Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Chase Briscoe will race for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Sequence championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
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Sports activities Critically
4 drivers from two groups, Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, will compete for the NASCAR Cup Sequence title.The championship contenders are Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, and William Byron.This season finale could possibly be the final to make use of the present one-race, winner-take-all playoff format.
4 drivers, two groups, one championship.
Following 35 races, the NASCAR Cup Sequence is ready to crown a champion within the season finale Nov. 2 in Avondale, Arizona, when Phoenix Raceway hosts the 2025 championship race in what could possibly be the ultimate iteration of the present playoff format.
Two drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing – Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe – and two drivers from Hendrick Motorsports – Kyle Larson and William Byron – will race in opposition to one another and a full discipline of automobiles with one aim in thoughts: end higher than the opposite three contenders and have a good time with the championship trophy.
It’s a format and a state of affairs that’s distinctive to NASCAR. On the one hand, you might have two titans of the game – staff homeowners Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick – every with a 50% likelihood of claiming a title. The homeowners additionally occur to be good associates.
“To get to the Ultimate 4 is simply so arduous. So now we acquired one race,” Gibbs stated this week. “We all know what we’re up in opposition to, any individual that’s actually, actually good. Two automobiles in there for them. Two for us.”
The drivers, then again, not solely should compete in opposition to two racers from one other staff but additionally in opposition to a teammate to understand their championship desires.
“It’s going to be an epic battle,” stated vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports Jeff Gordon, who received 4 NASCAR championships as a driver. “You bought 4 automobiles, two organizations, which are going to present it all the pieces. It’s going to be (a) fascinating week of preparation, seeing the way it unfolds on the racetrack in Phoenix.”
Ultimate 4 worthy
The 4 championship contenders enter the finale with spectacular season statistics. Hamlin has probably the most wins in 2025, Briscoe probably the most pole positions and top-five finishes, Byron probably the most laps led and Larson the second-most prime 10s and the second-most laps led.
“Denny, Chase, Kyle are superb rivals. We’re going to should do all the pieces we will do (at Phoenix) to win that one, too,” Byron stated after his victory at Martinsville Speedway to clinch his berth within the Championship 4.
Every of the 4 additionally brings a novel storyline to the finale.
Larson, 33, is the one driver among the many 4 to have received a Cup Sequence championship (2021), and a second would put him in elite firm. He may be a part of Corridor of Famers Gordon (4 championships) and Jimmie Johnson (seven) because the third driver to win a number of Cup titles for Hendrick.
The 27-year-old Byron, who drives the No. 24 Chevrolet made well-known by Gordon, may turn out to be simply the sixth driver and the primary since Johnson in 2013 to win the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Cup Sequence championship in the identical 12 months. The others: Corridor of Famers Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Gordon.
Briscoe, 30, made the championship in his first 12 months at Joe Gibbs Racing after taking on the No. 19 Toyota following the retirement of 2017 Cup Sequence champion Martin Truex Jr. Briscoe had an up-and-down first half of the season as he adjusted to a brand new automobile and staff, however he was arguably the perfect driver within the second half, recording three wins and 10 top-five finishes and capturing six of his series-high seven poles.
After which there’s the veteran, Denny Hamlin, who’s in search of so as to add the one factor lacking from his Corridor-of-Fame resume: a NASCAR championship. The 44-year-old has received 60 races throughout his Cup profession – tied for tenth on the all-time checklist – and, although he’s greater than a decade older than any of the opposite last 4 drivers, he led the collection with six victories in 2025.
But, it is truthful to marvel if that is Hamlin’s greatest and last likelihood to take away the moniker, “Finest driver to by no means win a championship.”
“Is that this my final likelihood to do it? Possibly it’s, perhaps it isn’t,” Hamlin expressed after incomes win No. 60 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I simply know I’m going to do the work, and I hope it really works out. If it doesn’t, I’m going to be OK with it. I’ve had a season that far exceeded what I assumed it might.”
Change on the horizon?
This additionally is likely to be the top of the one-race championship and probably the 10-race playoffs. NASCAR has fashioned a committee with its stakeholders to look at the present format and discover modifications or maybe a large overhaul of the system following complaints for years from each drivers and followers.
NASCAR’s aim when it launched the present format in 2014 was to offer “Sport 7” moments similar to the massive staff sports activities. And whereas there has actually been loads of on-track pleasure previously decade as 4 drivers duked it out for a title annually, the counterargument has been {that a} winner-take-all race not solely dilutes the complete 35 races that got here earlier than it however even the 9 playoff races that precede the championship race.
So, as these drivers search to etch their title in historical past with a Cup Sequence title, one may make historical past in one other method: the final driver to win a championship on this format.
“Loads of actual brilliant persons are fascinated with our playoffs and is that this the proper format for us going ahead,” Gibbs stated this week. “The one factor I’d say, one race, man, it’s powerful as a result of issues can occur to you which are out of your management in that one race.
“We acquired two automobiles in it. It is a thrill after we get right here as a result of it’s thrilling. You bought one race to make it occur. That’s the best way I have a look at it, so we acquired to discover a method. I’m positive Rick (Hendrick) is pondering the identical factor.”
