Christopher Bell has the chance to join a very exclusive club this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Already becoming the first driver in the Next Gen era (2022 onward) to win three consecutive Cup races, the No. 20 Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing driver now aims to join even rarer company with a fourth straight win.
Since the modern era of NASCAR began in 1972, only eight drivers have pulled it off and it’s quite the VIP list. Seven of those drivers have since been enshrined in the sport’s Hall of Fame and six of them are Cup Series champions. It is truly elite company.
However, no one has accomplished the feat in nearly two decades. Bell’s road here has been no Sunday cruise either, fighting to the very end against multiple drivers on his way to capturing the checkered flag at Atlanta, COTA and now Phoenix. That, along with how close the modern-day NASCAR field is these days makes Bell’s three-peat astoundingly impressive. So, if he does manage to continue the win streak into Vegas, here are the drivers he would join and their own paths to completing the rare four-peat feat.
Cale Yarborough – 1976
Yarborough’s four wins came in his first championship season and it was one of complete domination — leading 200+ laps in each of the races he won between September and October of that year. It began at the Richmond short track, fending off Bobby Allison by roughly a car length. But the margins of victory only grew for each win that followed. Onto Dover where he beat Richard Petty by over seven seconds, and then doubled that margin to 14 seconds over Darrell Waltrip at Martinsville. He completed the incredible run at North Wilkesboro, winning by a full lap over Benny Parsons and placing an exclamation point at the end of it.
Cale Yarborough in James Hylton’s Mercury
RacingOne/Getty Images
Darrell Waltrip – 1981
Waltrip’s win streak came around the same time of year and even covered two of the same races as Yarborough. Funny enough, it also came with the same team as both were driving the No. 11 for Junior Johnson. For Waltrip, it began at Martinsville with Harry Gant trailing him by 7.8 seconds at the finish. He went to North Wilkesboro where (like Yarborough) he beat his closest competitor – Bobby Allison – by over a lap. DW faced off with Allison again at Charlotte, winning by nearly a full lap with 31.8 seconds between them.
And finally, Waltrip completed this rare four-peat at another North Carolina track, once again fending off Allison on his way to victory at Rockingham. Only this time, Waltrip didn’t make the pass for the win until just 11 laps to go. And continuing to follow the example set by Yarborough before him, Waltrip ended the 1981 season by winning his first of three NASCAR Cup Series titles.
Race winner Darrell Waltrip
NASCAR Media
Dale Earnhardt – 1987
Earnhardt’s impressive win streak took place much earlier in the season, but still not quite as early as Bell’s current run. As the sport advanced and the fields became more competitive, ‘The Intimidator’ had to fight a bit harder than the previous two names to pull this accomplishment off. It began at Darlington, passing Bill Elliott as he dramatically ran out of fuel through the final set of corners on the white flag lap. He won at North Wilkesboro the following week, keeping Kyle Petty at bay in the closing laps with just a couple of seconds between them. After besting the son, he then beat the father, Richard Petty, doing so by just under a second at Bristol. He finished it off at Martinsville, holding back rival Rusty Wallace on his way to capturing the checkered flag. And yes, he went on to win the title that year too.
Dale Earnhardt
NASCAR Media
Harry Gant – 1991
Gant is a unique name among this group. He is neither a champion nor a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and he was over 50 years old at the time of achieving this. Grant also has the distinction of being the oldest winner in Cup Series history, a record he secured one year after this impressive stretch when he was 52 years old.
But in 1991, the man known as ‘Mr. September’ earned his nickname. He won every race that month, beginning with the Southern 500, beating Ernie Irvan by over ten seconds. At Richmond, he shadowed Davey Allison in a spirited battle before finally completing the pass with just 18 laps to go. His Dover victory was a bit more straightforward, dominating the event and beating runner-up Geoff Bodine by over a lap. However, the fourth win did not come easy as Gant actually crashed late in the race. He was turned from the lead and suffered significant damage to the nose of the car (particularly the right front fender). Undeterred, he charged back through the field, taking the lead from Brett Bodine with 46 laps remaining and winning anyway.
