In the midst of Daytona dominance, Austin Hill still chasing Dale Earnhardt's record

When the NASCAR Xfinity Series takes the green flag at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Austin Hill will be attempting to win his fourth consecutive season-opener at the 2.5-mile track. 

Since the modern-day Xfinity Series was formed in 1982, only two drivers — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart — have won three Xfinity Series season-openers in a row. Earnhardt Jr. won the 2002, 2003 and 2004 editions of the race, while Stewart was victorious in four consecutive years from 2008 to 2011.  

As impressive as the streaks of Hill, Earnhardt Jr. and Stewart are, one man took it one step further en route to five consecutive wins in the Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona. 

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, that man was Dale Earnhardt Sr., a superspeedway ace who is widely considered to be the greatest driver to ever race at Daytona.  

From 1990 to 1994 — which was also a stretch in which Earnhardt won four Winston Cup championships in five years — Earnhardt won five straight Xfinity Series season-openers. 

In those five races, Earnhardt led 316 of the 600 laps — an average of 63.2 per race. During his five-race winning streak at Daytona, Earnhardt never started worse than seventh.  

It was a streak that had never been seen in the Xfinity Series to that point, but one we could see again should Hill win the next two season-openers at Daytona. 

Of course, you can’t win five in a row without winning four first, which is Hill’s task in Saturday’s United Rentals 300 (5 p.m. ET, the CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hill will start fourth on Saturday afternoon.

If Hill comes up short of Earnhardt’s five straight Daytona wins, it’s not a blemish on his resume, but rather, another example of why NASCAR will never again see a driver quite like "The Man in Black."