After the sixth race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, just two drivers have completed every lap this year.
Entering the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season’s sixth of 36 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway this past Sunday, March 21, three drivers had completed all 1,116 of the laps in the season’s first five races.
A total of 11 drivers finished the first race of the season, the 200-lap Daytona 500 at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, on the lap lap.
Of those 11 drivers, eight finished on the lead lap in the next race, the 70-lap O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 around the 14-turn, 3.61-mile (5.810-kilometer) Daytona International Speedway road course.
At the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Homestead-Miami Speedway oval in Homestead, Florida, seven of those remaining eight drivers finished on the lead lap in the 267-lap Dixie Vodka 400.
In the 267-lap Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval in Las Vegas, Nevada, four of those seven failed to do so, leaving only three who had run every lap on the schedule so far.
At Phoenix Raceway, all three completed every lap of the 312-lap Instacart 500 around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) oval.
Entering this past Sunday’s 325-lap Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) Atlanta Motor Speedway oval in Hampton, Georgia, the three drivers who had run every lap on the schedule so far in 2021 were Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, the points leader, as well as Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, the reigning champion.
Unfortunately for Elliott, he couldn’t continue that trend at his home race track.
The 25-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia native was knocked out of Sunday’s event with an engine issue after completing just 220 laps.
Larson went on to finish in second place after leading 269 laps while Hamlin finished in fourth, making them both 1,441 for 1,441 to start the 2021 season. We have notably not yet seen any laps added to any race this season via overtime.
Which of those two drivers will be the last man standing when it comes to running every lap on the 2021 schedule? This Sunday’s race, the Food City Dirt Race, is set to be a 250-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway oval in Bristol, Tennessee. This event, the first Cup Series dirt race in over five decades, is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.