Ryan Blaney won Sunday’s (Nov. 2) NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway, while Kyle Larson won his second championship.
A decision by crew chief Cliff Daniels to take two tires as opposed to Denny Hamlin‘s four on the final pit stop gave Larson a five-spot advantage on Hamlin on an overtime restart after William Byron blew a tire with three laps left in regulation.
A solid restart from Larson gave him the breathing room he needed to pull away and win the championship.
“We did the best job we could,” Larson told NBC. “I can’t believe it. We didn’t lead a lap today and somehow won the championship.”
Prior to the caution, Hamlin had made a three-wide move to briefly take the championship lead on the restart, but Byron passed Hamlin with 27 laps to go. Rather than try to race Byron side-by-side, however, Hamlin pulled off a crossover to take the lead back. He had gapped the rest of the field and was on the way to his first Cup title.
But Byron’s blown tire with three laps to go brought out the final caution flag of the afternoon and brought the field down pit road. And Larson’s two-tire call proved to be the correct one.
“Nothing I could do different,” Hamlin said. “Just not meant to be.”
Meanwhile, Blaney went by the RFK Racing cars of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece to get the win.
““It’s just cool to end it on a good note,” Blaney said. “It’s just cool and obviously we had a fast car all day. Those other guys were just kind of faster getting going and I could never retain the lead. Those guys were just really good and it took my car a while to come in, but it was a really good call for two there and keeping track position. I got a decent restart and I was able to kind of roll the bottom in three and four and eek the 6 out at the line. I’m just really proud of the whole group and cool to end it in Victory Lane. It’s a shame we weren’t in the Championship 4. Congrats to Kyle and that whole team. I’m happy for this team that we could end it the best way we could.”
Keselowski, Larson, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Josh Berry, Michael McDowell, Preece and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.
“It’s kind of the story of our season,” Keselowski said. “We’re just needing a little bit of speed, trying to put ourselves in position. We were in position as well as we could, I just wasn’t quite fast enough. Another second place.
Byron won stage one, with Hamlin winning stage two after reporting clutch issues earlier in the race.
A spinning John Hunter Nemechek brought out the first caution for cause on lap 72. Shane van Gisbergen spun on lap 106, with Chase Briscoe suffering a flat right rear tire at the same time to bring out the yellow flag.
Later in the stage, AJ Allmendinger suffered his second hard impact of the weekend, blowing a tire and hitting the wall hard to bring out the caution. On lap 182, Ty Dillon brought out the caution after a spin, ending the second stage and giving the stage victory to Hamlin.
With 97 laps to go, Larson hit the wall hard after a flat tire, suffering damage that appeared to take him out of championship contention. Briscoe then suffered another tire issue, with both he and Larson going a lap down after coming down pit road for their crews to work on their cars.
But with 93 laps to go, the caution flew for Carson Hocevar, which put Briscoe and Larson both back on the lead lap and kept both drivers in title contention.
Alex Bowman and Noah Gragson also suffered tire failures in the final 70 laps. With 55 laps to go, Austin Cindric suffered a hard hit into the turn 4 wall., though his crash did not appear to be the result of a tire failure.
With 34 laps to go, the caution flew for JJ Yeley. That ensuing restart set up Hamlin to take the lead and look poised to win the title. But the caution for Byron and the overtime that followed gave Blaney the checkered flag and Larson the Bill France Cup.
NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race Results
The 2026 Cup Series season will begin with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Feb. 1.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
I disagree that there was nothing Hamlin could do. Had Hamlin stayed out, he’d have started up front with two laps to go. Other drivers would have stayed out and given Hamlin at least a two-car buffer. IMO, it was a bad gamble coming in for four tires, and it probably cost Denny the Championship.
If Hamlin stayed out the others probably would have too since they didn’t know how many other cars would stay out. I always felt that the shorter the run to the end the better Hamlin’s chances.
My wish came true
Thinking with Denny in #1 pit stall, spotter should have been yelling “2,2,2,2”. Oh well.
With the curve in the pits maybe he couldn’t see the other cars.
Cautions typically breed cautions, so I can see the logic behind taking four. It’s a shame NASCAR has distilled the title down to near complete randomness, where a whole season of work matters very little.
As currently structured, NASCAR racing is barely a sport. It’s also barely entertainment. I’ve been a fan for over forty years, and for the first time, I’m questioning whether watching this for enjoyment is worth my time.
A quick and dirty equation is telling. For round numbers, let’s take 3 hours as an average NASCAR race length. (Being conservative on that.) 3 hours x 36 races = 180 hours,or 4.5 days. This does not include practice or qualifying. So, 4.5 days per year to watch all the races.
And it all comes down to 2 tires vs. 4 tires on the final pit stop, what other cars opt to do on this final stop, how the cars fan out on the final restart, and whether another caution flies.
Why spend 4.5 days of my life watching, when all that really matters is 30 minutes at the end of the final race? And why watch that, if there’s no more substance to the product than this?
I realize I’m aging out of the demographic advertisers want to market to, but the way overall ratings have crashed in the second half of this season, it appears fans of all ages are every bit as disenchanted as I am about this product.
I’ve basically had the same conversation with myself as Daytight, even more so after that finish yesterday with the “Champ” not winning a race in the previous 20. I’ve been watching this stuff weekly since it started airing on television back in the 80s and years before that going to Martinsville. This is probably the first year that I’m not disappointed at all that it was the end of the season and look forward to doing something else with my time on Sunday afternoons.
I’ve never been a Hamlin fan. Always have pulled for Chevrolet drivers but I was genuinely disappointed for him yesterday. He did nothing wrong and still lost twice yesterday. Yes he probably should’ve taken two tires but that wasn’t his call. I do think if he had, he probably would have stayed ahead of Larson. Easy to second guess decisions.
NASCAR came very close to the most winning drivers in all three series not being the champ. Heim rolled the start which was ignored on the last restart. I don’t think he wins without that running start.
Even with a new points system next year I think it’s too late. I think they’ve lost their core base and nothing will bring it back. I understand it is an aging fan base but I work with many people who used to watch that don’t even look at it anymore. Overall, pro sports in general is that way with the group of guys I work with. 20 people with ages ranging from 25 to 62.
Well said.