Xfinity caps 11-year title sponsorship run with NASCAR’s No. 2 series: ‘Been an amazing partner’

Posted on October 31, 2025November 1, 2025 by Holly Cain

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final NASCAR victory. Justin Allgaier’s first championship. Stunning career debuts and the closest finish in all of NASCAR history. All of these moments will forever be associated with Xfinity’s 11-year NASCAR series title sponsorship — more than a decade of making stars and celebrating legends.

Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) pits the defending series champion Allgaier against a pair of his JR Motorsports rookie teammates, superstar 19-year old Connor Zilisch and second-generation star Carson Kvapil, along with Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love for the final title in Xfinity’s long and legendary sponsorship of the series.

All signs point to an intensely competitive and highly entertaining race — and that is befitting of an Xfinity-sponsored era that provided NASCAR with so many iconic moments.

“It’s hard to put into words how much Xfinity has meant not just to our series, but to the sport as a whole,’’ Allgaier said. “They’ve been such an integral part in the successes our series has had, and they’ve been a group that I have really enjoyed getting to know and work with over the years.

“I can’t thank them enough for all of their support and their belief in our series. And I am really happy that they are going to still be a part of our sport (as a Premier Partner of the Cup Series). It’s been an honor to represent them, both as a driver and a champion of the series all these years.’’

The now-familiar “as fast as Xfinity internet” marketing slogan that the series drivers used in television and radio interviews is embedded into the NASCAR mainstream. And how fitting it was. Fast and compelling.

The title sponsorship reigned over some of the most significant and celebrated times in the sport.

In the 2015 title-sponsor debut season, NASCAR superstar Kyle Busch returned from massive injuries to win again in an Xfinity Series race at Michigan. A year later, the NASCAR Hall of Famer and forever Most Popular Driver, Earnhardt, claimed his final national series win at an Xfinity Series race at Richmond.

That same year, Daniel Suárez claimed the Xfinity Series title to become the first international champion in NASCAR history.

In 2017, Jeremy Clements provided the iconic vibes with a spin and win in the Xfinity Series race at the Road America road course.

In 2018, Tyler Reddick literally edged Elliott Sadler in five overtimes to claim an Xfinity Series win at Daytona International Speedway in the slimmest margin of victory — officially scored as 0.000 seconds — in NASCAR history, truly necessitating photo evidence.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

At Chicago in 2023, the Xfinity Series officially became the first series in NASCAR history to compete on a city street course.

Last year, a teenage Zilisch won pole position and the race in his Xfinity Series debut at the historic Watkins Glen International road course and the season was capped off with Allgaier valiantly claiming his first major NASCAR title in 14 years of full-time competition in the series.

Future Cup Series champion Chase Elliott won his first major title in the Xfinity Series in 2014 as did two-time Daytona 500 winner William Byron three years later.

“It’s been an honor to race in the Xfinity Series with our family-owned team,’’ said owner-driver Ryan Sieg, who, along with Clements, are the only two drivers to have competed in every Xfinity-sponsored race.

“Xfinity has been a tremendous title sponsor and I am proud to have been a small part of some amazing memories.”

And while Xfinity will no longer headline the series, it will still very much stay an important part of the sport — its parent company Comcast sponsors the annual Comcast Community Champion Award and has played a significant role in recognizing the good in the sport and providing money to help foster a wide range of charitable outreach. Making a difference in so many people’s lives, well beyond the race track.

Xfinity’s tenure has genuinely provided that perfect combination of competitive excitement on track and life-changing outreach off it. The gratitude for the series sponsorship, the stars it has fostered and celebrated, is so real and pervasive.

“I would say Xfinity has been an amazing partner of the best series in NASCAR,’’ Clements said. “You always see them around, and they’re always asking what they could do to make things better as well.

“Their support has elevated the competition, the exposure and the entire racing community. I’m grateful for everything they’ve done to keep this series thriving. It’s been an honor to race under their banner all these years!”

And the sentiment is shared by so many.

Posted on October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Official NASCAR Release

Freeway Insurance to also become title sponsor for the 2026 fall NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today announced that Freeway Insurance, a division of Confie and the largest independent personal lines agency and broker in the U.S., has joined as the fourth Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series, marking a significant addition to the sport’s group of Premier Partners.

The multiyear agreement establishes Freeway Insurance as an official Premier Partner alongside Coca-Cola, Busch Light and Xfinity, and underscores NASCAR’s continued commercial momentum as major national brands invest in the sport’s growing fanbase and dynamic platform. The announcement also includes Freeway Insurance becoming the Official Insurance Partner and the entitlement partner for the fall NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway. The partnerships will officially kick off in 2026.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Freeway Insurance to the NASCAR family as a Premier Partner and a race entitlement partner at Phoenix Raceway,” said Steve O’Donnell, President of NASCAR. “This partnership highlights the strong alignment between our two brands — dedication to serving everyday Americans is at the heart of everything we do. Freeway’s commitment further reinforces the strength and growth of NASCAR’s commercial ecosystem as we continue to attract top-tier partners who see the value and excitement of this sport.”

