What Happened?
Ryan Blaney outran Brad Keselowski to win the NASCAR Cup Series’ season finale race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, Nov. 2.
Behind them in third, however, was Kyle Larson, who finished ahead of the rest of the Championship 4 drivers to earn his second career Cup Series championship. Joey Logano and Kyle Busch finished behind him in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The rest of the Championship 4 finished sixth with Denny Hamlin, 18th with Chase Briscoe and 33rd with William Byron.
What Really Happened?
Imagine it’s 1998. Dale Earnhardt is leading the Daytona 500 when the race’s final caution flag waved.
But imagine if instead of winning the race right there, the sport’s leaders felt like it needed a magical ‘game seven moment’ to spice up the finish and did one more restart. As a result, Earnhardt loses and never wins the Great American Race.
That’s what just happened in real life with Hamlin and the Cup title, and it’s because of an incessant need for game seven moments.
It might be the biggest heartbreak in the history of NASCAR.
Hamlin, with two laps to go, was leading the season’s finale race by more than two seconds. It all seemed like the storybook ending for a NASCAR legend in his twilight years.
Like Earnhardt in ’98, Hamlin had undergone 20 years of trying and certainly 20 years of frustration in attempts to win the Cup title. Also, like Earnhardt, he had lost it in just about every way one could.
However, a last-second caution flag and an overtime restart robbed him of that honor. You can blame overtime restarts, the one-race championship finale or the playoffs as a whole if you want to. You wouldn’t be necessarily wrong.
But it all stems from the need to give racing a certain last-minute finish. It stems from that need for a game seven moment.
A day earlier, an actual game seven moment occurred in baseball. I’m not a baseball fan, but I couldn’t help but watch as the Los Angeles Dodgers hit a home run in the final inning of the game to tie up the World Series at the last second and eventually beat the Toronto Blue Jays in overtime. What a story, right?
And the beauty of it all? It happened naturally.
But what happened on Sunday wasn’t natural. It was forced, and the latest forced game seven moment rid us of what may have been one of the best championship storylines in decades — maybe ever.
As a result, I can’t help but feel so tired of it all. Neither can Hamlin.
Who Stood Out?
In 2025, Hamlin was the closest he’s ever been to finally win the title. After leading 208 laps — the most anyone has ever led in the season finale race since 2007 — on Sunday afternoon, Hamlin was, as he put it, 40 seconds away from winning the championship.
It was a spanking from the get-go, too. The No. 11 Toyota won the pole and even won stage two after finishing second in stage one to fellow playoff rival Byron. However, in the race’s penultimate restart with 24 laps to go, Hamlin went four-wide with all of his championship rivals exiting turn 4.
It was one hell of a sight.
Hamlin was the victor of that fight, and in the closing laps of the race, everyone in the industry — myself included — were bracing for a Hamlin maiden championship, and very few were disappointed by that.
So, imagine our surprise when Byron, the one Championship 4 driver that didn’t seem to have any tire trouble all day, cut a tire with only two laps to go.
It was a nightmare scenario for Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gayle, who pitted the No. 11 Toyota for four new tires and came out 10th, five spots behind Larson in fifth.
With only two laps to go, it wasn’t enough time for the future Hall of Famer to get back around the No. 5. Hamlin finished sixth, three spots behind Larson.
However, amid his story and Larson taking the championship and everything in between, it feels like the race’s actual winner — Blaney — is being put on the backburner.
That’s pretty ironic considering the shoe was on the other foot in 2023 when he won the title and Ross Chastain, that year’s race winner, was being ignored during post-race coverage.
This year, however, it was all Blaney and how he took two tires before an overtime restart to leapfrog the top three and win his first career race at Phoenix. For much of the day, he was the outlier that seemed to be challenging the Championship 4 the most, too.
Blaney may have only led 20 laps, but that’s only because he was running second or third for the rest of the time. Indeed, if the Team Penske car had been among those still fighting for a title, he would have been a major threat.
Who Fell Flat?
Byron felt so bad for cutting a tire and bringing out the final caution that cost Hamlin a championship — something he had very little control over — he even apologized to him post-race.
It isn’t fair to say anybody fell flat when it comes to the Championship 4 drivers. All of them had tire issues at some point.
But Byron undoubtedly had the best chance of beating Hamlin for the championship all day Sunday. In fact, on top of winning stage one, he led for 52 laps, which was the second highest on Sunday.
