With the green flag in Sunday’s Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Busch made his 750th career start at NASCAR’s highest level. He’s the 14th driver to achieve the feat and is the only active driver to reach that threshold.
While his last 108 starts have come under the Richard Childress Racing banner, a majority of his races came with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he spent 15 seasons. Fifty-six of his 63 career victories came driving the No. 18 Toyota, earning championships in both 2015 and 2019 as he made the Championship 4 five consecutive years.
The 40-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, native first debuted in Cup with Hendrick Motorsports, making six starts in 2004 before driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for three full-time campaigns. He won four races in 114 starts before making the transition to JGR ahead of the 2008 season.
Despite a disappointing season, Busch ended the year on a high note, finishing fifth in the season finale for his third top five of 2025. He banked 10 top 10s and recorded a 17.9 average finish, the third worst of his 21 full-time seasons.
Busch exits Sunday’s race at Phoenix on a 93-race winless streak, the longest of his career. He won three of his first 15 races upon joining RCR in 2023, but has been on the outside of the playoffs each of the last two years.
Denny Hamlin, who finished sixth Sunday at Phoenix in a heartbreaking end to his championship campaign, is scheduled to join the 750 club in the fall of 2026. He made his 700th start in June at Nashville Superspeedway.
Ready to watch NASCAR in 2025 and want NASCAR TV and streaming programming this week? Here is this week’s NASCAR broadcast schedule. All times listed are ET.
Editor’s note: Race projections were updated after Friday and Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
We’ve reached the final weekend of the 2025 NASCAR season.
Champions will be crowned in all three national series, bookended by today’s Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Going for the Cup Series title will be Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin, and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Kyle Larson. All four have won races at the 1-mile Arizona oval, but Racing Insights has other ideas as to who will grab the checkered flag to end the season. Before the green flag waves Sunday, see who’s projected to win at Phoenix and how the Championship 4 drivers shake out.
Briscoe and Hamlin are predicted to get outdueled by teammate Christopher Bell on Sunday. The No. 20 Toyota driver has won the last two spring races at Phoenix, but was stumped in his two Championship 4 appearances at the track with a 10th-place finish in 2022 and exiting during Stage 2 in 2023 after a brake failure.
The two championship-eligible JGR drivers are both projected to finish outside the top five. Hamlin, still seeking the Cup title that has eluded him for 20 seasons, was a part of the photo finish in the spring in a battle he came up short in against Bell. Hamlin is a two-time winner at Phoenix, but the numbers in the Next Gen car have been hit or miss with top 10s in just three of seven races since 2022. As for Briscoe, his first career Cup win came at Phoenix in the spring of 2022. However, he’s finished 29th or worse in the last two races at the track, including getting caught up in an early wreck in the spring.
Byron is predicted to finish highest among the Championship 4 — and for good reason. He won the spring race in 2023 and has finished sixth or better in all but two of the Phoenix events since 2022. Sunday also marks the third consecutive Championship 4 appearance for the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet.
Larson’s lone win at Phoenix was his championship-crowning moment in 2021, the last race in the Gen 6 car. But his presence at the desert oval hasn’t faded in the Next Gen era. The No. 5 Chevrolet driver has tallied top 10s in five of the seven races in the Next Gen era.
RYAN BLANEY: It’s the first time in the Next Gen era that Team Penske will be knocked off the top of the Cup Series throne. Blaney (2023) and teammate Joey Logano (2022, 2024) took home the last three Bill France Cups, but it shouldn’t keep the team out of the mix Sunday. Blaney’s never won at Phoenix, but before an engine expiration in the spring, he had finished top five in the seven prior races.
JOEY LOGANO: The three-time series champion has plated some interesting results at Phoenix. He won the two championship races he was eligible for. The others? He’s finished outside the top 10, minus an eighth-place finish in the spring of 2022.
ROSS CHASTAIN: The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver spoiled the Championship 4 drivers by winning the season finale in 2023. He finished inside the top three in both 2022 events and owns the third-best average finish among the field in the Next Gen era (9.4).
CHRIS BUESCHER: Speaking of average finishes, Buescher is just behind Chastain during the same span at 9.6. The driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford has finished ninth or better in the last four Phoenix races and is looking for some momentum to springboard into 2026.
