Hall of Famers With Fast Starts
by Tom Jensen March 05, 2026
Decades before Tyler Reddick won the first three races of the season, NASCAR Hall of Famers had early season hot streaks.
Decades before Tyler Reddick won the first three races of the season, NASCAR Hall of Famers had early season hot streaks.
Less than a month into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season Tyler Reddick set a series record by becoming the first driver in the history of the sport to win the first three races of the year.
Reddick, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, has a chance to extend that streak to four in a row this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
23XI Racing team owner Michael Jordan (left) and driver Tyler Reddick hoisted the Harley J. Earl trophy after Reddick won the 2026 Daytona 500. Photo courtesy of Chris Graythen/Getty Images
The three drivers - Herb Thomas (Class of 2013), Dale Earnhardt (Class of 2010) and Bill Elliott (Class of 2015) have a surprising connection: Despite remarkable starts to their respective seasons, none of the three won at Daytona in their best early season runs.
In 1954, Thomas and his Fabulous Hudson Hornet began the NASCAR season by finishing two laps ahead of the field to win at Palm Beach Speedway in South Florida.
The following week on the old Daytona Beach-Road Course, a fuel line malfunction relegated Thomas to a 59th-place finish in the 62-car field. Thomas then won the next two races, first at another Florida track, Speedway Park in Jacksonville, and then at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway.
At Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway, Herb Thomas led the field to the checkered flag for the third time in the first four races of the 1954 NASCAR season. Photo courtesy NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Despite the great early success, Thomas, the reigning Cup Series champion did not repeat in 1954, finishing second in the title battle to Lee Petty (Class of 2011).
Arguably the greatest start to any Cup Series season in history belonged to Earnhardt, who opened the 1987 campaign with a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500 behind winner Elliott and fellow Hall of Famers Benny Parsons (Class of 2017), Richard Petty (Class of 2010) and Buddy Baker (Class of 2020).
But after Daytona, Earnhardt was virtually unstoppable, winning at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham and Richmond Raceway before encountering problems and finishing 16th at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt then proceeded to win four races in a row starting with Darlington Raceway, then North Wilkesboro Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
At North Carolina’s North Wilkesboro Speedway, Dale Earnhardt won for the fourth time in the first six races of 1987. NASCAR Hall of Fame Collection, Gift of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
With six victories in the first eight races of 1987, Earnhardt built an insurmountable points lead as he cruised to his third of a record-tying seven Cup Series championships. Earnhardt set a personal best that season, winning 11 races in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Earnhardt’s archrival Elliott had his own spectacular early season run in 1992. Like Thomas in 1954 and Earnhardt in 1987, Elliott did not win at Daytona in his breakout start to the season. Despite qualifying on the outside pole for the Daytona 500 in one of Junior Johnson’s (Class of 2010) Fords, Elliott finished a disappointing 27th in the Great American Race.
Then he got red hot.
Elliott won the next four races, at Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta and Darlington. In the first five races of the year, Elliott earned one pole and three outside poles during qualifying, showing the speed in his No. 11 Ford Thunderbird.
In 1992, Georgia native Bill Elliott swept both races at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Despite his early season success, Elliott would narrowly miss out on a championship, winning the final race of the year at Atlanta but finishing second in points to Alan Kulwicki (Class of 2019) in one of the most famous races in NASCAR history.
Interestingly, two contemporary drivers, Kevin Harvick in 2018 and Christopher Bell 2025 each won three of the first four races of the season. Like Thomas and Elliott, though, neither Harvick nor Bell won the championship despite their early success
So, while Reddick looks unbeatable right now, NASCAR history tells us there’s still a long way to go in the 2026 season, and anything can – and likely will – happen between now and November.
