In addition to Rookie of the Year awards at the national and regional levels, the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series also recognizes the top rookies at the state and provincial level each season.
This year, 19 drivers claimed state or provincial Rookie of the Year Awards.
Below is a closer look at the top rookie from each state or province from the 2025 season.
Alberta: Kaylee Wilkie
Racing at Edmonton International Raceway in the Late Model class, Kaylee Wilkie scored one victory on her way to securing top rookie honors in the province of Alberta.
Idaho: Taylor Occhipinti
Taylor Occhipinti captured Rookie of the Year honors in the state of Idaho thanks to a consistent season in Meridian Speedway’s Modified class that include one top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Illinois: Ricky Baker
Ricky Baker turned in an impressive rookie season in the headlining Super Late Model class at Illinois’ Grundy County Speedway that saw him win four times in 13 starts. He captured the Illinois state championship to go along with the Illinois state Rookie of the Year crown.
Massachusetts: Jacob Burns
Jacob Burns enjoyed a strong season at Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway that saw him win three times in 14 starts while never finishing outside the top 10. As a result, he clinched his first Massachusetts state championship and was named the Massachusetts state Rookie of the Year.
Michigan: Tyler Lupton
From Clarkston, Michigan, Tyler Lupton was impressive in his rookie season in Berlin Raceway’s Super Late Model class. He won twice to go along with eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes to capture top rookie honors in the state of Michigan.
Minnesota: Justin Ziemiecki
Justin Ziemiecki claimed the Minnesota state Rookie of the Year crown in his first season racing at Elko Speedway.
Missouri: Ryan Gillmore
There is domination, and then there is what Ryan Gillmore did this year at Monett Motor Speedway. In 16 starts at the Missouri dirt track, Gillmore won 13 times to claim the B Modified track title and his first Missouri state championship. He was also the top rookie in the state.
Nevada: Cody Brown
Racing as a rookie in the Pro Late Model class at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Cody Brown nabbed an impressive five wins from March to September to secure his first Nevada state championship as well as the West Region Rookie of the Year Award.
New Hampshire: Charles Baldwin
Charles Baldwin couldn’t have asked for a better rookie campaign. Splitting his time between Hudson Speedway, Claremont Motorsports Park and Lee USA Speedway, he scored seven wins in 10 features.
North Carolina: Ethan Truell
Racing in Bowman Gray Stadium’s ultra-competitive Modified class for the first time, Ethan Truell secured eight top-10 finishes in 24 features to claim top rookie honors in the state of North Carolina.
Ohio: Aidan Hinds
In his first season racing in Limaland Motorsports Park’s Modified division, Aidan Hinds bagged three wins, the track championship and his first Ohio state championship. Oh, and he was the top rookie in the state of Ohio.
Oklahoma: Brenner Skaggs
From Wagoner, Oklahoma, Brenner Skaggs called Salina Highbanks Speedway home for his rookie campaign in the B Modified class. He earned four top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 14 starts to capture state rookie honors.
Oregon: Jordan Stevens
Jordan Stevens kept himself busy this year at Oregon’s Coos Bay Speedway. He was a regular in both the Division I Street Stocks as well as the Division III Mini Outlaw class. He captured the track championship in the Mini Outlaw class and was named the Division I Rookie of the Year in the state of Oregon.
Pennsylvania: Logan Watt
Competing at historic Grandview Speedway in the Modified division, Logan Watt earned two wins in 16 feature starts and only finished outside the top 10 five times on his way to Northeast Region and Pennsylvania state Rookie of the Year Award.
Quebec: Antoine Parent
Racing mainly at Autodrome Granby with the occasional stop at Le RPM Speedway this season, Antoine Parent captured Granby’s 358 Modified track title in addition to being named top rookie in the province of Quebec.
Tennessee: Scott Salmons
A regular this season at Kingsport Speedway, Scott Salmons finished in the top 10 in all but one Late Model race at the historic venue to earn the Tennessee state Rookie of the Year Award.
Virginia: Chase Johnson
Chase Johnson looked nothing like a rookie this year. He was almost unbeatable in the Late Model class at Dominion Raceway, winning 15 times in 26 starts and easily claiming the track title, NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Josten’s Rookie of the Year Award, the Southeast Region Division I title and the Virginia state title.
Washington: Kyle Lang
Kyle Lang made eight starts this year in the Pro Late Model class at Washington’s Evergreen Speedway, earning six top-10 finishes along the way. It was enough to secure the Washington state Rookie of the Year Award.
Wisconsin: Mike Lichtfeld
Mike Lichtfeld was the man to beat this year at Dells Raceway Park in Wisconsin. He won six times on his way to the track championship in the Late Model class while also capturing both the Wisconsin state and Midwest Regional Rookie of the Year awards.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In the moments after Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team celebrated his milestone second-career NASCAR Cup Series Championship Sunday night at Phoenix Raceway, Hendrick executive, NASCAR Hall of Famer and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon grinned when asked if he worried Larson may one day surpass his own championship trophy total.
“I believe that records and championships, they’re made to be broken,” a smiling Gordon said of Larson. “As long as he’s on our team, I want him to win 10 [championships].”
