Denny Hamlin aiming for rare NASCAR history at Bristol
Denny Hamlin could join a rare list with a win Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
A win would give Hamlin his third consecutive points-awarding NASCAR Cup Series victory, which would be the first time accomplishing the feat in his career.
“I can still do it, I can still do it at a high level,” Hamlin said of winning in the Cup Series after his Darlington win. “I like our outlook to win a lot of races this year.”
Hamlin surpassed Rusty Wallace for 11th all-time on the NASCAR Cup Series wins list with his 56th career win last week at Darlington.
Hamlin’s two prior opportunities to accomplish a three-peat came in 2010 and 2012, when he won back-to-back races in each of those seasons.
In 2010, Hamlin won back-to-back at Pocono and Michigan, but followed up at Sonoma with a 34th-place finish.
In 2012, Hamlin’s two consecutive victories came at Bristol and Atlanta. Despite leading the most laps at Richmond the next week (202 of 400 laps), Hamlin finished 18th in his quest for three-in-a-row.
Hamlin’s two prior opportunities to accomplish this feat came in 2010 and 2012, when he won back-to-back races in each of those seasons.
HISTORY
Across the 77-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series, a driver has won three or more consecutive races on 53 occasions.
In total, 25 drivers have accomplished three or more consecutive victories with 11 drivers doing it more than once.
The first driver to win three straight races was Herb Thomas, the two-time series champion, when he won at Macon, Langhorne, and Charlotte during his first title run in 1951.
The most recent occurrence was Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell winning at Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix earlier this year.
Current NASCAR Cup drivers to accomplish the feat include Christopher Bell (2025), Brad Keselowski (2018), Joey Logano (2015), Kyle Busch (2015 and 2018), Jimmie Johnson (2004 and 2007), and Kyle Larson (twice in 2021).
Richard Petty holds the record for more three-or-more consecutive victories by doing so 12 times. He also holds the NASCAR record for most consecutive victories at 10.
The full list of drivers to accomplish this feat can be found here.
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.