By winning last Sunday’s COTA race, William Byron emerged as the first driver in 2024 to win multiple races. His first victory occurred this year’s Daytona 500 on the season-opening weekend. Why this particular achievement is important comes to light when looking at the past drivers who reached multiple races wins in a season the quickest and where they finished at year-end.
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According to NASCAR, since the start of the elimination-style playoffs in 2014, the first multiple-race winner has reached the Championship 4 in nine of ten seasons. Further, three of these drivers have gone on to win that year’s Cup Series title. The latest among them is the two-time champion, Kyle Busch.
Busch’s first win in 2019 came in the 4th race of the season at Arizona. His second came a week later in the Auto Club Speedway. He went on to win a total of 5 races that year and earned his second championship. What Byron has on his hands now after six races in the 2024 season is to do what Busch did in 2019.
Notably, this is not the first chance that Byron is getting to repeat Busch’s achievement. He was the quickest driver to reach multiple race wins in the past two seasons as well. Only Jeff Gordon matches this streak that Byron has going on. The Hendrick Motorsports icon was the first repeat winner in three consecutive seasons between 1997 and 1999.
Other champions who were the quickest drivers to win multiple races
Before Busch, two other drivers reached multiple wins in a season the quickest, and won championships with the aid of those wins. First among them is Kevin Harvick. The stock car racer turned Fox Sports analyst was the 2014 Cup Series champion. His first win was in the second race of the season, in Phoenix, and his second, in Darlington in what was the 8th race of the season.
The other champion on NASCAR’s list is Jimmie Johnson. The 7-time title holder took his final championship in the 2016 season and made sure that it was a memorable one. His first win was in Atlanta and his second, in the Auto Club Speedway (5th race of the season). He won five races en route to the title placing him on the same platform as Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.