Freeway Insurance and NASCAR represent two iconic American institutions — both deeply connected to the road, fueled by passion and commitment to excellence for millions of loyal customers and fans nationwide.

Freeway Insurance provides affordable, reliable insurance options to drivers and families in all 50 states. Through its extensive retail network, over-the-phone service and online platform, Freeway helps customers find the right coverage at the right price — from auto, truck and home to RV and boat insurance. Freeway empowers people to make confident, informed decisions about their insurance needs, reflecting its mission to make quality coverage accessible to everyone. The brand’s commitment to service, trust and protection aligns seamlessly with NASCAR’s focus on accessibility, innovation and community.

“At Freeway Insurance, we’re proud to partner with NASCAR — a sport that embodies the same energy, trust and drive that define our brand,” said Cesar Soriano, CEO of Freeway Insurance and a U.S. Army Veteran. “As someone who has served our country, I take great pride in leading a brand that serves hardworking Americans every day. Trust is the foundation of what we do — whether it’s helping families protect what matters most or supporting a sport that fans trust and love. NASCAR’s fans and our customers share the same values — determination, family and a love of the open road — and the Freeway Insurance 500 will be a celebration of everything that makes this country great.”

As part of the partnership, Freeway Insurance will be prominently integrated across multiple touchpoints of the NASCAR Cup Series, including race entitlements, sponsorship of the “Choose Rule” on Motor Racing Network and Performance Racing Network live broadcasts, digital activations and fan engagement programs designed to bring fans closer to the action and help families win when it comes to their insurance needs. Freeway Insurance also becomes the exclusive insurance provider for NASCAR, its social media platforms and all tracks where the national series race.

Together, NASCAR and Freeway Insurance will drive forward a shared mission: to connect with fans and customers across the country — on and off the track — through authenticity, innovation, trust and the open road that unites them.

Freeway Insurance is no stranger to NASCAR, as it’s been a banner partner of NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suárez for the last five seasons. With Suárez set to join Spire Motorsports and pilot the No. 7 Chevrolet beginning in 2026, Freeway is proud to once again ride alongside him — this time as both a team partner and a Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Reid Spencer

The 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season has been a rollercoaster for Kaden Honeycutt — literally and emotionally.

Honeycutt was sixth in the series standings when Niece Motorsports released him after 16 races, citing information that Honeycutt had signed with a new team and manufacturer for 2026, though the specifics of the move were not released.

Preserving his eligibility for the playoffs, Honeycutt found a fill-in ride with Young’s Motorsports for the 17th race of the season at Watkins Glen International.

Three days earlier, Halmar Friesen Racing had announced that Honeycutt would replace Stewart Friesen in the No. 52 Toyota for the rest of the season, starting Aug. 15 at Richmond Raceway. Friesen sustained season-ending injuries while driving a dirt modified race car in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, in late July.

Honeycutt made it through two playoff rounds, advancing on a tiebreaker at Martinsville to Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Honestly, man, we’re playing with house money this weekend,” said Honeycutt, whose second-place finish at Martinsville was a career-best. “We’ve accomplished the goal of being here. That was the whole deal whenever me and (crew chief) Jimmy (Villeneuve) talked at Richmond.

“They just wanted to make it and have a fighting chance. The fact that we get to come here and mix it up, I feel like we’ve had speed all playoffs. We just get to have fun this weekend, treat it like a normal race and go out and try to win it.”

Honeycutt believes fate had a hand in his opportunity to race for the title. Admittedly, it’s an uphill battle against heavy favorite Corey Heim, an 11-time winner in a record-setting season.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I think the reason when Stewart got hurt was for me to fill in and do the job right for ‘em and show off how good this team is in this playoff that he wasn’t able to do because of his injuries.

“I think that’s the reason why we’re here for that.”

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Last year at Phoenix Raceway, Chase Briscoe was reluctant to leave the race track.

He had just run his last race with his No. 14 team at Stewart-Haas Racing, not as part of the Championship 4 but as a driver for a team that was shutting its doors at season’s end.

It was the end of a dream for Briscoe and the beginning of another fraught with uncertainty.

“It is crazy, what a difference a year can make,” Briscoe said on Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix. “You go from being sad and down in the dumps … I don’t know, it’s just weird.

“We were the last people to leave last year, because we didn’t want it to end. We knew when we walked out of the tunnel that that group would never be together again. They literally kicked us out. They forced us to leave. We were here longer than the champions.

“But hopefully this year, I’m the one that’s here the longest again.”

In 2024, Briscoe won the Southern 500, the regular-season cutoff race. That earned him an unexpected berth in the Cup Series Playoffs, but he was out in the Round of 12.

After moving to Joe Gibbs Racing this year, Briscoe has three victories, most recent of which came at Talladega, propelling him into the Championship 4.

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas group, however, hasn’t abandoned him.

“This week, all the 14 guys — we still have a group chat — they all were sending me motivational videos and trying to pump me up. (Former crew chief Richard) Boswell sent me a text this morning and sent me a video of all his kids wishing me good luck.”

Briscoe is the only one of the Championship 4 drivers who hasn’t raced for a NASCAR Cup title in the season finale. Even before he drove a JGR car for the first time, Briscoe knew expectations were high.