DANIEL SUÁREZ: Sunday marks Suárez’s final race for Trackhouse Racing, as he’ll move to the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet next season. Phoenix has been pretty good to Suárez. He’s finished 11th or better in three of the seven events in the Next Gen era.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR CUP SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP RACE:
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be crowned Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC) at Phoenix Raceway.
Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson will be vying for the title, with the best finisher from that group earning the 2025 crown.
After qualifying on pole, Hamlin (+310) is the race favorite according to live NASCAR odds at BetMGM, followed by Larson (+350), Byron (+350), Ryan Blaney (+525) and Briscoe (+1200).
And while the Championship 4 will get most of the attention Sunday at Phoenix, and rightfully so, I’m betting on a non-playoff driver to win today’s championship race.
NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Phoenix
*Odds as of Sunday morning
Team Penske has dominated the short, flat tracks of late, including at New Hampshire in September, where Blaney, the race winner, and Joey Logano, the fourth-place finisher, combined to lead a whopping 263 of 301 laps.
That performance is especially important because teams ran the same tire combination that they’ll use Sunday at Phoenix.
Blaney has carried that speed into this weekend, posting the fastest five, 15- and 20-lap averages in practice, while running the second-best 10-lap pace.
The driver of the No. 12 Ford also qualified fifth, locking in optimal track position to start today’s race as well.
Simply put: This car and driver have been too fast at this style of race track for me to pass on his current +525 price tag at BetMGM.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Alpha Prime Racing team owner Tommy Joe Martins had to be restrained after a physical altercation with one of his team’s crew chiefs following Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Martins confronted Joe Williams, crew chief of the No. 4 Chevrolet driven to a 27th-place finish by Parker Retzlaff, in the 1-mile track’s pit area after the season-ending event. The argument turned physical and Alpha Prime crew members intervened.
“Yeah, we got into a little bit, but I mean ultimately, that’s just tempers boiling up at the end of the race,” Martins said outside the teams’ haulers. “I don’t have anything personal against Joe or anybody on the team. It’s fine. It is what it is, man. We’re racing. We’re all big boys.”
Williams told reporter Noah Lewis that the incident was “heat of the battle,” citing frustrations all around. Martins said the dispute stemmed from the team’s tire management in the 200-mile race.
“We are a smaller-budget team. We very often get tires from the Truck Series,” Martins said. “We very often get tires from other teams when they fall out of a race, because it is cheaper than buying the full allotment of tires. We do this all the time. There was a set that came from the Truck Series that the crew chief didn’t like. Obviously, it’s his decision to not put them on the car, but when you put on 11-lap tires instead of putting on a set that’s a mock qualifying set, you’re generally going to fall back a little bit further in the race, and ultimately, what was told to me was that there was a problem with that set of tires, that it was chewed-up or blistered, and it’s like, that’s a decision that can be made in the morning when we inspect the tires, and it didn’t get made.
“I mean, I understand if something’s wrong with the tire, don’t put it on the car, but at the same time, like it’s not because … I definitely would get another set of tires. I didn’t know there’s a problem with the tire. I’m not over there inspecting the tires. It’s a decision that we make financially over the course of a year for the team, and it’s something that we do all the time. So this is not new, ultimately. It’s not like, all of a sudden, it’s the end of the year, and I’ve got to pinch some pennies here. No, it’s a decision we make all the time.”
Martins said some of the angst stemmed from Retzlaff’s car losing ground, then feeling blamed for being overly miserly.
“That, to me, was just a little frustrating when I see our car falling back further and then at the end of the day, we wind up catching the flak for it,” Martins said. “I would tell you on the team management side, that’s very frustrating, because ultimately I root for Joe and I root for Parker, I root for our entire team. I want them to have everything they need to go run good. It’s the end of the year. I’m really not that worried about 1,500 bucks. I would go buy another set of tires.”
Another component of the post-race frustration was that Martins was attempting to celebrate a 20th-place finish in the Xfinity Series owners’ standings, with the No. 44 Chevrolet team driven by Brennan Poole, who placed 18th in Saturday’s race. Retzlaff’s No. 4 team ended up 24th in the owners’ points.
