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NASCAR’s developmental structure is unique. Drivers can run with the same team throughout the sports top three divisions, better known as National Series. However, no driver has ever won a championship in all three series.
Nine drivers have won two of the three championships, a sort of NASCAR “Triple Crown,” if you will. This Triple Crown includes the Craftsman Truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series. Achieving this has become more difficult since 2011, when NASCAR ruled that drivers could only race for one championship per season.
Currently, nine drivers are one trophy short of winning all three. Some may wonder how this has never happened with names like Elliott and Labonte on this list. Furthermore, the question that should be asked is, what efforts did these drivers make to win all three?
Bobby Labonte was the first driver to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship and a NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
In the 1991 Xfinity Series season, Labonte scored two wins and an average finish of 10.2, driving for his dad, Bob Labonte. In his 2000 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, he won four races and had an average finish of 7.4, winning the championship over Dale Earnhardt by 265 points.
Labonte never attempted a full season in the Truck Series. He made his first start in 1996 at Phoenix and would not make another start until late 2004. 2005 saw Labonte’s most starts in the series, racing in four races for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports. That season, Labonte won at Martinsville, which was his only career win in the series.
With his retirement from racing in 2016, Labonte will be remembered as one of the great drivers of the 1990s and early 2000s. Unfortunately, that will be without a Truck Series Championship.
Johnny Benson Jr’s route to joining this elite list was full of twists and turns.
Beginning his NASCAR Career at 30 in 1993, Benson quickly picked up steam in 1994, winning his first Xfinity Series race. He followed that performance up with a 1995 season featuring an average finish of 9.1, winning two races and the series championship.
After this stand-out season, Benson would race for Bahari Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series in 1996. Winning the Rookie of The Year award that season and having a team-best 11th-place points finish in 1997, Benson would head to Roush Racing for 1998.
Benson’s two seasons with Roush saw a downturn in performance, and after 1999, the two parted ways. For 2000, the former standout would head to the underfunded Tyler Jet Motorsports. Benson would stand out again, achieving a 13th-place points finish, all while the team was sold mid-season to MB2 Motorsports.
With sponsorship from Valvoline, the team finished 11th in 2001 and won its first race at Rockingham in 2002. That 2002 season was marred by injury and inconsistency, and after 2003, the aging driver was out at MB2.
For 2004, Benson ran a part-time schedule in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series, ultimately signing full-time with Bill Davis racing for the 2005 Truck season. This would be a career renaissance for Benson. From 2005 to 2008, he won 14 races and finished in the top three in points for all three seasons, capping it off with the 2008 championship.
Despite his age, Benson entered the sport hot; after that skill didn’t transfer to the Cup Series, he again defied age and found new life in the Truck Series. Becoming part of a select group of double champions in NASCAR.
Greg Biffle may be the catalyst for the modern NASCAR developmental cycle. Working his way from Trucks to Xfinity to Cup and winning along the way.
When Biffle debuted for Jack Roush in 1998, he had an average finish of 15th and finished eighth in Truck Series points. In 1999, he picked it up, winning nine races and finishing second in points. This culminated in 2000, when Biffle won five races, had an average finish of 5.8, and won the Truck Series title.
To the surprise of few, Biffle’s debut season in the 2001 Xfinity Series saw him win five races and finish fourth in points. Like his time in the Truck Series, Biffle would win more by winning less in 2002. That season, he would win four races and the championship.
In 2003, Biffle began a 13-season full-time career with Roush Racing. During this time, Biffle came close to the Cup several times.
This would include a third-place finish in 2008 and another third-place finish in 2012, a season in which Biffle had the second-highest average finish of all drivers. The summit of Biffle’s time in the Cup series would be his third full-time season in 2005.
This season, Biffle won a career-high and series-high six races, including the last race at Homestead. Despite his best efforts, he would come up short. Biffle would retire from full-time competition after 2016, never winning a Cup Series title.
Once a favorite to be the first to win all three, Biffle’s career fell right in when Roush-Fenway Racing was at its peak. But much like most Roush-Fenway drivers of the time, that was right when Jimmie Johnson’s legendary run began.
Kevin Harvick won his first Xfinity Series championship the same year he filled in full-time for the late Dale Earnhardt.
Before this, Harvick had run 69 career Truck Series races from 1995 to 1999 with moderate success. After this, he would occasionally start in the series, where he would win races for his team, Kevin Harvick Incorporated, but never ran full-time.
This was because he was “Bushwhacking,” a term for a Cup Series Regular entering consistent Xfinity, then Busch Series, races and dominating the less experienced competition. This method resulted in another Xfinity Series championship in 2006.
Harvick notably won 11 of 25 Truck Series entries from 2009 to 2012 and finished in the top-ten in 23 of those races. However, after 2011, KHI shut down, and by 2013, Harvick slowed his Truck Series schedule.
This was due to Harvick joining Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. That year, Harvick ran the board in a new points format, winning the championship and setting out on one of the most storied late career runs in the sport’s history.
Harvick would only run two more Truck Series races after 2013, and upon his retirement last season, he was yet another driver with the opportunity to win all three championships that came up short.
Martin Truex Jr. may have the smallest sample size for the championship he did not win.
Beginning his career in the Xfinity Series part-time for his dad and then full-time in 2004 for Chance2 Motorsports. Truex would go back-to-back as Series champion, winning twelve races in 2005 and 2006 in the Xfinity Series.