“I’ve raced against Joe Gibbs Racing, so I knew that, if everything went well, there was a very good likelihood that you’d be racing for a championship,” he said. “Year one—I’m not going to say it’s surprising, but it also I would say exceeded expectations for year one, for sure.

“It would mean a lot to do it in year one, just with everything, with Coach (Joe Gibbs) obviously taking a chance on me. Just to start our tenure off together winning a championship would be pretty cool, but it would certainly make the expectations going forward way harder.”

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — After a dramatic victory in the Round of 8 elimination race last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, William Byron maintained a deliberately low profile on his trip to Phoenix Raceway for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (Sun., 3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Byron elected to fly commercial to the title race.

“I live 15 minutes from the commercial airport in Charlotte,” Byron explained. “I go TSA Precheck, keep my head down — it’s great. I love it. I love to get treated like a normal person, which I am.”

Normal people, however, don’t drive stock cars at breakneck speeds in hopes of securing a series title. That’s what Byron will do on Sunday, when he chases the Bill France Cup for the third year in a row.

In 2023, Byron won the pole for the championship race and dominated the early portions of the event. He won the first stage and led 95 laps but faded to fourth as the track cooled in the late afternoon.

As it turned out, that experience was also emblematic of the current season, where inauspicious circumstances often kept Byron from finishing as well as he ran during most of a particular event.

“We’ve learned the hard way this year that it’s never over,” Byron said. “I think that’s what sticks with me. I mean, honestly, until that guy throws the checkered flag, the race is not over.

“I’ve learned that the hard way this year, and that’s kind of fueled the way I prepared.”

In the first race of the Round of 8, Byron was running second when Ty Dillon slowed in front of him, planning to enter pit road. Unable to avoid Dillon’s car, Byron slammed into it with a vicious impact that knocked him out of the race.

A week later at Talladega, Byron was running comfortably in the top 10 when he spun in the tri-oval a quarter-mile short of the finish line.

Those two incidents set up a must-win situation for Byron at Martinsville, a circumstance that allowed him to race without attention to points. That’s similar to the situation he’ll face Sunday at Phoenix, where the driver who finishes highest among the Championship 4 will claim the title.

“I did look at the board during the race, and I’m like, ‘It’s so nice not to be worried about this BS,’” Byron said of his Martinsville run. “It’s not necessarily winner-take-all per se (at Phoenix), but it definitely is a third stage [that] matters.

“You have to race the race, but the end is all that really matters.”

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Denny Hamlin finished a reporter’s sentence, knowing full well how big of an advantage locking into the Championship 4 round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs early has been.

“Five out of nine,” Hamlin said, making an accurate statistical pull for just how many times the winner of the Round of 8’s first race has gone on to become the Cup Series champion.

Hamlin has the opportunity to make it six for 10 in Sunday’s championship race (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway, realizing a career-long dream after a banner season for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team. He reached the postseason’s final round with another career milestone at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, landing his 60th Cup win and automatic title eligibility for Sunday’s season finale.

That early advancement three weeks ago may have fed Hamlin’s relaxed demeanor for Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day, where he fielded questions alongside fellow title contenders Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson. It’s Hamlin’s fifth Champ 4 appearance, but his first go-around with having that luxury, and he said that spreading out the prep work over time has helped to reduce his stress level.

“It has, simply from a preparation standpoint,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, when you prepare for a test, this is a big test coming up on Sunday, you either have a lot of time to prepare for the test or you have to cram at the last minute, and this is the first time that I’ve had significant amount of time to prepare for the test. So certainly it’s a little different this time around, which I think that’s probably why you’ve seen those kind of results.”

Extra prep should allow the No. 11 team time to dial in its approach in all aspects – racecraft, pit road, strategy. But the microscope that each team is under in a one-race championship places scrutiny on any flaws or unforced errors, no matter how minute.

JGR leadership, Hamlin said, will emphasize that detail-oriented approach in the days leading up to Sunday’s 312-lapper, but that each team member recognizes the magnitude of what’s at stake.

“I mean, that responsibility is primarily in the leader’s hands, whether it be (crew chief) Chris Gayle or it’s (competition director) Chris Gabehart in the general sense of how they want to relay that message to the team, but everyone understands the moment, right?” Hamlin said. “Bad luck or unfortunate things or self-imposed bad luck does happen in big games sometimes, and I’ve experienced it firsthand. But I know everyone’s going to put their best foot forward, and I have full faith in my team and hope it all works out. But if it doesn’t, I still would ride with this team over anyone.”

Sunday will mark Hamlin’s first championship-race bid since 2021, when he placed third in Larson’s victorious run to the title. His adversities and near-misses in all sorts of playoff formats have been well-documented, all against the backdrop of posting Hall of Fame-worthy numbers with enduring regular-season excellence.

MORE: Inside Hamlin’s heartbreaks | Paint Scheme Preview

The question was posed to Hamlin whether all those trials would make winning a championship even sweeter. He allowed himself to ponder what it might mean.