On Tuesday evening in the JW Marriott Resort in Scottsdale, Larson was celebrated, toasted and even playfully roasted at the annual NASCAR Awards, where the 2021 champ officially became only the sport’s third active full-time driver to earn multiple championships, adding the 2025 title to his resume of 32 series wins. And as Gordon indicated, all signs point to more of those big trophies in the future.
It marks the 15th Cup Series title for Hall of Fame team owner Rick Hendrick and comes in the 30th anniversary year of Gordon’s first title.
NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps introduced Larson to the stage as a “Future first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Famer,” noting the only question that remains about the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is by how far he will exceed so many expectations.
After thanking his wife, three young children, parents, sister, team, his public relations manager Jon Edwards, who passed away unexpectedly early in the season, and so many friends, Larson delivered a heartfelt, inspiring champion’s speech, noting the perseverance displayed for a comeback title run in Sunday’s Championship Race.
“Our race on Sunday — winning the championship — really embodied everything about our season,” Larson said. “All the challenges, all the hard work, the setbacks we faced and the fight we put in … it all came together in that moment.
“That win wasn’t just a finish line on a Sunday — it was a reflection of everything this team went through to get here,” said Larson, who closed his speech by dedicating the championship to Edwards.
So many of the sport’s other bright talents were also honored Tuesday, including the Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen. The former Australian Supercars multi-time champion won a rookie record five races in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet — all of them on road courses — and finished 12th in the championship in his first full season in the Cup Series.
As with his fellow honorees, the 2025 Xfinity Series champion, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, 20, delivered an emotional, heartfelt speech, including a touching thank you to his family.
“To my mom and my sister. I know what you have sacrificed for me to chase this dream,” Love said. “The trips you didn’t take, the things you gave up, the years of stress and uncertainty. And I want you to know, tonight, that this championship is yours too. You both have carried me more times than you’ll ever realize.”
Love became emotional speaking about and thanking his father, Duke, “My dad has been my coach, my best friend, my teammate and my biggest believer.”
Love’s good friend and the Xfinity Series 10-race winner, 19-year-old JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch, accepted the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award, reiterating that despite the tough championship race outcome, he is proud of his team’s record-breaking effort this year. Asked which of his many wins he considered his “favorite,” Zilisch smiled and declared his victory at Pocono Raceway this summer as his best.
“Because [team owner] Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. was on the pit box,” Zilisch said, grinning. “Pretty cool, his first win as a crew chief.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota, driven by seven different drivers this season, claimed the owner’s title in the Xfinity Series.
Another of the season’s most dominant 2025 competitors, 12-race winner Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim, 23, was celebrated for his Craftsman Truck Series title along with the series’ Sunoco Rookie of the Year, Gio Ruggiero, who claimed his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway only three weeks ago.
The Georgia-native Heim set records in several competitive categories, from his 12-trophy single-season haul to the impressive record mark of leading at least one lap in every single race of the season (25).
“Before I was with Toyota — before any of this — it was just me and my dad,” Heim said. “My dad was my agent, my sponsor and my number one fan. I’ve raced hundreds of times in my life, and I can count on one hand how many races he’s missed. He’s been there for every high and low. Thank you, Dad, for your unconditional support and belief in me from day one.”
Perhaps the least “surprising” moment of the night came when Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was announced as the Cup Series’ Most Popular Driver. This is the eighth consecutive time the 2020 series champion has claimed the honor as voted on by fans.
JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier, the 2024 series champion, was the Xfinity Series Most Popular Driver for the sixth time and third consecutively. Spire Motorsports driver Rajah Caruth won the honor for the second straight year in the Truck Series.
Larson now joins a short list of esteemed Californian multi-time champions, Hall of Famers Gordon and seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson.
The 33-year-old Elk Grove native has long been considered a generational crossover — a natural talent in any kind of car he steers, but especially so in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, where he posted three wins, earned a series-best mark in laps led (1,106) and tied Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell with the most top 10s (22) this year.
He rallied to the championship win Sunday over good friend, JGR’s Denny Hamlin, JGR’s Chase Briscoe — a first-time Championship 4 competitor — as well as Larson’s Hendrick teammate, the Regular Season Champion William Byron.
All four spoke Tuesday night — and for Hamlin, it was an especially emotional turn considering the veteran led four times more laps than any other driver in Sunday’s race but was unable to catch Larson after a late race restart and pit stop cycle reshuffled him farther back in the field.
Hamlin was heartbroken in the moment, and the 44-year-old conceded later during interviews that this will take some time to “get over.” But he was steadfast in his praise of his No. 11 JGR Toyota team and the six-win season they earned together. His win at Las Vegas in the playoffs marked the three-time Daytona 500 winner’s 60th career victory.
“Really a proud moment for myself, my team and my family, just a great day,” Hamlin said of that milestone win, adding of his 2025 season, “It was a good season, a great season — almost perfect.”
In his speech, Larson noted the emotional ending to Sunday’s race, with words for his friend Hamlin.
“I’ve got to give a special shoutout to Denny Hamlin,” Larson said. “Nobody in this sport works harder or expects more out of himself. Year after year, he raises the bar and pushes his competitors to be better. He holds himself to a true championship standard, and I think everyone in this room has a ton of respect for that.”