“I would say overall, it was a positive year for our company, Brennan getting top 20 points there and the owners points there at the end of the race. That was the thing that I was in the midst of trying to celebrate while I basically was getting insulted, and that frustrates me. Ultimately, I want every one of our teams to run really good. Parker has been a great driver for us, and Brennan’s been a great driver for us, and Josh Williams came over ran a limited schedule on kind of a screwed-up deal, and I want him to run good. I want all of our cars to run good.
“So if I had to rate our year overall, yeah, you’ve got a team that’s got the probably the 33rd and 34th budget in the field, and they finished 20th and 24th in owner points, that’s pretty good. I mean, it’s hard for me to really say that we had a bad year. It’s just at the end of the year, at the end of every race, I think everybody’s just a little frustrated with everything not going perfectly.”
AVONDALE, Ariz. — After a phenomenal NASCAR Xfinity Series season that included 10 victories and 20 top fives in 32 starts, rookie Connor Zilisch finally came up empty.
Zilisch finished third in Saturday’s Xfinity Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway, behind best friend Jesse Love and Aric Almirola, but in a season of unprecedented triumph for a first-year driver, the disappointment in Zilisch’s voice was almost palpable.
“We did everything we could, and I left my heart out on the track, but second in the championship is all we got,” Zilisch said.
During the final 42-lap green-flag run, Zilisch’s dream of a championship in his Rookie of the Year season fell apart. Second to Love off pit road during the final pit stop under caution on Lap 153, Zilisch grabbed the top spot on the subsequent Lap 159 restart.
But Love was relentless in his pursuit.
“He’s my very best friend in the world,” Love said post-race, “but not on the race track.”
On Lap 176 of 200, Love got to the bumper of Zilisch’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, moved to the inside off Turn 2 and completed the pass that would earn the series championship for the 20-year-old California native.
On Lap 192, Almirola passed Zilisch for second to move into position to win the Owner’s Championship for Joe Gibbs Racing, depriving JR Motorsports of that honor. Zilisch, who turned 19 on July 22, crossed the finish line 1.808 seconds behind the race winner.
“We fought all day long and threw everything we had at it,” Zilisch said. “Unfortunately, our WeatherTech Chevrolet, we just didn’t quite have what we needed. But that doesn’t take away from anything we’ve done this year.
“But I guess the lights were too bright. You work all year long, and you bust your ass for 33 weeks, and I feel like we’ve done the best job we could all year long, and we just didn’t have it today. I’m so proud of this team. We have nothing to hang our heads about, but, yeah, this one’s going to sting.”
What looked to be a banner evening for JRM turned sour in the closing laps. The Dale Earnhardt Jr. co-owned team had three drivers vying for the drivers’ championship — Zilisch, defending champion Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil — with Zilisch and Allgaier also eligible for the owners’ crown.
Allgaier won the second stage handily but faded after a slower-than-usual pit stop on Lap 153. He finished fifth behind pole winner Brandon Jones in fourth.
The race was Allgaier’s last with crew chief Jim Pohlman, who will fill the same role next year in the NASCAR Cup Series for Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing.
“I wanted to send Jim Pohlman off with another championship,” Allgaier said. “He’s been an amazing part of this journey, got me my championship last year. Just felt like we did all the right things tonight, and we still came out of here really short.”
Kvapil was never a factor for the win and came home 13th, fourth in the championship battle.
That left Zilisch to carry the torch for JRM over the closing laps, and Zilisch didn’t have the car to complete the mission.
Asked whether seeing his best friend win the title was any consolation, Zilisch demurred.
“No, it doesn’t make it feel any better,” Zilisch said. “No. Good for Jesse, I’m really happy for him. Yeah, no.”
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jesse Love turned in the ultimate season bookend, winning the opening race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series 2025 schedule at Daytona International Speedway, then closing it out with the biggest win of his young career to claim the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway.
The 20-year-old Californian had to beat his best friend, the season’s 10-race winner Connor Zilisch, to claim the career-changing victory and title. Love ultimately passed the JR Motorsports driver Zilisch for the lead with 24 laps to go at the desert 1-miler and then had to hold off veteran Aric Almirola after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver also got around Zilisch with eight laps remaining.
The emotions were unmistakable as Love climbed out of his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the smoke still rising behind on track from the celebratory donuts he performed in victory. He immediately gave his father Duke a huge, lingering embrace — the sentiment between the two palpable and unmistakable. Love finished the season with two wins, nine top fives, 22 top 10s and four poles.