“Oh, a lot more. I mean, it is true,” Hamlin said. “It’s cliche, but it’s definitely true that the losses make you appreciate the wins more, and over the 700-and-some starts that I’ve had in this series, I’ve certainly lost a ton more than what I’ve won. And I’ve had opportunities to win championships and it’s not happened. That’s been a failed mission, and so it’s certainly if and when it does happen, it absolutely will be more gratifying.”

Posted on October 30, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ty Majeski returns to Phoenix Raceway as the defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, back in the Championship 4 with a chance to repeat.

He has no plans to relinquish the title Friday night.

MORE: Phoenix schedule | Truck Series standings

The year has been dominated by Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim, winner of a series-record 11 races in 2025 and who sets his sights on his first Truck Series title on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But Majeski is waiting in the wings, winless this season but victorious in last year’s fall finale at Phoenix, leading 132 of 150 laps from pole position to claim the 2024 championship.

The highest finisher of the Championship 4 drivers Friday will win the Craftsman Truck Series title, leaving Heim with little advantage over his trio of contenders. After winning last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, Heim acknowledged Majeski is likely his stiffest competition at Phoenix, but also expressed some discontent with the prospects of falling short after a record-setting campaign.

“He’s definitely the guy that I’m looking for, but at the end of the day, you really never know what next week will bring,” Heim said. “You can kind of suck all year and just bring your best truck to Phoenix and you can win the whole championship. It doesn’t matter how good you’ve been all year. Look at them; they’ve not been the best. I don’t think they have a win to their name, but they’re probably the truck to beat along with us next weekend.”

At Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway, Majeski offered his take as the reigning champion of the Truck Series. Suffice to say, Majeski returns to the 1-mile tri-oval confident.

“I caught an interview that (Heim) did after Martinsville and he was talking a lot about how it would be a shame if we were able to take it from him and how dumb the format is,” Majeski said. “So yeah, I think we’ve got him right where we want him. I think he’s worried about the 98. I don’t think he wanted to race us this weekend, and here we are with another shot at it.”

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Majeski doesn’t say that with the intent to take away from what Heim has accomplished in 2025, giving credit to him and his No. 11 Tricon team for compiling an astounding number of wins, laps led and more. But he’s also ready to play spoiler to perhaps the most commanding campaign in Craftsman Truck Series history.

“It’d be great. I mean, social media would just explode, and I’m here for all of it,” Majeski smiled. “I think that would be fantastic. Obviously, there would be a lot of interesting comments, I think. So yeah, I love that. I love stirring the pot a little bit. And, yeah, I’d love to be the guy that did that.”

ThorSport Racing has found its niche at Phoenix, leading the organization to three of the last four Truck Series titles. Majeski typically thrives on tracks like Phoenix — flatter, 1-mile ovals — as he flexed a season ago. But that championship triumph marked his only top-10 finish at Phoenix in four starts. That hasn’t impacted the confidence with which he enters this weekend’s festivities.

“Everything changes year to year, right?” Majeski said. “There’s so many different rules packages, even from last year. The way they’re (inspecting) some of the body stuff, there’s a lot of differences that a lot of people don’t see from the outside looking in. So you’re always chasing. You’re always trying to come up with something new, come up with something better. And right when you think you’re the best is exactly when you get beat. And we’re digging for more.

“I mean, we’re coming back with a similar setup and a similar truck, but we have a lot of plans throughout practice later (Thursday) afternoon to deviate from our comfort zone. So we’re expecting the 11 to be better than last year, and we’re expecting to be better as well.”

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Holly Cain

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Matt Crafton’s most cherished photograph from an extraordinary decades-long NASCAR career captures two of his great treasures – his daughter Elladee and the first of his three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship trophies.

The grin on Crafton’s face as he gazes adoringly at his 7-month-old daughter positioned inside the nearly three-foot-tall 2013 trophy is unmistakable, the pride palpable.

“It was the best,” said Crafton, who is relinquishing his full-time seat in the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford at the end of the season after 25 years of competition in the series.

The “best” is saying a lot for the 49-year-old three-time Truck Series champion.

What started as invaluable bonding time with his father, Danny, a hard-nosed racer in the sport’s early California heydays, developed into a celebrated career for Crafton, who has skillfully navigated and mastered the series for more than two decades — era after era after era.

Crafton is the only driver in series history to claim back-to-back titles (2013-14) and he answered that historic showing with a third trophy in 2019, proving himself in multiple championship formats. Not bad for a no-excuses competitor who, after growing up working on cars in his father’s shop in the 1980s, essentially started his career filling in behind the wheel for his dad in NASCAR’s Southwest Series.

The time spent working on and racing cars with his dad Danny shaped much of Crafton’s approach to the sport and nearly 30 years after his first NASCAR Regional Series start, he leaves full-time competition following Friday night’s 2025 Craftsman Truck Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — highly accomplished and highly respected.

The work ethic Crafton learned from his father, both on the track and off it, is what he says made all the motivational difference.

David Jensen | Getty Images

“I haven’t had it handed to me, I had to work for it,” Crafton said of his success. “I don’t know how many times I’ve been brought into the NASCAR trailer and told to calm down and not cuss on the radio and not rant and rave. I always told them, the day I don’t do that is the day I need to quit.

