Kyle Larson captured his second Cup Series championship, finishing third on an overtime restart at Phoenix Raceway as Denny Hamlin endured yet another title heartbreaker in NASCAR’s premier series.
Hamlin, who was trying to punctuate his 20th Cup season with the first championship of his career, finished sixth after leading a race-high 208 of 319 laps. He was three laps from winning the title (or “40 seconds from a championship,” as Hamlin later put it) when a yellow flag flew for title contender William Byron, whose No. 24 Chevrolet hit the wall with a flat tire while running second (and with no shot to catch Hamlin at more than 2 seconds behind).
“Man, if you can’t win that one,” Hamlin told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns after coming up short in his fifth Championship 4 appearance, “I don’t know which one you can win.”
Among the other two contenders in the Championship 4, Chase Briscoe was 18th, and Byron finished 33rd.
Larson added a title to his 2021 crown despite being the only title contender who failed to lead a lap at Phoenix in Sunday’s race that went seven laps beyond its scheduled 312-mile distance on the 1-mile oval.
In the 11-year history of the elimination playoffs format that features a one-race championship decider (which NASCAR likely will end with a new format next season), Larson became the first champion to win the title without leading in the season finale.
He also became the first champion to win the title without winning during the 10-race elimination playoffs (Tony Stewart won the 2005 title without a win in the final 10 races during a previous iteration of the format).
Larson ended the season on a 24-race winless streak; his most recent of three victories was May 11 at Kansas Speedway
“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” he told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Like, we didn’t lead a lap today. Somehow won the championship. I’m just speechless. I can’t believe it
Larson started third but was running behind Hamlin and Byron for much of the championship race. On Lap 216, Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet suffered a flat right-rear tire and briefly fell two laps down in 33rd before taking a wavearound to get back on the lead lap.
He still was in 29th for the restart on Lap 227 but worked his way into the top 20 when crew chief Cliff Daniels made a critical call for two tires, catapulting Larson to second behind Briscoe.
“We had an average car at best,” Larson said. “We had the right-front go down, lost a lap. Got saved by the caution. Did the wave-around. Was really bad that run. We took two tires. I was like, ‘Oh, God, here we go.’ We’re going to go to the back now.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver is the 18th driver with multiple Cup titles and the third with multiple championships in the elimination playoffs era that began in 2014 (joining Joey Logano and Kyle Busch).
It’s the 15th Cup championship for Hendrick Motorsports, which won its first title in 1995 with Jeff Gordon.
Ryan Blaney won the season finale by 0.097 seconds with a last-lap pass of Brad Keselowski, but the championship was the primary storyline as Hamlin came up short yet again on another brutal twist of fate.
He had advanced to the Championship 4 by winning Oct. 19 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and his 60th career victory had provided a two-week head-start for his team to prepare a car that clearly was the class of the field Sunday.
With more than two dozen family and friends in attendance, Hamlin tried to win the title for his father, who is gravely ill and watched from home.
“Yeah, nothing I can do different,” Hamlin told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “Prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend. My team gave me a fantastic car.
“Just didn’t work out. I was just praying for no caution. Had one there. What can you do? Just not meant to be.
“We took four tires. I thought that definitely was the right call. Just so many cars took two there. Obviously put us back. Team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. Just didn’t happen. I’ll try (to win a title again). I got a couple more shots at it.”
Trying to shed the label as the best Cup driver in history without a title, the Joe Gibbs Racing star had rebounded after falling to 11th on a slow pit stop with 140 laps remaining. After seizing the lead from Byron on a restart with 47 laps remaining, Hamlin then fell to third on a yellow-flag pit stop behind Briscoe and Larson (who both took two tires) on Lap 281.
With the four championship-eligible drivers running first through fourth on a restart with 29 laps remaining, Hamlin went from third to first past JGR teammate Briscoe and Larson. He then held off a charging Byron for the lead and built a large gap of multiple seconds while turning some of his fastest laps.
The title seemed to be within his grasp when the yellow flag flew for a final time as Byron hit the Turn 4 wall. Pitting from the lead under yellow, Hamlin re-emerged in 10th as the first driver to take four tires.
Larson, among the six drivers who took two tires, restarted in fifth.
In the ensuing two-lap shootout, Hamlin briefly pulled even with Larson, who then sailed his No. 5 Chevrolet to the outside and stayed ahead of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota for the final two miles.
“It had a lot more grip than I anticipated,” Larson said. “We got lucky with the final caution. I was really hoping we were going to take two (tires) again. I felt like I learned a lot on that restart, bombing (Turns 1 and 2) really hard. Thought I could do the same thing if we got another one.
“Just unbelievable. What a year by this Hendrick Motorsports, (crew chief) Cliff Daniels, everybody, his leadership, his complete leadership. Just showed that whole race. Keeping us all motivated. Always having a plan. All of that. That’s just the story of our season. Again, just unbelievable. I cannot believe it. This is insane.”
While accepting the Bill France Cup as champion, Larson still was empathizing with Hamlin, who later said he was numb from the shock and that “in this moment I never want to race a car ever again. My fun meter is pegged.”
“I’d be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t a little bit sad for Denny, too,” Larson said. “As a competitor, to see him put in so much work throughout his career and to put in a perfect performance there and have it not work out there at the end, it’s hard to not feel for him. But obviously I’m happy I won the championship, but he’s a good friend, a great competitor and they have a great team, too.”
Despite being Larson’s Hendrick teammate, Byron also was borderline despondent about causing the caution that essentially cost Hamlin the title.
“I’m just super bummed that it was a caution, obviously,” Byron told NBC Sports’ Burns. “I hate that. Hate it for Denny. I hate it for the 11 team. I’m happy for Kyle, for Mr. Hendrick, they deserve it. Yeah, it stinks, right? I don’t know, three laps to go, I’m thinking, ‘Let me get to the end.’ I felt something funny off of two, thought it might be a flat. I thought at the time if it’s left rear, you can kind of get back. It just went straight into three. Laid down on the right rear, went straight.
“I mean, Denny was on his way to it. I hate that. There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously do not want to cause a caution. If I had known what tire it was, known that a tire was going down before I got to the corner, I would have done something different.”
All four Championship 4 contenders had tire problems, and the first was Briscoe, who was dealt a major setback on Lap 107 when his right-rear tire blew just as the yellow flag flew for a spin by Shane van Gisbergen.
Though he was able to avoid losing a lap by pitting during the caution, Briscoe restarted in 32nd and radioed his team about a persistent vibration in his No. 19 Toyota. He rebounded by gaining several spots on his next pit stop under caution on Lap 151, and he climbed from 13th to seventh over the final 30 laps of the second stage.
Briscoe led three laps after leaping into first on Lap 281 with the two-tire stop under yellow, but his No. 19 Toyota faded over the final 50 laps.
“Certainly eventful,” Briscoe told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman. “We never gave up. That’s been the story of my whole career, never giving up. You never know what can change at any point. Felt like we were good enough.
“We came from the front to the back two or three different times. Had a really good Toyota. Wish we could have been on an even playing field at some point. Was about to pass William, blew another tire. Just part of it. Obviously, thankful for the opportunity. So excited to be at Joe Gibbs Racing, be able to compete for wins and compete for championships. Hate that one of us didn’t get it. I thought we were both certainly capable. This wasn’t our day.”
Stage 1 winner: Byron
Stage 2 winner: Hamlin
Next: The 68th running of the Daytona 500 will open the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season on Feb. 15, 2026.