“I just feel so clean and relieved,” said Love, whose margin of victory was 0.861 seconds. “It’s been a tough year for me, and I’ve put so much work into it, and people like my dad and [driver coach] Scott Speed and my whole No. 2 team worked just as hard for my dream as I have for my own.
“It really hasn’t set in yet. All these emotions, it doesn’t feel real, doesn’t feel real at all,” Love said, referring to the close contest with Zilisch. “He’s my best friend in the whole world, but not when we’re racing each other. We race each other hard but fair. … He ran a really great race tonight, but my car was just better tonight.”
Almirola was almost as emotional in celebrating the Owner’s Championship for Joe Gibbs Racing. The former full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver has stayed in the sport, racing part-time for JGR and officially earning a position in the owner’s championship with a victory at Las Vegas in the playoffs.
Almirola’s 17 races in the JGR No. 19 Toyota were the most among the six drivers who combined to drive it this season. Almirola earned all three wins for the car and scored 11 top-10 finishes.
“It is a team effort and I’m just so thankful for Coach [Gibbs] and the Gibbs family,” said Almirola, a three-time winner in a 12-year full-time career in the NASCAR Cup Series that ended in 2023.
“This is really, really great. I’ve never won a championship. This is my first championship, and it isn’t about me, but I was a part of it and so proud of our organization and everyone who supports us.”
“I am so grateful to be a part of that and deliver that to Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Zilisch’s third-place finish and the dominating season he turned in this season in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet were enough to earn Rookie of the Year honors, but that was of little consolation in the immediate moments after the checkered flag.
“Nothing to hang our heads about,” said Zilisch, who became the most successful rookie in series history with a record 18 consecutive top-five finishes, 23 top-10 and 20 top-five finishes as part of his 10-trophy effort. “We gave it our all today, and it doesn’t take away from anything we did this year. We had a hell of a year. This is just going to sting a little bit.”
“I left my heart out on the track.”
As for his best friend Love, Zilisch was kind even in the heartbreak, “I’m very happy for him, he works hard at it, but I came here to win, and it still doesn’t make it any better.”
The other two of the four championship-eligible drivers, Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil, finished fifth and 13th, respectively. The defending series champion Allgaier won a stage and led a race-best 83 of the 200 laps – one of six leaders on the evening – but was never able to reclaim the lead after losing it during a pit stop with 50 laps remaining.
“[Love] did all the right things,” Allgaier said. “They rose to the occasion, and we didn’t.”
Polesitter and No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones finished fourth, followed by Allgaier. Sammy Smith finished sixth, Taylor Gray, who won the race’s first stage, finished seventh in another JGR Toyota, followed by Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed, Love’s RCR teammate Austin Hill and JGR’s Justin Bonsignore.
Saturday’s race was the final event under the Xfinity title sponsorship banner, capping an 11-year run as the series will be renamed the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series beginning next season.
The 2026 O’Reilly Series kicks off Saturday, Feb. 14, at Daytona International Speedway. All events next season will continue to air on The CW.
NOTE: Inspection in the Xfinity Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Love as the race winner and 2025 series champion. Engine teardown of the No. 2 Chevrolet and No. 19 Toyota concluded Sunday morning with no issues.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — From Rookie of the Year one year to title winner the next, Jesse Love is the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion.
Bookending the season with victories at Daytona and Phoenix, Love wheeled the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to his first national-series championship in just his second year in Xfinity competition.
Love’s ascension to one of NASCAR’s most storied teams has been rapid but fruitful, now sitting with three series wins to his name and a championship trophy to tote home.
Just two years prior, Love was celebrating the 2023 ARCA Menards Series championship in the same media center. Asked if that same person would believe his rise so soon after, Love was brought to tears upon reflection.
“I can tell you that kid then, with a lot of confidence, was definitely a believer. There’s been versions of myself after that didn’t see that this happening. Just now it’s starting to sink in,” Love said, pausing to choke back his emotions. “I just had to push through like those hard times and just wake up every day and refuse to let that [expletive] voice in your head tell you you’re not going to get up here and just get your head down to work and outrun the pack.”
The journey to the 2025 Xfinity Series championship began 15 years ago, when Love climbed into a race car for the first time. There for every bit of it, Love said, was his father, Duke Love.