“If you go back and look at Kevin Harvick or Kurt and Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart or Dale Earnhardt, everybody who has had to work for it from the grassroots, to fight and claw, you’re naturally going to carry more emotion.”

That intensity has always been evident in Crafton’s career – especially noted by those he raced door-to-door with and appreciated by the “next generation” of competitors who are quick to emphasize what Crafton has meant to the sport and to the Craftsman Truck Series, in particular.

“I’m just grateful that Matt invested so much of his life into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and its veterans like him that make the Truck Series credible,” said Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who raced against Crafton in the trucks and had to beat the veteran to claim his 2017 title.

“He helped hold young drivers accountable, myself included,” Bell continued. “He’s a veteran and you need people like that in those series and I have a ton of respect for him and what he’s done. He raced everybody hard, that’s for sure, but it’s that level of accountability that made you better.”

The 2023 Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, also credits Crafton with teaching him valuable lessons when they raced trucks against one another. He finished runner-up to Crafton in 2014 as a 20-year-old.

“Both years I was in the series, he won the championship and waxed our butts,” Blaney said with a smile. “We ran second to him in 2014. It was cool to run around Matt. And now having the Menards (sponsorship) connection is pretty neat.

“It will be different not seeing him on TV when I watch those races (next year), but it was a pleasure to race with Matt. We always raced well together. He was one of those guys I felt open to talking to when I was a rookie or second year in trucks because he was a veteran and had a big part in the Truck Series.

“He’s a great competitor and it was cool getting to know him. The only unfortunate part was he kicked my butt the two years I was in the trucks.”

It’s the kind of old-school philosophy and head-down work ethic that has served Crafton well during his 25 years full-time in the series. His 591 starts – 590 of them consecutively — is a series record unlikely to ever be broken.

He has 15 victories and his 333 top-10 finishes, which means that he finished among the top 10 in more than half his starts. He earned 135 top-five finishes — 23% of the races he ran. And Crafton has 16 pole positions for good measure.

Jerry Markland | Getty Images

It is, however, his ability to rise to the top against different talent, title formats and truck configurations that will always make Crafton a series icon.

It’s heralded by fans and deeply appreciated by the multi-championship ThorSport organization, where he competed for all but one season. His legacy for the team is not just the titles he earned but the lessons in competition he shared with teammates that helped them to titles, too.

“Everybody needs to know that Matt Crafton has always been a really, really fierce competitor and he’s wise in the truck,” said Crafton’s two-time champion ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes. “He never pushes the envelope too far to wreck. He’s so wise with that. There’s a lot to learn from him with his risk management style with his ability to try to out-smart the competition. Early on when I was a young guy and wrecking everything, I really looked to his ability to manage risks as a veteran and a lot of people could learn from that.

“You have to finish the race first to win it and I don’t think a lot of people give him that. I’d say people don’t give him enough credit on that. But he’s a fierce competitor and always has been.

“’Race smarter not harder,’ he always said that to me,” Rhodes said, smiling. “And he was right.”

Longtime ThorSport employee Edgar Riley remembers receiving a call from Crafton in 2002 asking if Riley would like to come back to work at ThorSport as a tire specialist with the team – a chance Riley couldn’t pass up. And he remains forever grateful to Crafton for opening that important career door.

“Matt gave me that opportunity,” said Riley, who worked as Crafton’s front tire carrier from 2002-2011. “We shared so many great memories together, including two wins, one being his very first. I’ll always be grateful for what Matt has done for me and for this organization throughout his full-time career.”

That appreciation – from competitor to teammate – is widespread in the garage. And reciprocated.

Crafton, who intends to make some one-off starts down the road and refuses to call this a retirement, doesn’t give his impending Hall of Fame consideration much thought. Yet. But he smiles thinking about joining so many of his racing heroes there one day – those like Ron Hornaday Jr., who he considers the “toughest” competitor of his career.

Reflecting on his career, Crafton concedes it has been quite a drive – from humble beginnings to championship form. He’s respected by his competitors and admired by his fans — the ultimate career ride for this champion.

“Let the cards fall and we’ll see what happens,” Crafton said of the Hall of Fame mentions. “Just happy to do what I get to do and happy to do what I’ve done.”

“Not many people can say they got to do what they love to do,” he acknowledges. “I’ve been blessed to do what I get to do.”

Posted on October 30, 2025 by Neil Paine

At long last, we have our Championship 4.

It took 35 races with plenty of twists and turns over eight-and-a-half months, culminating in a head-to-head points battle at Martinsville and one of the most clutch walk-off wins in playoff history, but Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Kyle Larson will battle it out Sunday at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to determine the fate of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series title.

For each driver, there are legacies and history to consider — Larson looking to solidify himself as one of the greatest ever, Byron and Briscoe searching for a championship to validate a new level of prestige in the middle of their primes and Hamlin trying to shed his title as the greatest driver to never win a championship. But when the checkered flag falls Sunday, only one will drive to the front of this season’s pack and etch his name into NASCAR’s record books.