In the final green flag run of the race before overtime, Byron was running second behind the No. 11 Toyota and in position should any mechanical failure befall the Joe Gibbs Racing driver or if any caution flag were to wave.
Well, the good news for Byron was that caution did wave. The bad news is that it was for him.
The No. 24 finished 33rd and two laps down — his championship hopes dashed in the final race of the season for the third consecutive year.
Paint Scheme of the Race
It almost never fails; the Tide ride always reigns supreme in terms of beauty.
Nobody was talking about Michael McDowell this weekend very much at all considering the championship battle, but when he was on camera, I couldn’t look away.
I’m not sure if it’s the bright vibrant orange featured as a primary that does it, or maybe its orange’s complement color blue that makes it pop out. Either way, seeing Tide begin doing sponsor activations on pit road and on liveries both makes me excited to see what more designs the brand brings in 2026.
What’s Next?
A well-deserved, three-month break.
The 2025 season has been a long and grueling one for drivers and media members alike. With the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit likely reaching trial in December, however, it’s likely we’ll still be seeing plenty of news and updates throughout the offseason.
Regardless of what happens, however, the sport will still be at Bowman Gray Stadium when the 2026 season begins on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Times and broadcast channel will be announced at a later date.
Have a great holiday season. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in 2026.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT
I am so disgusted with the ‘coverage’ of the race that I won’t miss racing a bit. They might as well have any had the 4 ‘contenders’ on the track for getting any useful information about any other driver. Pathetic. And Leigh Diffey only seems to have one level…non-stop hype at full throttle. I finally had to turn down the sound because he was so annoying and distracting. Thrilled for Blaney, feel bad for Hamlin. This is the outcome because of the creation of a contrived ‘playoff’ that involves every team every race. Disappointing in the extreme.
It has been the same for years and the chances of it getting better going forward are the same as a snowball in Hell, although it would seem a few of the brain trust have sold their souls.
Yep, NASCAR wanted their game seven, and they got it. A race where the car which had the slowest championship lap times most of the day won the championship.
And unlike Heim deservedly winning the truck series with a bit of luck in the final race, Larson was third best driver within his own team throughout the Cup season.
Good job, NASCAR. An amazing feat of taking a once proud series, and turning it into the auto racing equivalent of WWE.
Brian got a lot of advice from Vince McMahon and his sycophants are carrying on his brilliant ideas for his new inherited toy. I wonder what the Bills are thinking now?
I feel Madder than a Wet Hen that we’d egg on Monday Morning Decisions in the Worst Ways instead of having a Lifetime of Healthy Memories. I would think the “Game 7” Habit needed to go with Brian France when he left the House for Good!
I haven never been at fan of Hamlin, not even for one moment, can’t stand him. With that said, he was robbed and robbed big time. Larson barely showed up yesterday, and gets to hoist the trophy and get’s called a ” 2-time CHAMP”. Larson’s performance was the most lackluster in the final race one has ever seen.
Wasn’t Larson in the top 5 all day?
Well.. ZERO laps led and not even the usual win by a “final 4” driver. Larson wasn’t what one would call outstanding or even meh compared to past performances of the winners of “final four” format currently used. All the marbles with this format are down to one race, and Denny deserved the win, not Larson based on performance.
Nobody deserves a win, you have to take it. Larson crossed the finish line before Denny. The end.
This reminds me of Austin Dillon last year at Richmond.
I’d like to see overtime be at least 3 laps, especially on shorter tracks.
Once again, despite the brain trust’s best efforts, the title is decided by most POINTS and not most wins!
It’s too bad F1’s Michael Masi wasn’t the race director at Phoenix. He would have found a way to make sure Hamlin won that championship.
How many times have we seen a race and deserving driver’s efforts ruined because of the G-W-C finish? It needs to go along with the playoffs. NASCAR needs to figure out a points system and utilize it for the entire season. No gimmicks. No bullshit.
Seems like just last season we were complaining that Logano didn’t have a championship-caliber season and won the title anyway. I give credit to all the playoff teams who make it to the final four, but the actual championship race is inconsequential to my way of thinking. It’s just a single race, albeit one with oversized ramifications. I may be an old codger, but in hindsight, the Latford system wasn’t so bad.
Bubba may be thinking “karma”.