“To say that today is like a dream come true just doesn’t get the point across,” Duke Love told NASCAR.com. “All the racing dads out there, they get it, right? You’re putting these kids today in cars at 5 years old, whether it’s a go-kart or a quarter midget or a box cart, and you’re out there with them since they’re 5 years old. You’re working on the cars, you’re pushing them off, you’re loading the trailers, you’re changing the tires, you’re doing everything. And that’s a decade plus of blood, sweat and tears. …
“Those last 20 laps were the culmination of 15 years behind the wheel, all coming together in 20 laps — the experience, the lapped traffic, the holding your line, the taking care of your equipment, all of that. You can’t teach that in five years or a decade. It takes that long in order for them to get sharpened, if you will, to that level. So to have a day like today, I’ll tell you what, it makes it all worth it.”
Love’s mother, Elizabeth, was born and raised in Mexico City, spending her early life there until coming to the United States after college. To see her 20-year-old son become a champion through such an impressive performance — making the winning pass on best friend and season dominator Connor Zilisch with 25 laps to go — was overwhelming.
“We fought so hard. He works so hard every single day,” Elizabeth Love said. “And the lows are so deplorable, but the highs are just — oh my god, this feels so good. Knowing that he’s gonna get on that plane to go home tonight, knowing that he just fought like crazy and ran such a clean race, it’s just … I’m speechless.”
Charlie Ramirez | For NASCAR Digital Media
A key part of Love’s rapid rise in the Xfinity Series has been crew chief Danny Stockman. Stockman has a knack for teaching young drivers the ropes and guiding them to the path of success. In 2012, Stockman led Austin Dillon to Xfinity Rookie of the Year honors and a championship in 2013. A dozen years later, Stockman has done it all over again with Love.
“Danny’s like a brother to me,” Love said. “I feel like we’re friends first and then crew-chief/driver second. I’ve had that a couple of times in my life. But yeah, Danny’s great, man. The grit and the tenacity are his two biggest traits, and he expects a lot out of me, sometimes more than I can give it from time to time. Danny’s pushed me to be a lot better.
“We’ve had really hard conversations and yelled and screamed and cussed and this and that and everything, and said things and told each other things when we both didn’t want to hear it, but we knew we both needed to say it. So yeah, it’s been a great relationship with him.”
Stockman has worked with both Austin and Ty Dillon, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, Chandler Smith and Nick Sanchez for extended periods of time before getting to work with Love. No one has ever impressed Stockman the way Love has.
“He’s hard on me and I’m hard on him, but it’s all for a common goal,” Stockman said. “And when you have that relationship, it’s super special because there’s no ego involved. And when you get to that point, success comes. Like (team owner Richard Childress) said, last week, we didn’t rise to the occasion at Martinsville, and we haven’t been very good there as a company in a while. But we came here, we prepped for the last month and a half to come here and execute.”
And execute they did, leading 35 laps, including the final 25 when it mattered most.
Ty Dillon, grandson of Childress, went to the championship stage to celebrate alongside his family and his former crew chief. Watching Love’s maturation from afar has impressed Dillon with what’s ahead for both Love and the company.
“He is the future of the sport and the future of RCR,” Ty Dillon told NASCAR.com. “I think the way he handles himself at the young age that he is, you could see literally tonight, I felt like just watching from where I was, he grew up tonight throughout the race. It didn’t start the way he wanted it to, but they stayed patient as a team and executed so good, so maturely, and really made that look almost easy against the guys who’ve dominated all year. It’s just super cool, man. I’m happy for my family’s race team.”
It was only fitting that he had to race his best friend, Zilisch, for the race win and the championship. Zilisch won an astounding 10 races in 2025 but ultimately fell two spots short of claiming the title. Their relationship has added fuel to Love’s fire. And while Zilisch is advancing to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025, on Saturday, Love took home the trophy that mattered most that day.
“It’s been really hard this year,” Love said. “At the end of the day, I want to walk in the room and feel like the man, right? And I did for quite a while. Once I had my breakout ARCA season, I was like the hottest thing for the most part, with the exception of probably Corey (Heim). And then Connor kind of took that away from me. And it’s been really tough, right? Hard to deal with that, just the way that your friends look at you, the way that the fans look at you. It’s all tough. It was a hard pill for me to swallow.