Who will it be? Let’s break down the biggest reasons why — and why not — each of the final four could be the one lifting the Bill France Cup when everything is said and done:

Denny Hamlin

DraftKings Odds: +200
Forecast probability: 26.3%
Playoff finishes: 7-1-31 | 12-2-23 | 1-24-35
Career Phoenix wins: 2
Next Gen average finish at Phoenix: 10.9

Why he can win it all: If you believe in the power of narrative, fate, destiny or the racing gods, this has the feeling of finally being Denny’s year to win a championship. At 44, Hamlin is defying the sport’s aging curve and having one of the best seasons of his career — all while knowing he may not get another chance this good to finally turn that brilliance into a title. It may be now or never on Sunday.

So the urgency is there, as well as the experience, while still being at the top of his game. Phoenix demands all of that; it’s an interesting mile-long flat track that shares similarities with Richmond, Gateway and New Hampshire as well, and no active driver has been better on those tracks — either in his career or in the Next Gen car — than Hamlin, according to either Adjusted Points+ index or Driver Rating:

Add in the fact that Hamlin has probably been the most deserving driver to win the championship this year — only teammate Christopher Bell (192) has a higher Adjusted Points+ index than Denny’s 181 mark, and Hamlin has a series-high six wins to Bell’s four — it would be fitting if the No. 11 car drove its way to the title on Sunday.

Why he can’t: Hamlin’s main concern might be the health of the No. 11 car, as he had to retire from the race at Martinsville (and finish 35th) because of a blown engine. That incident led to a long conversation with team officials in the garage, and it’s the kind of gremlin that can’t happen again at Phoenix.

But beyond that, Hamlin has been in this position plenty of times before in his long career, repeatedly failing to seal the deal at the final race of the season. In 2010, he went to Homestead leading Jimmie Johnson by 15 points in the Chase for the Cup, but a 14th-place finish — 12 places behind Johnson — cost him the crown. He made the Championship 4 in 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021, but never finished better than third among the contenders … despite finishing top 10 in each race overall. He’s never been quite up to a championship-quality drive when the trophy is on the line.

And Hamlin will need perfect late-race execution this weekend — certainly better than he’s gotten at Phoenix lately, where he hasn’t won since November 2019 and has finished 11th or worse in four of his past seven starts. That almost certainly won’t cut it for a championship this time around.

Kyle Larson

DraftKings Odds: +250
Forecast probability: 28.8%
Playoff finishes: 19-12-32 | 7-6-2 | 2-26-5
Career Phoenix wins: 1
Next Gen average finish at Phoenix: 10.1

Why he can win it all: Ummm … because he’s Kyle Larson? He was the preseason betting favorite to win the championship, he was the pre-playoffs co-favorite (with Ryan Blaney) to win the championship and he now has as good a case to be the favorite at Phoenix as anybody.

Among those reasons might be that he’s riding the hottest run of recent form for any Championship 4 driver, with an average Driver Rating of 103.2 in the playoffs — joining his Martinsville rival Bell (103.6) as the only drivers with a triple-digit average over the past nine races, and solidly clear of the next-best driver (Chase Briscoe at 99.5).

After a long lull (by his standards) at midseason, Larson pulled himself out of the doldrums at exactly the right time, and he might be saving his best for last at Phoenix. He didn’t live down to his previous tendency of finding ways to flame out in the Round of 8, either. With guidance from crew chief Cliff Daniels, Larson drove with the smarts and maturity of a former champion — he’s the only one of those in the Championship 4, by the way — in his head-to-head points duel against Bell at Martinsville, making sure he did exactly what he needed to punch his ticket to Phoenix as a title contender.

While he’ll need to aim slightly higher this Sunday, most likely with an eye on the checkered flag, Larson has the talent, championship pedigree, skill at Phoenix (plus similar tracks) and recent form to keep all three of his rivals up at night worrying this week.

Why he can’t: Aside from his playoff form — and general aura as one of the most gifted drivers of his generation, the kind of which feels like should win multiple championships — Larson can’t necessarily point to any one single stat where he is obviously better than his Championship 4 rivals.

For instance, in terms of career Phoenix performance, Hamlin has been slightly better by pretty much every metric. In the Next Gen era, Byron has his teammate beat (see below). Hamlin has been better across the Phoenix-adjacent bellwethers, regardless of the time frame. Byron was better over the course of the entire season by Driver Rating; Hamlin was better by Adjusted Points+ index; Briscoe by Average Finish. Hamlin has more wins and Briscoe has more top fives.

By reputation, Larson ought to still be able to overcome the fact he’s second-best among the Champ 4 across a bunch of measures and can outduel everyone he needs to, like he did when he won the title race in 2021. But it’s also not very hard to envision another race like in 2023, his only other shot at the championship, when Larson finished third but didn’t lead a lap while letting the title slip to Blaney.