Chevrolet won the manufacturer’s championship in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series, and Toyota claimed the title in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Among the other prestigious awards, longtime race announcer Mike Joy was awarded the prestigious Myers Brothers Award, voted on by the National Motorsports Press Association members for contributions to the sport. The Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award went to Alabama’s Kate O’Neal, who founded the non-profit Care Closets, which serves more than 11,000 children across 15 public schools, providing clothing, shoes, school supplies and food.
The Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award was announced Monday, with the prestigious honor going to Xfinity Series driver, Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Dye, for his longstanding work in suicide prevention. Dye founded the non-profit “Race to Stop Suicide” in 2018 as a 14-year-old eighth-grader and has used his platform in NASCAR to spread the word and offer help to others.
“If you have a platform to do something good and you don’t use it, that’s a wasted opportunity,” Dye said.
The evening closed with a rousing standing ovation to the competitors, teams and people who support the sport, the final word a reminder that the green flag for the 2026 NASCAR season and the iconic 68th running of the Daytona 500 is set for Feb. 15, 2026.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR Foundation announced Kate O’Neal as the winner of the 15th annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award during Tuesday’s NASCAR Awards Banquet in Scottsdale, Ariz. O’Neal will receive a $100,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation going towards The Caring Link, a non-profit that provides brand new clothing, shoes, school supplies, food items, and toiletries through on-site Care Closets at schools across Madison County in Alabama.
“I am sincerely honored to receive the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award,” said O’Neal. “This incredible gift will help us expand our mission to ensure that every child in our community has the essentials to learn, grow and thrive. Together, we can change lives one student at a time.”
O’Neal has been volunteering with The Caring Link for two years after founding the organization in 2022. In addition to providing supplies at multiple public schools, The Caring Link also provides enrichment programs to under-resourced students. O’Neal has been a NASCAR fan for nearly 35 years and lives in Hazel Green, Ala., just down the road from Talladega Superspeedway.
“Kate has done so much for her community through The Caring Link, and her work has touched countless schools, children, and families,” said Nichole Krieger, The NASCAR Foundation Vice President and Executive Director. “Her efforts help ensure that students who might otherwise struggle have the resources they need to thrive. The $100,000 she won for The Caring Link will make a tremendous difference in providing essential items for kids and families.”
O’Neal earned the most online votes from a pool of nominees, including John Grieshaber, supporting A Better Chance for Our Children, Gregg Morton with CureSearch for Children’s Cancer and Hannah Smith of Sportable Adaptive Sports and Recreation. Each of these nonprofits will receive a $25,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation.
2026 marks 20 years of The NASCAR Foundation, and in honor and celebration of next year’s anniversary, nominations for the 2026 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award are now open. Nominations will be accepted www.nascarfoundation.org/award.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For more than 50 years, Mike Joy’s authoritative voice has kept race fans informed about their sport, conveying the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat experienced by their favorite drivers.
Initially, Joy’s voice filled the radio airwaves, and then later he moved to television. For his years of dedication to stock car racing, Joy is this year’s recipient of the 2025 National Motorsports Press Association’s Myers Brothers Award. The award was presented Tuesday night during the annual NASCAR Awards ceremony at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge.
Joy began his career in 1970 as a public address announcer at Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Massachusetts, while attending the University of Hartford and Emerson College. He spent 14 years with MRN (1977-90) before anchoring the first live NASCAR Cup Series telecasts on ESPN (1981) and TNN (1991). He anchored CBS Sports’ Daytona 500 coverage from 1998-2000 after serving as a pit reporter for 15 years. He has been the lead race announcer for NASCAR on FOX since 2001.
Presented annually since 1958, the award, named in honor of former NASCAR competitors Billy and Bobby Myers, recognizes individuals and/or groups who have provided outstanding contributions to the sport of stock car racing. Each year, the NMPA Myers Brothers Award winner is selected by a vote of the NMPA press membership.
A trio of familiar faces prevailed as the 2025 National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award winners, as Chase Elliott earned the honor in the NASCAR Cup Series, Justin Allgaier won in the Xfinity Series, and Rajah Caruth got the nod in the Craftsman Truck Series. All three are the reigning winners in their respective series.
The 29-year-old Elliott has won the award for an eighth consecutive season, while Allgaier earned the Xfinity honor for the sixth time in the last seven years. It was Caruth’s second honor.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, is one of only five drivers at the Cup level to win the award five times or more, joining Richard Petty (eight), Bobby Allison (six), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15) and Chase’s father, Bill Elliott (16). Chase additionally won the Most Popular Driver Award twice in the Xfinity Series (2014-15).
Allgaier, 39, saw his three-year streak snapped in 2022 by Noah Gragson before winning the Xfinity award the last three seasons. A JR Motorsports driver has won the Xfinity honor every year dating back to 2012.
The 23-year-old Caruth took home the Truck honor in his best national series year to date, winning at Nashville Superspeedway in the spring and placing sixth in the final standings.
Formed in 1965, the National Motorsports Press Association consists of qualified media members who report on the sport of auto racing through affiliations with print, radio, television and/or Internet news-gathering organizations. In addition to the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award, the NMPA presents an array of auto-racing honors, including the Richard Petty Driver of the Year Award, the Myers Brothers Award, the NMPA Pocono Spirit Award and the Wood Brothers Award of Excellence.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For all the accolades that have come Kyle Larson’s way in the days since he won his second NASCAR Cup Series championship, one of the most special, he says, is something that few people will see.