“But I sat down today, I was like, ‘Well, I can’t control what Connor does, right? But I can control what I do.’ And every day I woke up and he’s motivated me to be better because I don’t like losing to him. I woke up every day trying to beat him, probably more than myself. So as much as tonight makes me feel really good, I’m not going to have Connor to compare myself to next year, so I’m going to have to change that mindset pretty quick.”
That mindset will come later. Now, Love gets to celebrate becoming a NASCAR Xfinity Series champion.
Track: Phoenix Raceway Location: Avondale, Ariz. Track length: 1 mile When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App Race purse: $12,394,135 Race distance: 312 laps | 312 miles Stages: 60 | 185 | 312 Defending winner: Joey Logano, November 2024 Starting lineup: Denny Hamlin on pole at Phoenix
With a championship on the line, it’s 2-on-2 for teammates in season-ending clash
AVONDALE, Ariz. — The culmination of the NASCAR Cup Series season is here, and with it comes a coronation. Three drivers — Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Denny Hamlin — will be vying for their first Cup Series championship in Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway, while a fourth — Kyle Larson — will be bidding to become a two-time title winner.
Each of the Championship 4 drivers have individual aspirations for themselves and the teams that support them. They’ll chase those goals, though, within the framework of racing teammates for NASCAR’s ultimate prize.
Two Hendrick Motorsports drivers (Byron, Larson) and a pair of contenders from Joe Gibbs Racing (Briscoe, Hamlin) will battle it out in Sunday’s 312-lap showdown. The teammate vs. teammate dynamic for the championship race is intriguing, but not unique. One organization has placed multiple cars on the Championship 4 grid in seven of the last eight seasons, and it’s the second time the final-four field has been swept by two organizations with two cars each.
The last time that happened, it was again two Hendrick drivers against two JGR drivers, with Larson emerging with the 2021 Cup Series crown. That experience, Larson said, didn’t require a radical change in how Hendrick’s four teams operate.
“Every year I’ve been in the final four, I’ve had a teammate in there with me. It does not feel any different than any other week,” said Larson, making his third Champ 4 appearance. “I feel like with all four teams, Hendrick teams still communicate extremely well together. Nothing has changed. I think if I can’t win, I want William to win. I think the same goes that way to me. I think we want to bring Hendrick Motorsports a championship. To do that, you have to work extremely good together. Yeah, that’s what we do. We do it all year long, so why change now?”
How teammates race each other has been a subplot at multiple points of this postseason campaign, and Hamlin has been at the center of two internal flare-ups — bumping JGR teammate Ty Gibbs out of the way at New Hampshire, then clashing with Toyota mate and 23XI Racing employee Bubba Wallace on the final lap at Kansas.
Thursday at Championship 4 Media Day, the 44-year-old veteran said it was among the biggest challenges he faced this year, calling it “such a fine line” to juggle team objectives with personal ones.
“We’re always going to want to get the best result for ourselves,” Hamlin said. “How you balance that with how can you end up not hurting each other, then letting someone else in the picture. For instance, if you’re battling 1-2, understanding only battle for a certain amount of time, then whoever is faster, let the other go. You’ll live to race another lap. And you don’t keep the competition back in — don’t get them back in the game. Those are obviously conversations that we’ll have. Certainly, we’ll all work through it.”
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
The last time Cup Series teams were at Phoenix Raceway, race procedures presented a choice of Goodyear rubber compounds, with option and prime tires available. A single tire setup greets the Cup Series field this time around, and teams have already pushed the limits of what those tires can take.
Briscoe’s No. 19 JGR Toyota slowed just four minutes into Friday’s lone practice with a flat left-rear tire, one of the first of several issues for teams taking an aggressive approach with lower air pressures. Briscoe completed just 24 laps in the nearly hour-long session — extended from 50 minutes by a handful of red flags — while the rest of the Championship 4 contenders all ran 60-plus.
With their largest test of the season approaching, here’s the word from all four title-contending crew chiefs (in order of where their team will start Sunday):
Chris Gayle, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Hamlin starts first; fifth in practice): “I’m trying not to let (pressure) get to me at all. Every piece of advice from any of these guys that have done it before are basically like, ‘enjoy the moment, it’s going to be hard to not let it get to you.’ You want to be successful, you want to do everything. Like, what happened with Denny not making it before me has no reflection on what happens this time, right? I shouldn’t let that pressure bother me. It should be separate. We’re going to come in and do the best job we can and see what happens.”
