Tyler Reddick is close to making his mark in NASCAR’s historical records.
An opportunity to witness something unprecedented. When we strip away the distractions that accumulate around us as sports enthusiasts, akin to a pit crew member clearing away melted marbles mid-race to inspect tire treads, at our core, we simply desire to see our champions on the court, field, or racetrack achieve a milestone that has never been accomplished before.
This Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, we have one such opportunity.
Since the inception of NASCAR’s premier series on June 19, 1949, spanning over 77 years of Cup racing, no driver has ever commenced a season with four consecutive victories. Now, Tyler Reddick, driving the No. 45 Toyota co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, has the chance to achieve this feat.
How exceptional has the car backed by Air Jordan performed? Reddick has already triumphed in the unpredictable Daytona 500, navigated the turbocharged challenge of Atlanta, and conquered the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin. Next up is Phoenix, a de facto short track measuring one mile with a flatter layout than a crêpe.
In his prior 12 starts at Phoenix, Reddick has secured two top-five finishes and four top-ten results, with an average finishing position of 17.8. While this average is not remarkable, his average finishes at Daytona and Atlanta stand at 21.3 and 16.4, respectively, even after his victories this year. (His average at Austin is 4.0 with two wins in six starts.)
He is already the first driver to win the first three races of a Cup Series season. It is important to note that during the first 13 years of the Daytona 500, from 1959 to 1971, the dual qualifying races that divided the garage were regarded as points-paying regular season events, and most of those years they occurred within the first three races, making such a task unfeasible. However, it has never required assistance in terms of difficulty.
Indeed, according to ESPN Research, only two teams have won the first three races of the year, and those victories were shared among teammates. In 1957, DePaolo Engineering achieved two wins with Marvin Panch and one with Fireball Roberts. In 1963, Petty Enterprises accomplished this through Jim Paschal’s two victories and Richard Petty’s one.
Speaking of Petty, The King built a career on accumulating statistics that are so extraordinary they seem fictional, but none appear more fabricated than his ability to secure back-to-back-to-back checkered flags. His Royal Fastness won two races consecutively 22 times, three in a row nine times, five straight in 1971, and — take a deep breath — in 1967, he won 10 consecutive races! Furthermore, while we emphasize that NASCAR’s current Next Gen car driven by Reddick & Co. is versatile across various racetracks, when Petty achieved those 10 wins in a row and 27 victories out of that year’s 48 races, he did so primarily with a single Plymouth Belvedere across all venues from Daytona to dirt.
However, it is essential to recognize that the benchmark Reddick is being measured against this weekend is that of NASCAR’s so-called Modern Era, which began in 1972 when the schedule was reduced to its current 30-something events per year and transitioned to all asphalt speedways. Over the past 54 years, only eight drivers have won four consecutive races, and all are already enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
The sequence began with Cale Yarborough in 1976, the year he also claimed the first of three consecutive Cup Series championships. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt also secured titles during their four-peat years, in 1981 and ’87. Bill Elliott in ’92 and Mark Martin in ’93 were unable to win the Cup in the years they achieved four in a row. Similarly, Harry Gant, known as “Mr. September,” won four consecutive Cup races in ’91, but it is often overlooked that during that streak he also won two straight Busch Series races (now O’Reilly Series) and was dominating at North Wilkesboro seemingly on his way to a fifth win before mechanical issues affected his Oldsmobile. Jeff Gordon won four in a row as part of his 13-win championship season in 1998, which is still regarded by many as the greatest year ever in a stock car during the Modern Era.
Since then, after four four-peats in eight years, it has occurred only once more. In 2007, Jimmie Johnson won at Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas, and Phoenix, four of the final five races of the season, to surpass Gordon en route to the second of his five consecutive Cup titles.
Nearly two decades later, we are still awaiting another occurrence. Reddick is the ninth driver to achieve three consecutive wins since Johnson’s last four-peat. Following an eight-year gap, both Kyle Busch and Joey Logano won three straight in 2015. Then, in 2018, three drivers achieved three-peats: Busch again, along with Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. In 2021, on his way to his first Cup title, Kyle Larson accomplished it twice in the same season. Last year, Christopher Bell won at Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix — races two through four of the season — before finishing 12th at Las Vegas.
“It’s a strange but fantastic feeling because when it’s happening, you kind of feel like you can do no wrong, from me to the crew,” Bell remarked about the streak last fall. “But then when it ends and you don’t win for a while again, I think it took us 25 races to get the next one, you’re like, where did it go? It used to be so easy! It’s like your golf swing. When it’s working, enjoy it, because it could disappear at any moment.”
Bell was unable to convert his in-season three-peat into a championship at the end of that season, finishing as the runner-up behind Larson. While the focus is on Reddick’s potential to win four in a row, Reddick himself is more focused on the broader picture and the larger Cup.
So, Tyler, if you’re reading this, take note. Of the 29 drivers who have won three races in a row since 1972, a dozen went on to win the title, including Busch in ’15 and Larson in ’21.
However, those odds significantly improve should he secure his fourth consecutive win. Of the eight who achieved the four-peat since ’72, five concluded the year with the Cup in their possession.
“It truly has been a perfect start,” Reddick states. “It’s the finishes, but it’s also the vibes. The way that we’ve been addressing and pushing things in the right direction, and I’m just extremely pleased with all of it. I never won back-to-back in NASCAR, and I obviously never won three in a row.”
Few have. Even fewer have achieved four. It is noteworthy that every name mentioned in this narrative is regarded as an all-time NASCAR great. There are no flukes on this list. If Reddick finds himself in victory lane again on Sunday evening, he will be on his path to legendary status.
“Our primary objective is to win races,” Reddick adds. “If you accomplish that, the other aspects, what people say about your career, will take care of themselves.”
Source: espn.com