The tradition of the Cup Series champion’s journal will continue this offseason, with 2024 champ Joey Logano handing the keepsake to the newly crowned Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver said that he texted with Logano on Tuesday morning before the NASCAR Awards banquet to arrange a handoff.
Jimmie Johnson began the custom after the fifth of his record-tying seven Cup championships in 2010, writing a personal message in the book to Tony Stewart, the next year’s champion. From there, the journal has changed hands seven more times, from Truex to Logano, to Kyle Busch, to Chase Elliott, to Larson, to Logano again, to Ryan Blaney and back to Logano on the occasion of his third Cup Series title.
Logano had been the only driver to hold the champion’s journal more than once. That will change when Larson receives it a second time, and he’s eager to reconnect with what’s inside.
“I definitely remember bits and pieces of what I wrote in there,” Larson said from the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge, site of Tuesday’s Awards ceremonies. “Then I don’t remember a ton of what everybody else wrote to the next champion, so I’m just excited to read through the book and then also see what Joey wrote to Ryan, then what Ryan wrote back to Joey and then now what Joey’s writing back to me. So yeah, it’s just … that’s the most special gift with winning the championship, and it’s just the secrecy behind it, I think, that makes it that much better.”
When Larson leaves his mark on the journal again, his message will be delivered to next year’s Cup Series champion. He says he’s already focused on a potential repeat and the odd prospect of keeping the memento for another year.
“Hopefully I can get a back-to-back championship and then figure it out,” Larson said. “I don’t even know if you’d skip a page or what, but yeah, we’ll see. It just depends. It’s personal to the guy who wins the championship.”
“I’ve come to terms with what’s happened,” Zilisch said Tuesday ahead of the 2025 NASCAR Awards. “And at this point, I can’t do anything about it, so there’s no reason to hang on to it. I mean, it’s life. Sun came up Sunday morning, and the world kept spinning.”
Zilisch drove the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to 10 wins, a record 18 straight top-five finishes, and, at one point, a record-tying four consecutive victories. Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway earned him another top five but not another win, with best friend Jesse Love instead winning the race and the championship driving the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, while Zilisch finished third.
“At the end of the day, I did everything I could,” Zilisch said. “And my team, the whole JR Motorsports group, we gave our all, and I don’t have any reason to be upset about what happened. Yeah, it stings. It sucks. But yeah, we did everything we could and we tried our best. If I walked out of that place knowing that I could have done something differently, then I probably would have been a little more upset. But I gave it my all. I did everything I could, and yeah, the result wasn’t meant to be.”
The close friendship between Love and Zilisch adds a unique twist to how Saturday’s title bout unfolded. Still, Zilisch made his way to Victory Lane to congratulate his friend on a career accomplishment on the championship stage.
“He did nothing wrong,” Zilisch said. “He asked me, he’s like, ‘are you mad at me?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t have any reason to be mad at you, dude. You’re not the one who created the situation. You just executed when you needed to.’ And I have no reason to be upset about that. Yeah, I celebrated with him and we had fun. I mean, it’s just part of it. I have no reason to be upset with him and hold it against him.”
Veterans around the NASCAR industry embraced Zilisch after his defeat, including now two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson and title runner-up Denny Hamlin.
“Kyle Larson texted me (Saturday),” Zilisch said. “And he just said, ‘This isn’t going to change your career. I know it sucks.’ And you know, he wrote me a nice message. Denny texted me that night, kind of similar. So yeah, I mean, there was a few people that reached out that it means a lot to hear from. Everybody I saw was really nice to me all weekend long. And it helps to have people who let you know that you still succeeded. But at the end of the day, the emotion is still the same. But yeah, it’s good to have that kind of peace of mind that people still believe in me and that that wasn’t really a life-changing moment for me.”
Zilisch had plenty of excellent days through his rookie NASCAR campaign. But on the cusp of heading to the NASCAR Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing in 2026, Zilisch said experiencing the lows this year is what best prepares him for his jump to stock-car racing’s top level.
“Just learning how to deal with the bad days,” he said. “There’s gonna be a lot of them, and I think that just getting through those moments, staying true to yourself no matter what happens, I feel like it’s going to be good for me because next year, I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot more bad days than there were this year. This year, I was pretty lucky to have a lot of great days, and I feel like it’s gonna be good to have that kind of experience and just understanding of how to get through everything.”
The Mooresville, North Carolina, native made three Cup starts in 2025 in preparation for his leap to the series next year, racing at Circuit of The Americas, Charlotte Motor Speedway and EchoPark Speedway, where he earned a best finish of 11th. His plan for his rookie campaign is simply to learn, adding that he doesn’t have many expectations for what lies ahead.
“I just want to be a better driver in (November) than I was in Daytona in February,” Zilisch said. “And if I can do that, then I’d be pretty happy because the Cup Series is tough. It’s a whole different ball game. Everybody is really talented. All the teams are really good. It’s just a different level. So it’s going to take a little bit of time to figure it out, get used to it, but I’m just really excited for the opportunity.