William Byron

DraftKings Odds: +275
Forecast probability: 22.1%
Playoff finishes: 21-11-12 | 3-9-11 | 36-25-1
Career Phoenix wins: 1
Next Gen average finish at Phoenix: 8.0

Why he can win it all: Byron may well have been the steadiest, most consistently fast driver in the Cup Series this season. According to average Driver Rating, Byron is the best in the field with an average performance grade of 97.8 — well clear of teammate and runner-up Kyle Larson at 93.8. What was his secret? He certainly had the ability to produce a superstar race like we saw last Sunday, but others were better at that. His real secret was a dramatically lower rate of subpar races than other top drivers:

That speaks partly to why Byron is such a threat on Sunday — he has an incredibly high floor in his performance level that other Champ 4 drivers know they’ll probably need to beat an elite performance in order to fend off Byron. (In his previous two Championship 4 appearances, he’s finished no worse than 4th with a 116.7 Driver Rating.) You know what else helps? The fact Byron has the best average Driver Rating of any driver at Phoenix in the Next Gen era:

Finally, we saw the killer instinct of a champion on full display last weekend at Martinsville. Knowing he would need to win to advance, Byron qualified on pole, won each stage of the race, led 304 of a possible 500 laps and made a perfectly timed pass on Ryan Blaney with just over 40 laps to go that ended up being the difference in his Championship 4 bid. It all earned him a near-perfect Driver Rating of 147.7, the second-highest in a walk-off win to clinch a Champ 4 appearance in the history of the current format — trailing only Kevin Harvick’s perfect 150.0 at Phoenix in the penultimate race of the 2014 season for clutch must-win victories:

Harvick, of course, went on to win at Homestead-Miami the following week to secure his first (and only) career title. Will Byron follow in those championship footsteps?

Why he can’t: I know we just got done laying out a lot of reasons why Byron can win, but maybe the biggest reason he can’t is that he didn’t always turn that consistent speed into victories during the season. Despite having the best Driver Rating of anybody in the Cup Series — again, by a wide margin — he only won three races, with Sunday’s victory being his first since Iowa in early August. During that span, he’d posted only two top fives and three top 10s, including an average finish of 16.0 in the playoffs before Martinsville, part of why he has the fewest top fives (11) and top 10s (16) of any Champ 4 driver this year.

And as we showed in the chart for Larson, Byron is kind of the opposite of his teammate — he remains easily the worst Championship 4 driver by average Driver Rating during the playoffs, checking in with a 93.1 rating that’s actually worse than Joey Logano’s 93.2 over the same span. That’s why Byron needed his clutch drive last week in the first place, and while he got exactly what he needed, recent form has not been in his favor.

Chase Briscoe

DraftKings Odds: +370
Forecast probability: 22.8%
Playoff finishes: 1-2-9 | 10-4-14 | 4-1-37
Career Phoenix wins: 1
Next Gen average finish at Phoenix: 15.6

Why he can win it all: Briscoe is admittedly the least-heralded of the 2025 Championship 4 by far, having won just five career races — or 31 fewer than the average of Hamlin (60), Larson (32) and Byron (16). But don’t let the underdog story distract you from the fact Briscoe absolutely belongs fighting for a championship.

As we noted in August, Briscoe had overcome a period of early-season adjustment to his new No. 19 ride with Joe Gibbs Racing, sneakily putting together one of the hottest stretches anyone had all season long. For the entire second half of the regular season, Briscoe was the best in Cup by average Driver Rating (96.8), comfortably besting Blaney (93.5) and Byron (91.9). And as we saw in that chart with Larson from above, Briscoe has carried that form over into the playoffs, with the second-best rating of any Champ 4 driver during the past nine races.

As a result, Briscoe remains the top-ranked driver by average rating since the middle of the regular season, a nearly six-month stretch of success that has to matter if we think momentum means anything in the push for a championship:

And during the span of the playoffs alone, Briscoe has won twice with two more top fives (5) than any other Championship 4 driver and two more top 10s (7). Simply put, he’s been scary consistent at running near the front of the field, which bodes well in a track-position race like Phoenix.

Why he can’t: Just like his teammate Hamlin, Briscoe can’t have a repeat of the blown engine that knocked him out of Martinsville early and landed him in last place. (While that’s completely out of his control, it is a consideration, albeit an unlikely one to strike again.)

The more pressing factor for Briscoe might be his lack of both experience and success at Phoenix, relative to the rest of the Championship 4. He does have one career win there — his first career victory, to be exact, in March 2022 — just like Larson and Byron do, but he has a much worse track record overall, with the worst career Average Finish, Adjusted Points+ index and Driver Rating (and fewest career starts) at Phoenix of any driver going for the title:

Granted, much of that resume was compiled by Briscoe with Stewart-Haas Racing, a much less competitive team than the JGR outfit he drives for now. However, in our lone exposure to Briscoe at Phoenix with JGR, he started 30th, finished 35th and posted a putrid 40.5 Driver Rating — his second-worst race of the entire season. You can’t read too much into one race, but it’s indicative of how we should perhaps be less certain about Briscoe having an elite Phoenix run than the other three guys he’s up against.

Final Verdict

I went into this column expecting to pick either Hamlin or Larson, on the basis of their talent, experience and success in the desert. But the more I dug into the numbers, the more Byron leaped off the page for his combination of different important factors — the consistency, lack of down performances, recent Phoenix track record and maybe even the clutch walk-off win last week. There are plenty of ways to argue for the other three members of the Championship 4, and one of them may well win with the margins being as thin as they are. But at the end of the day, Byron feels like the driver who checks more boxes than the rest — and if that proves to be any guide, he’s the one most likely to finish it with the trophy in hand.

