The exclusive club of multi-time NASCAR Cup Series champions has just added its newest member.
Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team overcame a slow pit stop and a blown right front tire to finish third at Phoenix Raceway at Sunday (Nov. 2), which was good enough to win his second career Cup title. Larson became the 18th different driver with at least two Cup Series titles in the 77-year history of the series.
On a day with no shortage of on-track action, pit stops and pit strategy, particularly tires, helped shape the championship race. Here are the major pit road plotlines to emerge from the 2025 Cup Series finale:
The Winning Strategy
In a race that featured several tire failures, including a combined five for the Championship 4 drivers, who would have thought that a two-tire call would win the championship?
Goodyear brought a softer tire compound to Phoenix that had been used at five other tracks this season in hopes of creating more tire fall-off to improve the racing product.
“Throughout the season, we have continued to refine our short track package to provide tires that deliver more lap time fall-off over the course of a run,” Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear’s Director of Racing for the Americas, said.
Early on, it became clear that the right-side tires would not hold up in the long run, prompting four-tire calls by the entire field each time down pit road.
But then, with just 32 laps to go and Larson buried in 13th, No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels rolled the dice by calling for right-side tires only during a round of caution pit stops. As a result, Larson shot up the leaderboard, gaining 11 spots on pit road. Larson restarted second behind only Championship 4 driver Chase Briscoe, who also took right-side tires only.
Despite concern that Larson might fall through the pack with just two tires, he held steady within the top 10, sitting in seventh when the caution flew with three laps remaining for his teammate and fellow title contender William Byron blowing a tire.
When the field pitted prior to overtime, Daniels opted for the two-tire strategy again, putting Larson fifth in the running order but more importantly first among the Championship 4. Larson took care of the rest with a great restart to seal up the title.
“We took two tires and I’m like, ‘Oh God, here we go. We’re going to go the back now’, and they had a lot more grip than I anticipated,” Larson said post-race. “So we get lucky with that final caution, and I was really hoping we were going to take two again because I felt like I learned a lot on that restart. I felt like I could do the same thing if we got another one.”
Entering Sunday, Daniels was already widely considered one of the best crew chiefs in the Cup garage. With back-to-back two-tire calls to help elevate Larson to a second championship, Daniels had his Game 7 moment in the desert.
Two tires also proved to be the race-winning decision as well. In the pit stops before overtime, Ryan Blaney was the first off of pit road after crew chief Johnathan Hassler opted for right sides only on the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Restarting fourth, Blaney navigated past the three drivers who stayed out to pick up his fourth win of the 2025 season.
Four Tires Not Enough for Denny Hamlin
Conversely, while Larson took right-side tires only on those last two rounds of pit stops, Denny Hamlin and his crew chief Chris Gayle chose four tires for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
On the next-to-last restart with 28 laps remaining, Hamlin utilized his four new Goodyear Eagles to speed by Briscoe and Larson and open up a nearly three-second lead over Byron. As the laps clicked by, it looked as though Hamlin would at long last get that elusive Cup title. That is, until Byron blew a tire with three laps remaining.
This created another crucial decision point for the crew chiefs up and down pit road. While Daniels and Larson took right-sides only, Hamlin and Gayle opted for four tires.
On the surface, it seemed like a good decision. Having led 208 laps, Hamlin had the dominant car of the day and would be able to drive aggressively on the overtime restart. Also, a similar call worked out for fellow for the No. 11 Toyota in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as Corey Heim made a bold move with four tires on a late restart to win the Truck championship on Friday night (Oct. 31).
However, what Hamlin and Gayle did not anticipate was six drivers taking two tires in front of them. Between that and three more drivers staying on the racetrack, Hamlin took the overtime green flag in 10th. Unable to pick his way through traffic, Hamlin settled for sixth in the race and second in the championship battle.
“There’s nothing I could do different,” Hamlin said post-race. “I prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend, and my team gave me a fantastic car. It just didn’t work out. Just so many cars took two [tires] and it put us back there.”
Just like that, what looked to finally be Hamlin’s day instead turned into another addition to the list of his Cup championship near-misses.
Look Ahead to Next Season
That is a wrap on the 2025 Cup Series season. NASCAR now enters the offseason, with the Cup Series slated to return with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 1. The Cup Series regular season will commence with the 68th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 and is currently an editor and a weekly writer of Stat Sheet. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
The Championship is what it is. A late caution is like a hanging curve to a power hitter, a defensive-back falling down on a “Hail Mary,” or bouncing one off a tree at the Masters into the cup.
Things happen. Those who are Larson fans are now big fans of the system. There is no perfect way to crown a Champion. Great point-guard play contributes to a 12-seed making the Final Four.
Let’s enjoy the moment and look forward to Daytona.