“It’s really cool for me to be able to do this at my age and get the opportunity to go race in the highest level of our sport. I’m just going to go do my best and try and learn as much as possible and grow with my team. And hopefully by the end of the year, I feel like I’m in a pretty comfortable spot.”
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin said Tuesday he planned to return to the NASCAR Cup Series next season, but he needed time to process his defeat in Sunday’s championship race and consider his future in the sport before getting back in a car.
“I mean, I plan to,” Hamlin said from the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge, site of Tuesday’s NASCAR Awards celebration. “I have a contract to, but there’s, at this point, there’s just absolutely no way that I would even … I don’t even think about the race car right now. Just yeah, I’m gonna need some time on this one.”
Hamlin signed a contract extension with his Joe Gibbs Racing team in July, reaching a multiyear deal to remain the driver of the team’s No. 11 Toyota through at least 2027. Two days after a stinging loss to newly crowned two-time champion Kyle Larson, though, the anguish still weighed on the 44-year-old veteran.
He reiterated his post-race comments from Sunday, when he was still in the initial shock of the outcome: “In this moment I never want to race a car ever again.” The moment also shared a resemblance with another high-profile retirement from the JGR camp, when Carl Edwards abruptly ended his Cup Series career after his bitter defeat in the 2016 season finale.
The 2026 season begins Feb. 1 with the Cook Out Clash exhibition at Bowman Gray Stadium. Asked if he would reach a decision by then, Hamlin replied: “I mean, the good news is the banquet’s two weeks earlier this week, so the offseason is a little bit longer, but I’ll get over it. Just, it’s gonna take a minute.”
Hamlin was reflective when asked about Sunday’s race, when Larson vaulted ahead of him with a two-tire stop in the final pit cycle and then held on in overtime. Hamlin had led 208 of the 319 laps, including the last long green-flag run before a caution flag for fellow championship contender William Byron’s flat tire and crash just three laps from the end of the scheduled distance.
Changing four tires on Hamlin’s No. 11 wasn’t the same advantage that it was for Corey Heim in Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series finale, which also ended in an overtime restart with Heim swooping to his first national-series title. Still, Hamlin said there hadn’t been much post-race processing or second-guessing on behalf of his No. 11 team.
“The takeaways from JGR need to be that they did a really good job preparing me a really fast car, and gave me all the tools I needed to succeed,” Hamlin said. “So you know, I’ve been there in other years past where (I’ve) just not been fast enough or good enough, and this is just a little different.”
The defeat was the latest chapter of what’s been a volume of heartbreak in Hamlin’s 20 fruitless pursuits of the season-long Cup Series crown. Hamlin said none of those championship near-misses compared to Sunday’s stunning end. “No way,” Hamlin said. “Not close. This one is deep.”
It’s part of why the heartache was shared so deeply, from Hamlin’s family to JGR’s team and at-track staff after the checkered flag.
“So you’ve seen me lose this in so many different ways, right, from the mechanical failures to just crazy things, but I don’t know,” Hamlin said. “This one just adds to the list. … Like nothing changed the way I felt about myself at the end of that race, and to use Carl Edwards’ quote, like I knew what it was like to be a champion. I felt it. With five (laps) to go, I knew it was over. I don’t have the trophy, but I knew that that was probably the first time that I was forced to perform a certain way under this format, and I did it, and there’s nothing else I possibly could have done to change the outcome.”
Hamlin said he’s checked in to see the outpouring of support from fans on social media, at least to a point, before shutting it off. Though he’s leaned into goading his grandstand detractors in some of his post-race remarks in recent years, Hamlin said he felt some of the boo-birds shift their tune as his march to the title race grew nearer.
“I mean, I’ve looked at it, and obviously it’s more pain,” Hamlin says. “I try to look at it for a little bit and then I just stop, because it just, it does get into my feelings a little bit. But I love our fan base. I mean, I think that they certainly have been very, very supportive of me over the last really few weeks, and my fans for quite some time. But yeah, I’m a bit torn as well because also my friend won the championship, and it’s not being talked about that much. But I think that sometimes people have a tipping point, right?”
Even in the throes of Sunday’s post-race wake, Hamlin indicated that he made a brief appearance at Larson’s post-championship celebration.
“Just to pay my respects,” Hamlin said. “I would hope that he would have done that for me. I think he would’ve. He’s been a great friend of mine. I hate for him that kind of the attention is shifted a little bit away from him and his championship, because he’s definitely … there’s a difference in deserving and should have been, right? I think that there’s not one person that should ever question his deservingness of being a champion. That’s what I don’t like to see. But I mean, he’s a great friend of mine, and if it wasn’t me, I was definitely happy for him. I was just trying to do the right thing as a friend, and regardless of my feelings and emotions that evening, it was important for me to go show him support.”
Larson said Hamlin’s magnanimous gesture resonated with him and the rest of those in attendance.
“It truly meant a lot. It really did,” Larson said. “I remember the last time I won a championship, you know, he didn’t come out, but he sent me a really nice video message, and it meant a lot to me, and I understood how tough and challenging even that moment probably was for him. So, you know, fast forward to this weekend, a much tougher defeat, and I didn’t expect him to go out. He didn’t need to, but I’m glad he showed up. I think it showed how big of a person he is, and how strong of a person he is to come out, suck it up and be out there.
