also won their respective championships together in 2023 and 2024. Additionally, when Verstappen won the F1 titles in 2022 and 2024, Joey Logano won the Cup Series championships.
But not since Buck Baker won the 1956 and 1957 Grand National Series (NASCAR) championships, Jimmy Bryan was crowned champion of the 1956 and 1957 USAC National Championship Trail (IndyCar), and Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1956 and 1957 F1 world titles have the series produced the same three winners in any two seasons.
Verstappen has a chance to change that in 2025 and bring an end to this 67-year drought.
Palou dominated the 2025 IndyCar championship; in fact, he still hasn't been anywhere other than first place in the standings since June 2024, and he became the first driver to lead the championship the entire way and win the Indy 500 in the same year since Johnny Rutherford pulled it off in 1980.
On the Cup Series side, it appeared that Denny Hamlin would keep this streak alive by winning his first championship, until a late caution produced pit stops and a restart that resulted in Larson winning his second title. So just as Palou and Larson were crowned champions in 2021, they were again in 2025.
Should Verstappen win the 2025 F1 world championship, the champions this year would be the same this year as they were in 2021.
Verstappen, however, has a lot of work to do if he wants to win what would be his fifth consecutive title. He trails Lando Norris by 36 points with four race weekends remaining on the schedule, and Oscar Piastri is also 35 points ahead.
However, Verstappen trailed Piastri by 104 points only five races ago, so nothing is out of the question.
If history is to be believed, however, one of either Norris or Piastri appears to be in position to keep this incredible drought alive for what would be a 68th consecutive year. Will Verstappen have something to say about it by the time December's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix rolls around?