The Cup championship: Where are the repeaters?

When the NASCAR Cup playoffs open Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Kyle Busch will be the only driver in the 16-man playoff field with more than one Cup championship.

In fact, Busch, the champion in 2015 and 2019, is the only Cup Series regular – including all playoff and non-playoff drivers – with more than one title.

Additionally, the Cup series has not crowned a back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson put together a streak of five straight titles from 2006-10.

Stacking multiple championships used to be a thing. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Johnson famously totaled seven each, Jeff Gordon got four and Tony Stewart, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and Lee Petty scored three each.

Yet accomplished current drivers Brad Keselowski (35 race wins), Kevin Harvick (60), Martin Truex Jr. (31) and Joey Logano (29) have not been able to repeat championships.

After winning his championship in 2012, Keselowski immediately put another title on his target list, saying that two-time champions seemed destined for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He’s still waiting, and it won’t happen this year because he missed the playoffs in his first year as an owner-driver.

Hard times for those driving toward top-of-the-mountain streaks and/or multiples.

The championship landscape changed dramatically in 2004 when the Chase format was introduced, limiting the number of drivers eligible to win the title over the final weeks and bringing in the 10-race run to glory. An even bigger change arrived in 2014 with the introduction of round-by-round eliminations and a “final four” group of drivers racing for the title in a top-finisher-takes-all format in the season finale.

The elimination rounds have modified the