“So yeah, we got to talk for a minute, and it was awkward, right? Like really, I was just speechless. I didn’t know what to say. I don’t think there was anything I could say to try to make him feel any better, and I could see the pain — all that. But it definitely meant a lot, and I think it meant a lot to everybody in there.”
Of all the heartbreaking championship losses that Denny Hamlin has suffered, Sunday at Phoenix Raceway was the most unusually cruel in a career filled with NASCAR title devastation.
The Joe Gibbs Racing star started from the pole position and had the fastest car in the Cup Series season finale, leading 208 of 319 laps.
He overcame a persistent clutch problem — the latest in a series of recent mechanical woes involving power steering issues, engine failures and stuck throttles that seemed destined to derail his 2025 title bid.
He rebounded from a slow pit stop that dropped him outside the top 10.
For more than 300 miles, nothing seemingly could deny Hamlin his first title. His supersonic No. 11 Toyota was “40 seconds from a championship” — when disaster struck yet again, just three laps from the scheduled finish.
A caution wiped out a comfortable lead, triggering an overtime restart and a cascading series of events that left Hamlin three spots behind Kyle Larson for the championship at the checkered flag.
“Everything I really prepared for happened today,” Hamlin said. “I felt like we responded. Even losing track position at one point, just battling back. Did really well on restarts. Hadn’t been good on restarts for the bulk of the year.
“The team brought a great championship car. I felt like I drove it just right up until two laps to go. This is the part that stinks.”
It’s the part that Hamlin knows all too well, having come up short in five Championship 4 appearances as well as three other legitimate title chances prior to the elimination playoffs.
If the breaks had always fallen his way, the case plausibly can be made that there’s an alternate universe where Hamlin, who entered the 2006 season finale as a rookie with his first shot at the title, might have celebrated his eighth championship Sunday.
The first crown still seemed well within his grasp until William Byron lost a tire and slammed the wall to cause the fateful yellow.
A four-tire pit stop and a restart bobble later, Hamlin was left wondering after his 20th season how a championship had yet again eluded a future NASCAR Hall of Famer whose 60 career victories rank 10th all time.
The best driver never to win a Cup championship has said for years that he already is at peace without a title after a lifetime of playoff adversity.
But amid the numbing shock of Sunday’s loss, he vowed to keep trying through 2027 over the final two seasons of what’s expected to be his last contract.
“I got a couple more shots at it,” he said. “Man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win.”
Revisiting our story from last week, here were the five championship losses that previously had been the most gut-wrenching for Hamlin — before Sunday:
Sam Greenwood | Getty Images
2010
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Date: Nov. 21, 2010
The scene: Hamlin entered the season finale with a 15-point lead on Jimmie Johnson. The gap should have been much larger if not for a 12th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway, where Hamlin led a race-high 190 of 312 laps but needed an extra pit stop because of faulty carburetor settings that hurt his fuel mileage. He said all the right things afterward: “I’ll be all right. I’ll be OK. All I can do is concentrate on next week and put it behind me. Trust me, I’d rather race next week knowing I need to win the race than knowing I need to finish 15th. That’s the mentality I’m going to have next week.” But Hamlin seemed unable to shake the team’s error, appearing flustered during a Miami news conference a few days later as fellow title contenders Johnson and Kevin Harvick playfully took pot shots at the points leader.
The stumble: After qualifying 37th (31 spots behind Johnson), Hamlin was trying to make up the points needed to retake command of the championship. He had moved up to 18th and was attempting to pass Greg Biffle on the inside off Turn 2. Squeezed down the track by Paul Menard as they went three wide, Biffle contacted Hamlin, who spun through the backstretch grass. His No. 11 Toyota suffered suspension damage and was never the same. He refused to blame anyone for the crash. “Nobody’s fault at all. Just one of those things where it was not enough space for three cars at that point.”
Outcome: Hamlin got back on the lead lap and climbed to a 14th-place finish that left him 39 points behind Johnson, who finished second to Carl Edwards to win his record-extending fifth consecutive championship.
Quotable: “Our car was just unbelievably fast at the beginning. I knew we had a car that could contend for a win, and obviously, when we got in that incident on the back straightaway, it tore up the front, and obviously, the car did not drive as well for the rest of the day. We’ll just keep fighting and get ’em next year.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2012
Track: Martinsville Speedway
Date: Oct. 28, 2012
The scene: The championship fight was a three-way battle with 20 points separating leader Brad Keselowski, Johnson, and Hamlin, who had the home-state advantage of entering his best track on the circuit. He qualified fifth and then sped on Lap 47 but still was fast enough to take his first lead on Lap 165. After another speeding penalty for pit entry on Lap 200 (prompting angry cries of disbelief from the No. 11 driver and crew chief Darian Grubb), Hamlin still was good enough to climb back into the lead with 150 laps remaining when disaster struck.
The stumble: In third place with just more than 100 laps remaining, Hamlin’s gauges suddenly began going haywire as his car shut off entirely. Pulling into the garage for repairs that dropped Hamlin 34 laps down, the culprit was discovered to be a broken bolt on a master electrical switch — a rare failure for a part unrelated to car performance and estimated to cost $40 by Sports Illustrated.