During these seasons, Truex ran two Truck Series races. These were the only Truck Series races he would run for almost 15 years. DEI gave Truex the nod to run the full Cup Schedule in 2006, and he won his first race in 2007.
Poor performance split the two up after the 2009 season. Truex signed with Michael Waltrip Racing for the following year and made his home there until outside forces sent him on the job search.
Truex signed with backmarker Furniture Row Racing in 2014. The pair was a match made in heaven, and the underdogs won the 2017 Cup Series championship. After Furniture Row Racing closed following the 2018 season, Truex moved to Joe Gibbs Racing.
With 15 wins and multiple championship-caliber seasons at JGR, this period would secure him a Hall of Fame spot. During this time, Truex would also run his third career truck race, winning the Bristol Dirt Race in 2021.
Truex is set to retire from full-time competition after this season; in doing so, it is safe to assume he will be one short of the Triple Crown of NASCAR championships.
An all-time great Buschwhacker, Kyle Busch, may be the greatest Truck Series driver of all time.
Having won a record 66 races in the Truck Series, Busch falls short of a championship due to never competing full-time in the series.
Kyle Busch also shares a distinct achievement with Kevin Harvick; while short a Truck Series championship, Busch and Harvick have won the Truck Series title as owners.
Beginning his full-time career with Hendrick Motorsports, Busch came close to an Xfinity Series title in 2004. When he joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, Busch ran the full Xfinity schedule in 2009, winning the championship while winning nine races along the way.
Despite the rule against racing for two championships at once, Busch continues to race in the Xfinity Series, where he has won 102 races, once again the most of all-time.
Busch found his stride in the Cup Series by 2013. From 2013 to 2021, Busch finished within the top ten in points every season. This stretch is spotlighted by Busch winning the 2015 and 2019 Cup Series Championships.
While Busch’s career is not over yet, he is aware that he is one championship short of being the only driver to win all three series championships.
Busch wouldn’t be out of character to attempt this; for now, he is just another name on this list. But one day, he may become the first to win it all.
Brad Keselowski is the son of Truck Series original Bob Keselowski. Brad began his career in the Truck Series at 21 years old, though the young driver struggled to compete.
Brad got his first long-term break with JR Motorsports in 2008, winning six races in two seasons. He was bound for a spot at Hendrick Motorsports, but the resurgent Mark Martin sent Brad into the arms of Roger Penske.
In his first full-time season in the Cup Series with Penske, Brad’s notable results were few, but at the Xfinity Series level, he won six races and the championship. 2011 would be Brad’s breakout year at the Cup Series level, making his name known with multiple wins and consistent runs.
After his three wins in 2011, Brad won five races in 2012, and had a late-season run that saw him go from 10th to first in points. A championship campaign through and through, Brad has continued this consistency throughout his career.
Brad Keselowski Racing opened in 2008. BKR hosted Penske developmental drivers and fielded the occasional truck for Keselowski.
Brad won his first and only truck series race in 2014. He started his last Truck Series race in 2015, and the team shut down after the 2017 season.
With Brad now part owner of RFK racing and the shuttering of BKR, Brad may never compete in the Truck Series again. In that case, he is yet another future Hall-of-Famer to fall short of winning all three championships.
Austin Dillon began his journey through NASCAR, making scattered starts in 2008 and 2009 in the Truck and Xfinity Series.
He would first run full-time in the Truck Series in 2010. That season, he would finish fifth in points and follow up with a 2011 Truck Series Championship campaign. Dillon had continued to make a handful of starts in the Xfinity Series throughout those seasons and would make his full-time Xfinity Series debut in 2012.
Dillon would win two races in that first season, finishing third in the points and winning Rookie of The Year. The 2013 series championship would be won in the most challenging way possible, with Dillon winning no races while swinging an average finish of 8.8.
Now the hottest rookie in NASCAR, Dillon would replace Kevin Harvick at Richard Childress Racing in 2014. With the three car back on track and a debut poll in the Daytona 500, things looked up for the young driver. He would have slight improvements over the next three years.
Dillon won his first race in 2017 and a Daytona 500 in 2018. This would be the peak of Dillon’s career. His points finishes have continued to flow up and down, resulting in a career-low 29th-place finish last season.
Dillon, now 35, has yet to live up to the once high-value prospect he was. While some drivers have rebounded late in their careers, it looks like Dillon will be yet another driver who couldn’t win the big one.
NASCAR’s most popular driver won his first NASCAR Championship at age 18. As a three-win season in the 2014 Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports introduced the world to Awesome Bill’s son.
After a disappointing 2015 campaign and Jeff Gordon’s retirement, Chase made his Cup Series debut in 2016. Elliott’s first two seasons were stellar despite no wins.
After winning at Watkins Glen in 2018, Elliott began to secure his place among NASCAR’s elite. With three more wins in 2019, the 2020 season looked promising.
That season, Elliott would win his second NASCAR National Series Championship and his first Cup Series Championship.
Chase Elliott has never competed full-time in the Truck Series, though a nine-race campaign in 2013 featured seven top-tens and a win. Since 2016, he has raced at least once a year in the series, collecting two more wins.
Despite the lows of the 2023 season, Elliott looks to be back in championship form. However, with NASCAR’s policy on drivers not running for multiple championships, hopes of Chase being the first driver to run the gauntlet are all but gone.
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