Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, And NASCAR's Longest Winless Streaks
Truex's return to victory lane was only a matter of time.
It was a special (extended) weekend for the Truex family in Dover, Delaware, as Ryan Truex won his first race in any major NASCAR national series on Saturday, and then his brother Martin won the Würth 400 on Monday to capture his initial win of the 2023 Cup season.
In fact, for Martin Truex Jr., the victory snapped a 54-race winless streak that dated back to Sept. 18, 2021. Following last year’s rumors that he might retire, and just a few weeks after chatter that Truex Jr. had a fraying relationship with crew chief James Small, it’s good to see one of the sport’s nicest guys back at the top of the podium.
The thing was, Truex Jr. was still actually very good throughout the period of his long drought. Among regular Cup Series drivers, he ranked 10th in total Top-10 finishes (23), 13th in Adjusted Points per race (33.2) and seventh in average finish (14.1) over the span of those 54 races, despite not actually winning any of them.
As I wrote late last season, Truex Jr. probably deserved to make the NASCAR playoffs based on his consistently solid performance throughout the year. Instead, his lack of wins in a format that prizes those over just about everything else meant he was destined to be sacrificed for the system:
At least now, Truex doesn’t have to worry about that happening again — the victory all but locks him into the playoffs no matter what happens next. The system giveth some years, even if it also taketh away in others.
But there is another driver who might see a similar fate befall him this year — and amazingly, it’s the same guy who finished just two spots behind Truex Jr. on Monday. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (who I’ve also written about before) is currently riding an even longer 57-race winless streak, despite performing even better by the metrics above during his drought than Truex Jr. did during his.
With that aforementioned average finish of 14.1, Truex Jr. ranked 14th-“best” on the list of all Cup Series winless streaks of at least 50 races since 1972. However, Blaney has an average finish of 13.2 during his own 57-race drought, which ranks ninth on this backhanded list of legitimately great drivers who performed well… but not quite well enough to ever find the winner’s circle:
We can’t cry too much for Blaney; he did actually make the playoffs (at Truex Jr.’s expense) last season, by virtue of having slightly more points in the regular standings. But he has continued to be among the most consistent drivers this season, despite going winless through nearly a third of the schedule. One has to think Blaney will have his breakthrough sooner or later, at least before the playoff field is set — but if not, he will keep adding to a winless streak of a magnitude that Truex Jr. is relieved to no longer carry around.
Filed under: NASCAR