Outcome: Hamlin finished 33rd and fell two spots to fifth in the standings behind Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne, effectively ending his championship bid at the 0.526-mile oval he often has owned in his career.
Quotable: “It’s something that I couldn’t control. I’ve been in these Chases for seven years and I’ve had my fair share of electrical issues and motor issues and things like that. All I can do is just drive my heart out, and if it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. We’ll have our time; it’s just our time is not now. … It sucks it’s got to end this way. Just got to suck it up and move on.”
Patrick Smith | Getty Images
2014
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Date: Nov. 16, 2014
The scene: In the debut season of the elimination playoffs, Hamlin entered the Championship 4 with winless Ryan Newman and first-time championship contender Joey Logano as underdogs to favorite Kevin Harvick. After slogging through a mostly quiet survive-and-advance playoffs (aside from a Charlotte battle with Keselowski, 2014’s chief instigator), Hamlin came off his first top five (a fifth from the pole at Phoenix) in over two months, but still brought some swagger to South Florida as the defending winner at Homestead. Hamlin boldly proclaimed on his team radio after final practice Saturday that he would win the following day (he called his shot the same way in the 2013 season finale), and longtime friend and NBA legend Michael Jordan showed up on race day to join his cheering section. (“He asked for tickets. I told him we could handle that.”)
The stumble: There was no mistake this time, just a cruel twist of fate. Hamlin took the lead by staying on track for a restart on Lap 253 of 267. With Harvick having fallen out of the top 10 on his pit stop, there was a good chance Hamlin wins the race and championship if the race stays green … but it doesn’t with two yellow flags in the final 15 laps.
Outcome: Harvick seized the lead from Hamlin immediately after a Lap 259 restart and held off runner-up Ryan Newman on a three-lap shootout for the championship. Hamlin faded to seventh after leading 50 laps.
Quotable: “Obviously, we had a championship‑type car, championship‑type effort, but those last breaks just didn’t go our way. I thought we had the best car, and we just struggled with restart speed. We had a car that was capable of winning today. Our effort was 100 percent. It’s just that the breaks didn’t quite work out for us tonight. Strategy is part of winning, and the strategy for us didn’t work out with what happened with the cautions. The race goes green, maybe things probably are a lot different. But it’s a part of racing, and you can’t predict those things. I’m proud of the effort we put forth after the year we’ve had. … This is the third time around that I’ve had an opportunity to win a championship, but each one has been different, and this has by far been our best effort as far as trying to get it done.”
Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
2019
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Date: Nov. 17, 2019
The scene: Hamlin reached the Championship 4 with a must-win victory at Phoenix Raceway, his sixth of the season after a winless 2018 (his only year in Cup without a win). He entered the most recent championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with all the momentum in his first season with crew chief Chris Gabehart. He finished fifth in both stages, but his No. 11 Toyota seemed optimized for evening conditions and was gaining speed as night fell, so Gabehart made an aggressive call to bring Hamlin in for a final pit stop with 58 laps remaining — ahead of the other contenders.
The stumble: In a misguided attempt at an aerodynamic enhancement, the pit crew applied a massive swatch of tape to the front grille of Hamlin’s car. The adjustment resulted in too much restriction of airflow to the engine, which quickly began to overheat. Hamlin was forced to pit again from third place 12 laps later to address his spiking engine temperatures, wiping out his shot at the championship.
Outcome: Teammate Kyle Busch won the race and his second Cup championship with Joe Gibbs Racing’s record-setting 19th victory of the year. Despite the unscheduled second stop, Hamlin still managed to make up a lap and finish 10th as the race stayed green to the finish. Gabehart later admitted Hamlin might have won without the tape, given how fast he was. The crew chief took full blame for making the call that “wasn’t in our playbook. We just didn’t execute the play. I wish I could have it back and just not have been so greedy. What we tried to pull off is trying to win Homestead, and we let the emotion of the moment get the best of you trying to do it. We just got too aggressive, plain and simple. That’s OK. That’s on me.” Hamlin turned 39 the day after the race and said he still planned to have a party in Miami and expected Michael Jordan (who again was at the championship finale to root on his friend) to be in attendance.
Quotable: “I feel like I did all I could. I didn’t leave anything out there. The first half of the race, we just weren’t fast enough, and all of a sudden it went nighttime, and we took off, and suddenly I perked up and was thinking that we’ve got a chance. Then just didn’t work out. … I said I was going to do the best I could and live with the result either way. I definitely feel I couldn’t have done anything different. Certainly, we got a little aggressive, and it cost us, but (Gabehart) also has been really aggressive and won us races, too. It’s just he’s going for it. He saw an opportunity there to really add some speed to the car, and it just didn’t work out.”
Christian Petersen | Getty Images
2021
Track: Phoenix Raceway
Date: Nov. 7, 2021
The scene: In the previous Joe Gibbs Racing vs. Hendrick Motorsports showdown in the Championship 4, Hamlin was a decided two-win underdog with Kyle Larson being the overwhelming favorite with nine wins (and four in the playoffs). But in the final race with the Gen-6 car, the No. 11 Toyota hung in with the championship contenders, and the race seemed to be breaking Hamlin’s way late. He was ahead of title contenders Chase Elliott and Larson and closing on teammate Martin Truex Jr. for the lead. Just minutes after Gabehart radioed that “this is all playing out right,” debris from a lapped car’s broken rotor with 30 laps remaining brought out a yellow flag and the final pit stop of the five-lug nut era.
