Christopher Bell already made history last Sunday (March 9) as the first driver to win three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races in the Next Gen car, and he’ll strive to become the first driver since 2007 to win four in a row at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson is the last Cup driver to four-peat, as he won at Martinsville Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway in the 2007 playoffs en route to his second of five consecutive championships. He and Jeff Gordon, in 1998, are the only drivers to win four straight Cup races in the last 30 years.
Bell would join an elite company if he’s able to win four in a row, but it’s easier said than done. Seven drivers — excluding Bell — have won three in a row since 2007, and they all fell short in race four in some form or fashion.
Kyle Busch (2015)
Three wins: Kentucky Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (278 combined laps led)
Race four: Pocono Raceway (21st, 19 laps led)
Busch broke an eight-year drought since the last three-peat by winning three in a row (and four of five) in the summer of 2015, and he did it just two months after his return from leg injuries sustained in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway that February.
His quest for four in a row (and five wins in six races) came at Pocono, a track that Busch hadn’t won at by this point of his career.
And yet, he came oh-so-close to pulling it off. Busch ran up front all day, and when the dominant car of Joey Logano pitted for fuel with three to go, Busch inherited the lead and took the white flag as the leader. But he too ran out of gas with two miles to go, and Busch dropped to 21st after failing to take the checkered flag on the final lap.
Joey Logano (2015)
Three wins: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway (289 combined laps led)
Race four: Martinsville (37th, 207 laps led)
Logano made history by becoming the first Cup driver to sweep an entire round of the playoffs, going 3-for-3 in the 2015 Round of 12. Nearly a decade has passed, and no one else has matched his feat.
But all that got overshadowed by Matt Kenseth.
Everyone remembers Kenseth’s takeout and the feud between the two that led to it. But how many people remember that Logano was on the cusp of four straight wins when it happened?
Logano was wrecked while leading the race with just over 40 laps to go, and while we’ll never know what would’ve happened had he finished, it looked like he was poised for four in a row.
Kevin Harvick (2018)
Three wins: Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix (433 combined laps led)
Race four: Auto Club Speedway (35th, 0 laps led)
After dominating three races in a row at the start of 2018, Harvick’s quest for four ended in anticlimactic fashion at his home track. While battling Kyle Larson for third on lap 38, Harvick wrecked and took himself out of contention.
He ended the day nine laps off the pace, and his day was over before it ever began.
Kyle Busch (2018)
Three wins: Texas, Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway (265 combined laps led)
Race four: Talladega (13th, 0 laps led)
Busch’s second quest for four in a row was a long shot from the beginning, as he would have to tame the always unpredictable Talladega to pull it off. He finished the race on the lead lap and recovered from a late spin in the process, but he was never a factor for the win at any point of the race.
Brad Keselowski (2018)
Three wins: Darlington Raceway, Indianapolis, Las Vegas (108 combined laps led)
Race four: Richmond (9th, 67 laps led)
What’s intriguing about Keselowski’s three in a row is that they were his only wins of the season (everyone else on this list, sans Bell, won at least five races in their respective season). The streak included two of NASCAR’s crown jewels in the Southern 500 and the Brickyard 400, and Keselowski led the fewest combined laps between his three wins of anyone on this list.
And as the laps ticked down at Richmond, he was in a great position to win his fourth straight. He took the lead from Busch shortly after a restart with 58 laps to go, and with a great short-run car, Keselowski was in the driver’s seat with a couple of late cautions.
Unfortunately for him, they never came. Busch retook the lead with 37 to go, and Keselowski faded on the long run to cross the stripe in ninth.
Kyle Larson (2021 Part 1)
Three wins: Charlotte, Sonoma Raceway, Nashville Superspeedway (648 combined laps led)
Race four: Pocono (9th, 15 laps led)
Larson obliterated the competition in his first three-peat of 2021, leading 648 of the 792 laps. It makes sense then that he was the closest to four in a row than anyone else on this list.
He had that Pocono race won after passing his teammate Alex Bowman with three to go. All he had to do was make the final corner, but the untimeliest flat tire of all time sent him into the turn 3 wall with the finish line in sight.
Kyle Larson (2021 Part 2)
Three wins: Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Texas, Kansas (394 combined laps led)
Race four: Martinsville (14th, 77 laps led)
Larson had a second three-peat in the fall and became the first driver since Dale Earnhardt in 1987 to three-peat twice in a single season (in Earnhardt’s case, he had one four-peat and one three-peat).
Larson’s second opportunity for four in a row came at Martinsville, one of his weakest tracks at the time. He led 77 laps after starting first via metric qualifying and had put together a solid race, but a speeding penalty under caution with 120 laps to go took him out of contention for good.
Christopher Bell (2025)
Three wins: Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix (114 combined laps led)
Race four: Las Vegas (?)
Here we are again. After leading a combined nine laps between his first two wins at Atlanta and COTA, Bell dominated at Phoenix and barely held off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on the final lap to keep his winning streak alive.
Bell looks to be the odds-on favorite heading into Las Vegas. He hasn’t recorded a Cup win at the track but led a race-high 155 laps in Sin City last October. It took a clever fuel mileage gamble by Logano and the No. 22 team to keep the No. 20 out of victory lane.
But as this sport has shown, nothing is a given. Justin Allgaier looked poised to win Saturday’s (March 9) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Phoenix in dominating fashion, only for a late caution and a poor final restart to end his bid.
It takes a combination of luck, speed and skill to win a single race, let alone four straight. Bell has excelled in all three to reach this point, and now we wait and see if the stars will align for him and the No. 20 team for the fourth consecutive race.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
Why are we talking four? Listening to the TV experts you would think three is the longest streak ever, in any form of motorsports. In fact I heard NASCAR is automatically inducting Bell into the HoF at the 600 this year.
Going back further, I believe Mr. September, Harry Gant won four straight, in the 1990’s, or was it earlier?
That was in 1991. He won the fourth one at Martinsville which I witnessed in person. Pretty sure Rusty Wallace spun him out while Gant was leading with about 50 laps to go. We all said that was the only way Rusty could get around him was to wreck Harry. Seems like Harry came from the back passing like 25 cars to get the win. I remember being happy Gant won which prevented Rusty from winning. Everyone was booing Rusty when he wrecked Harry. The good old days. The next race was North Wilkesboro and seems like Earnhardt may have wrecked Gant I cannot remember for sure or Harry would have won five in a row. I saw a video with Andy Petree talking about how they were running a cambered rear end and it took NASCAR five races before they figured it out and made them stop