What Do NASCAR’s Gordon, Johnson, Kenseth, & Stewart Have in Common?

Quick, what do you think Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth all have in common? Any NASCAR fan knows that each has won at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles.  But there’s something else that links these four past champions together in 2014.

Heading into Talladega for the 10th race of the season, none of them have yet been to Victory Lane in 2014. All four have at least one win at the 2.66-mile track, with Gordon leading the way with six. Johnson has two, while Stewart and Kenseth both have one. Kenseth’s win was the most recent, coming in fall 2012; however, Gordon’s spring 2005 triumph where he led 139 of 194 laps was the most dominating performance of the 10 combined victories.

With heightened emphasis this season on winning races and the “win-and-you’re-in” format for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, it’s likely that most of them, if not all, will have collected at least one victory by the time the postseason begins.

The last time one of these four drivers didn’t win one of the first nine races in a season was two decades ago – in 1994, before three of them even made their first starts in any NASCAR national series.