Celebration of Champions ceremony: Harry Gant
Eric Gilbert
Bill Elliott – 1992
Should Bell pull this off, his victories will span from the second race of the year through the fifth race of the year. And that’s exactly what Elliott did in 1992. In the second race of the year at Rockingham, he cruised to victory over Davey Allison. However, the streak nearly failed to ever reach two after a truly sensational finish at Richmond. Elliott won in a thrilling photo finish over Alan Kulwicki with almost nothing between the two cars at the checkered flag. He didn’t have to sweat nearly as much at Atlanta, winning by over 18 seconds with Gant finishing second. He beat Gant again the following week as he completed the four-peat at Darlington, taking the lead late and driving away with the win.
Alan Kulwicki battles with Bill Elliott
Nigel Kinrade Photography
Mark Martin – 1993
Martin’s win streak began at Watkins Glen, inheriting the race lead only after Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt crashed dramatically through the esses. He then took a fairly straightforward victory over Morgan Shepherd at Michigan before having a real fight on his hands at Bristol. Martin ran Rusty Wallace down through slower traffic, cleanly cutting under him and taking the lead with just 12 laps to go. Wallace remained glued to his rear bumper for the rest of the race, never giving him a moment to relax. Martin’s fourth win came at the Southern 500 at Darlington, denying Brett Bodine as he completed the four-peat.
#6 Mark Martin Valvoline Ford
Jasen Vinlove / NKP / Motorsport Images
In the summer of 1998, the now iconic No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was a force of nature. Gordon won 13 of 33 races that year, but it was between the 18th and 21st rounds of the year where he managed to win four consecutively. It began at Pocono, beating Mark Martin to the line by just over a second after a dominant showing. Gordon then bested Martin again, this time in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hanging on despite a late-race yellow bringing the field back to his rear bumper. At Watkins Glen, Gordon passed Mike Skinner for the lead with four laps to go, and once again, Martin followed him across the line in second after passing Skinner as well. Martin shadowed Gordon throughout this entire summer stretch and when they arrived at Michigan, it was none other than Martin who Gordon had to pass for the win with less than 10 laps to go. However, the then-Roush driver didn’t end up second this time as Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett battled around him, allowing Gordon to sneak away.
Jeff Gordon
Robert Kurtycz
In the past 30 years, it’s no surprise that the only two drivers to have accomplished this impressive feat are two titans of HMS. The most recent driver to pull it off was Johnson, right in the middle of his unprecedented run of five consecutive NASCAR Cup Series titles (before winning seven total). His victories came at the very end of the season, blowing the championship fight wide open (despite the playoff format) as he crushed the competition. He held on against Ryan Newman and his teammate Gordon at Martinsville without much of a challenge, but the following week at Atlanta was a very different story. He was running fifth with just ten laps to go, but an incredible pit stop under caution vaulted him into second on track. Denny Hamlin stayed out, but ran out of fuel coming to the restart zone. Johnson was able to avoid him as others crashed, going on to take the victory ahead of Carl Edwards. And then it was onto Texas where Johnson showed up right near the end. Dissimilar to many of the victories mentioned on this list, Johnson led single digit laps in two of his four victories, but always managed to put himself into a perfect position when the checkered flag loomed. At Texas, he ran down Matt Kenseth and took the lead with just two laps remaining in the entire race. He ended his run at Phoenix, taking the lead from Martin Truex Jr. with just 23 laps left and ultimately holding off Greg Biffle to officially win four in a row.
Race winner Jimmie Johnson celebrates
Motorsport.com / ASP Inc.
The task ahead of Bell
Now, recent history tells us just how hard winning four consecutive Cup races can be in this modern age. It’s already been a dogfight for Bell to reach three, and several other stars have been in this same position but failed to reach four. Both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski won three consecutive races in 2018, but neither of these Cup champions could extend the streak to four. Kyle Larson won three consecutive TWICE during the 2021 season and still couldn’t continue it, although he was agonizingly close at Pocono before a sudden blown tire in the final corner tire robbed him of the win. Joey Logano won an entire three-race round during the 2015 playoffs, but a vengeful Matt Kenseth crashed him out of the lead at Martinsville and also denied him a chance at four.
NASCAR heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, which is good news for Bell as it’s a more straightforward race than some of these wildcard events at drafting tracks or road courses. However, he’s also 0-10 there in terms of winning, finishing second twice. Bell was even the dominant driver last fall at LVMS, but a fuel gamble by Logano denied him despite leading over half the race. While difficult, the odds aren’t against him as Bell seeks to continue this historic streak of being unbeatable.
Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Chris Graythen – Getty Images