Rudy Fugle, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Byron starts second; ninth in practice): “When it comes to tire failures, it’s not their responsibility. It’s ours to make those decisions, drive it, take care of them when we need to. When it comes to durability, making them live on a long run, they have a huge part in that. [Byron] knows he’s got to take care of that. Yeah, he’s worried about what he has to do. Just give us information to make good decisions, hopefully.”
Cliff Daniels, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Larson starts third; 11th in practice): “Overall for the weekend, I think our team is in a really good spot. Kyle feels pretty comfortable in the car. We were looking for a few different things through our practice progression (Friday), trying to find the right look at short-run speed, then capture a run or two really focused on the medium- to long-run pace. We certainly presented that to ourselves; a couple things we need to work on. Scuffed the wall a little bit, so a little bit of repairs on the car, but that’s OK. Overall, we’re in a reasonable spot. Got to make a few adjustments (Saturday) morning. Met with the team this morning at the hotel. Everybody was fresh and ready. We’re locked in.”
James Small, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Briscoe starts 12th; 16th in practice): “I was actually calm (during practice). No, it was fine. I think we rode pit road more time than we ran laps. Still feel good about it. The pace on the eight laps we did was actually really good. The car is feeling really good. Few things we need to clean up. Not worried one bit.”
Expect Byron up front. Typically, at some point during the season finale, the Championship 4 will run 1-2-3-4 on the leaderboard. If this race goes according to form, William Byron will be the most likely to be in that mix. Since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022, Byron has spent the most time — 1,618 laps total — running among the top five at Phoenix Raceway. That total outranks the rest of the Champ 4 field, with Larson (954 laps), Hamlin (517) and Briscoe (478) rounding out the list. All four are former Phoenix winners.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
CHRIS BUESCHER. Given the frequency with which Championship 4 contenders win in the season finale, almost any other driver outside that quartet could be considered a sleeper. But a dive into recent results offers a reminder of Chris Buescher’s quiet confidence here. In the last five Phoenix races, Buescher has four top-10 finishes and an average finish (7.2) that ranks third in the Cup Series. That stretch includes a runner-up result in the spring of 2024. | See Buescher’s projected finish
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
As anticipated in Fastlane earlier this week, the Championship 4 drivers and Team Penske have ruled much of practice and qualifying at Phoenix. If you’re fortunate to have starts left with any of those drivers, lean heavily that way. Ryan Blaney led the way on long-run pace during practice, though Larson was best among Championship 4 competitors. Denny Hamlin followed that up by winning his 48th Busch Light pole on Saturday. Despite JGR drivers Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell starting outside the top 10, they should remain a factor. There could be some risk with the No. 19 car, as he didn’t attempt a single long run during practice with multiple miscues. Ultimately, no changes here this week. Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry narrowly missed the cut.
Lineup: Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott Garage: Chris Buescher
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
•NASCAR at Phoenix: Key info, qualifying reports and more | Read more • Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs set for season finale | View gallery • At-track photos: Trackside sights, scenes from title weekend | View gallery
• Is this year different? Inside Hamlin’s playoff heartbreaks | Read more
• No. 11 crew chief’s journey: Chris Gayle reflects after crossroads season | Read more
• Larson on legacy: No. 5 driver inching closer to Gordon, Stewart | Read more • Playoff benediction: Assessing the eliminated from Round of 8 | Read more
• Hauler Talk: Why details matter in season-finale inspection | Read more • Power Rankings: How all 12 national-series title contenders stack up | This week’s ranks • Neil Paine: Crunching the numbers and making a title pick | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault with Phoenix full-race replays | Watch now
NASCAR will host pre-race and post-race shows Sunday to accompany the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Both shows will stream live on NASCAR.com and NASCAR’s YouTube channel.
Alex Weaver and Carla Metts will host the pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET to get you ready for Sunday’s race as Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and William Byron battle for the 2025 Bill France Cup.
After the race, the 2025 Cup Series champion will join Steve Letarte, Alex Weaver, Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty and Mamba Smith for a special live edition of Inside the Race.