The stumble: Hamlin’s team executed a flawless pit stop and gained a position on Truex … but still lost the lead to Larson, who had the first pit stall after winning the pole and jumped three spots from fourth to first with an 11.8-second stop that was the team’s second fastest of the season.
Outcome: Unable to control the restart as the leader, Hamlin slipped from second to fourth. He recovered for third as Larson fended off several challenges by Truex for his 10th win and first championship. For the second consecutive year, Hamlin was the only Championship 4 contender without a lap led.
Quotable: “We knew after practice that we were going to have this go a certain way. It was going a certain type of way until 25 to go. Pit crew did a really good job in getting us out ahead of (Truex), and (Larson) just had a blazing fast stop, and the pit stall was such an advantage, that was it. He probably had the fourth-best car all day, and just once you get out front, that’s it. The first half of the race, we were kind of mediocre. But in the long run, we just were really fast. Just didn’t have that short-run speed. … I have to live with the result because I can’t change it. Disappointed, absolutely, for sure. But I knew going into today I was going to need the race to go a certain way. If it goes the way it did last year, it goes green, we’re probably winning. But it didn’t.”
Shane van Gisbergen added to his list of racing accolades this season, earning the title of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series’ top rookie at the spring-chicken age of 36. While the “young gun” label from long-ago marketing campaigns might not apply, the New Zealand import says it feels no different to him.
“Yeah, but I don’t feel old,” van Gisbergen said this past Saturday before Cup Series qualifying at Phoenix Raceway. “I don’t know, it’s just a number.”
Van Gisbergen may be the oldest Sunoco Rookie of the Year since Andy Lally won in 2011 at the same age, or 40-year-old Mike Skinner (1997) and 47-year-old Dick Trickle (1989) before them. But the Trackhouse Racing driver is also the most decorated honoree in modern NASCAR history, riding a stellar five-win season and maiden appearance in the Cup Series Playoffs to seal the award.
The honor became official at the conclusion of the Cup Series season Sunday at Phoenix, then was set to be made official-official in Tuesday’s NASCAR Awards celebration. The contest, though, had been virtually decided far earlier as SVG’s victories in five of the six road-course events on the Cup Series schedule began to mount. He easily outdistanced fellow rookie Riley Herbst, who was 35th in the final series standings.
Van Gisbergen resided in that same outside-the-top-30 domain for a significant section of the season’s first half as he attempted to make incremental gains on oval tracks — a new motorsports discipline that’s a departure from his extensive road-racing background. The learning process — both for him and No. 88 crew chief Stephen Doran, in just his second Cup season — was a difficult but valuable one.
“Although it was a struggle, it was a good struggle to go through, and I feel like we ground it out and got better as a team together,” van Gisbergen said. “It was pretty cool. … Like, you go through that frustration, but no one’s angry at each other that we have a lot to learn as a team. You know, Stephen was a pretty new crew chief, and the driver was the problem at that stage. It was all new to me, so I think we kind of built up together. Yeah, we were a 35th-, 36th-place car at the start of the year, and it’s amazing where we’re at now compared to where we started.”
Van Gisbergen’s progress on ovals started to show palpable results in the latter stages of the season. SVG secured his first oval-track top 10 in 10th place in September at Kansas Speedway, then notched steady results in 11th in October at Talladega Superspeedway and 14th at Martinsville Speedway.
Part of the maturation process involved going back to tracks for a second time, which van Gisbergen said should help him improve even further with return trips in his second Cup Series campaign next year. The other part was establishing trust in his car’s behavior, especially on the intermediate-sized ovals.
“There’s just been lots of things like that, learning how the car dynamics work,” van Gisbergen said. “You know, tracks like Vegas when you’re going so fast and when you go slow into the corner, the cars don’t feel that way. You got to go in flat, land in the banking and then see what the car does, and it’s pretty eye-opening to tell yourself just to tighten the belts and grow some balls and drive in flat. Like it’s tough, this stuff, and yeah, it’s just taken me a while to get used to it.”
SVG now sits at exactly 50 Cup Series starts. Five of his six career wins came this year, two seasons removed from his victorious NASCAR debut in the 2023 Chicago Street Race.
While van Gisbergen might not be on the brink of an oval-track win, at least one of his Trackhouse teammates envisions the day that his signature victory celebration materializes on an oval.
“There’s a chance,” says Ross Chastain, who joined Trackhouse in 2022. “I think Stephen and his group on the 88 are definitely finding their stride on that and what he needs, and yes, I could see rugby balls flying over the grandstands at an oval track.”
Making adjustments and gathering information should help van Gisbergen’s progress grow next year, when SVG will team with Chastain and another promising rookie in Connor Zilisch, who makes the move from the Xfinity Series to Cup in the offseason. Pressed to single out one aspect of his development, SVG pointed to the sum of all the parts.
“I think it’s just everything,” van Gisbergen says. “I’ve gotten a lot better, the cars have gotten better, and yeah, just as the confidence grows, things start to snowball and momentum forms. It’s just a continuation of many things. It’s not just one thing, and it’s all added up.”
