The NASCAR season is now four weeks deep, and fans have already been treated to a piece of history: Tyler Reddick’s three wins in a row to kick off a NASCAR Cup Series season. His streak ended this past Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, but from now on, if a driver starts hot and wins the first two races, Reddick will be the measuring stick. Until someone ties or breaks the record, he stands alone as the gold standard.
Technically, every time another race is added to the books, it becomes part of NASCAR’s ever-growing history, but there’s also always the possibility of seeing something nobody has before, whether that be a driver’s first win, a winning or winless streak, a crazy tight or crazy huge margin of victory and so on. The little moments are important.
Sometimes, though, there’s a chance for something a little bigger. A glance at the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings shows defending champion Jesse Love is having a strong start to his title defense. Love has yet to win, but he is currently second in driver points, just three behind leader Justin Allgaier. Love leads the series in both top fives (3) and top 10s (4).
It’s a long time until November, but if it’s even possible to make a list of title favorites this early, surely Love’s name is on it. And if he does hoist the trophy at the end of the year, he would accomplish something never done in the series’ current iteration: win back-to-back titles under completely different championship formats.
Since the Late Model Sportsman Series became NOAPS in 1982 (and undergone numerous name changes before arriving at the current one), seven different drivers have won back-to back titles. It did not happen, however, when the title format changed from a full-season to playoff format for the 2016 season.
While it’s not exactly uncommon — and has been accomplished twice in a row in 1996-97 and 1998-99 — two consecutive titles in NOAPS poses an obstacle that disappears at the Cup Series level: the Cup Series itself. Drivers contending for and winning titles at the NOAPS level are often tapped for Cup rides before having the opportunity to come back and make another run at the championship.
While there are series lifers, by choice or by circumstance, drivers staying in NOAPS and contending for titles for many years is a bit of an anomaly. It was more common decades ago, when the series was viewed as much or more as an end unto itself than a minor league series of sorts. The schedule was shorter than the Cup grind and had more stand-alone races at different types of tracks, and some drivers chose not to move on. That’s become a rarity among top NOAPS drivers, with Allgaier being a notable exception. Allgaier, Daniel Hemric and Love are the only NOAPS title winners in the last decade not currently full time in the Cup Series.
So how about the seven drivers, lifers and up-and-comers, who wrote their names in the history books with back-to-back titles since 1982? Who were they, and what became of them? Here they are:
Sam Ard 1983-84
By the time NASCAR revamped the series, Ard was already a household name. A Hall of Fame nominee that was named to NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers list in 2023, Ard won 22 times in NOAPS, still good for a tie for third all-time among career NOAPS drivers. He was the first of just three NOAPS drivers to win 10 or more races in a single season (1983). He retired at the age of 45 following his second title. Ard made just one Cup Series start in 1984, finishing 31st at Martinsville Speedway.
Larry Pearson 1986-87
The son of Hall of Famer David Pearson, Larry Pearson was a model of consistency in the mid 1980s, finishing in the top three in points for four straight years. In 1986, he edged Brett Bodine for the title on the strength of 17 top fives and 24 top 10s in 31 races. He amassed 15 wins in 253 starts and a total of six top-10 points finishes in seven full-time seasons. His two titles came with his father’s family-owned team. Pearson never really got a foothold in Cup, starting just 57 races and finishing in the top 10 three times.
Randy LaJoie 1996-97
LaJoie is a 15-time NOAPS winner, including five apiece in each of his title-winning seasons. While he did have a smattering of Cup starts, LaJoie shined in NOAPS. These days, he’s also widely known for his work in making drivers safer with custom-made protective seats that he developed after realizing that the then-standard aluminum seats most drivers were using didn’t offer much protection in a crash. LaJoie’s contributions to the safety of drivers have had a lasting impact on the NASCAR community.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1998-99
Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. won two titles for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., but these days he has another six series championships on his shelf as a car owner. Earnhardt was the first back-to-back NOAPS champion to go on to a full-time Cup career, and he won 26 Cup races before retiring from full-time driving at the end of 2017.
He’s the only NOAPS driver to also have back-to-back titles as a car owner, with Martin Truex Jr., who then ran for Chance 2 Motorsports, the team Earnhardt Jr. owned in partnership with DEI and the forerunner to JR Motorsports. He’s also a member of the Amazon Prime Cup broadcast team and runs a media company.
Earnhardt’s four titles with JRM came with Chase Elliott, William Byron, Reddick and Allgaier.
Martin Truex Jr. 2004-2005
Winning the championship in each of his only two full-time seasons, Truex holds the distinction of being the only driver with two straight NOAPS titles to also have a Cup Series championship. Truex won the 2017 Cup title and amassed 34 Cup wins. With six wins in each of his two NOAPS championship seasons under the Chance 2 banner (DEI is listed as the owner of record), Truex’s 2004 season was his career best. That year, he led the series in wins, top fives (17), top 10s (24) and a stellar 7.6 average finish in 34 races, outdueling Kyle Busch for the title by 230 points. Truex is not yet Hall of Fame eligible but is likely to be elected when he qualifies.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 2011-12
Stenhouse may have a reputation as a bit reckless in the Cup Series (a reputation he also had in his first full year in NOAPS), but he was the model of consistency en route to his two NOAPS titles for RFK Racing. In 2011, he had two wins, 26 top 10s and an 8.8 average finish in 34 races. He followed that up with six wins in 2012, alongside 19 top fives, 26 tops 10s and a 7.3 average finish. As a Cup regular and superspeedway specialist, Stenhouse has four wins, including the 2023 Daytona 500.
Tyler Reddick 2018-19
Reddick’s back-to-back titles have one thing that sets them apart from his predecessors: they came with two different teams. Reddick won his first championship with JR Motorsports before moving to Richard Childress Racing the following year. He thrived at RCR, winning six races, including the title race, and finished in the top 10 in 27 of 33 races with an average finish of 6.3. Reddick has been in the Cup Series full-time since 2020 and has 11 wins. He is the current Cup Series points leader.
Love has the chance to become the eighth driver on the list, all while doing something different than any of his predecessors. Not all history is ancient history; some of it is unfolding under our feet.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.