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Neil Paine

The Championship 4 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is set for Saturday’s season finale at Phoenix (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and we know anything can happen when it all comes down to one race. For instance, the last time the series raced here back in March, Aric Almirola took advantage of a late caution and outdueled Justin Allgaier and Alex Bowman on the restart — the latter with a little shove up into the fence — to win by less than five-hundredths of a second. This track is designed so daring passes and desperate dive-bombs are never very far away.

But even though each Champ 4 driver — whether it be Allgaier, Connor Zilisch, Carson Kvapil or Jesse Love — has to execute, avoid chaos and get the job done this weekend, it would be surprising if anyone other than Zilisch emerged as this season’s Xfinity champion.

The 19-year-old phenom has been nothing less than historically dominant in 2025, winning a series-high 10 races — more than double anyone else in the field — with eight poles, 19 top fives, 22 top 10s and an average finish of 8.2 in 31 races. Zilisch became just the third driver to earn double-digit wins in an Xfinity season (joining all-time series wins leader Kyle Busch, four times, and Sam Ard from 1983), and he did it on not only his patented road courses — COTA, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Portland and the Charlotte Roval — but also ovals — Pocono, Dover, Indy and Gateway — and even a superspeedway — Daytona — for good measure.

According to the Adjusted Points+ index, which rates the quality of each driver’s per-race finishes (with increasing bonuses for wins and other high placements) relative to a field average of 100, Zilisch — at 279, or 179% better than average — is trying to cap off the most dominant single season by a non-Buschwhacker in the history of the Xfinity Series:

The only real close competition for Zilisch is Ard, who finished second in the very first Xfinity (then the Late Model Sportsman) Series in 1982 behind Jack Ingram, then rattled off a dominant championship campaign in 1983 and was even better in 1984, when he was the only driver to be 170 percent better than average until Zilisch came along this season.

Yes, we’ve seen even more absurdly dominant campaigns by full-time Cup drivers who used Xfinity for extra seat time, like when Busch won 10 of the 17 races he entered in 2016. But arguably, there hasn’t been an Xfinity Series regular as good as Zilisch this year. And did we mention he only turned 19 in the middle of the season, on July 22?

The combination of being this great, this soon, has fueled talk that Zilisch might be the greatest prospect in the history of the sport. And it’s not unfounded. Here’s a plot of Adjusted Points+ index versus age (as of July 1 during the season in question) for all primary Xfinity Series drivers with at least 15 starts in a season, all-time:

This really helps put in perspective how incredible what Zilisch has done this season is. In the top left-hand side of the chart, where young greatness resides, the only dots even remotely in the same neighborhood as Zilisch belong to Ty Gibbs — who had an Adjusted Points+ index of 233 at age 18.7 on July 1 of 2021, then improved to 237 at age 19.7 in 2022. Zilisch was age 18.9 on July 1, 2025 — slightly older than Gibbs was in 2021 — but his 279 Adjusted Points+ was significantly better than either Gibbs campaign.

And that’s as close as any other young driver has ever gotten to Zilisch’s current level. Other notables like Joey Logano and Chase Elliott were only around 200 on the Adjusted Points+ scale, slightly younger than Zilisch is now — which helped signify their future potential as champion drivers! — while a slightly older future champion, Kyle Busch, graded out at 219 in the 2004 season. Even Jeff Gordon, maybe the platonic ideal of a “young gun” driver in NASCAR history, never had an Xfinity season all that close to Zilisch’s 2025, even at older ages.

Of course, Gordon made up for it once he hit the Cup level, coming out with the two best under-25 seasons in history by Adjusted Points+ in 1995 (253) and 1996 (276), becoming the youngest driver in the modern era to win a championship in the first of those seasons. That’s the legacy Zilisch will be chasing as a full-time Cup driver for Trackhouse Racing starting next season, and there will no doubt be growing pains as he adjusts to life in the new car, series and higher level of competition.

But as we noted around his Cup debut back in March, Zilisch is on a historic track for his age in terms of how old a driver was when appearing in their first race at the series’ top level. At 18 years and 223 days old when he started at Circuit of The Americas, Zilisch became the youngest driver to hit the track in Cup since Joey “Sliced Bread” Logano did it at 18 years and 113 days in September 2008 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. And to find a younger driver than Joey, you’d need to go back to Darryl Sage in July 1982, who drove for his father Lee’s team at Nashville at 17 years and 62 days old — establishing himself as the youngest driver to appear in a race in all of NASCAR’s modern Cup Series era (since 1972):

These are all imperfect measures of perceived potential, of course. For every Logano or Ricky Rudd, who debuted even younger than Zilisch did, there’s Bobby Hillin, Jr. — who had a long journeyman Cup career at best — or plenty of other drivers who barely stuck around at all — Sage only appeared in eight Cup races, after all.

Likewise, our chart of the best young Xfinity prospects also includes Gibbs (whose improvements have come only in fits and starts over three-and-a-half seasons in Cup), Trevor Bayne (who never won another race after taking the 2011 Daytona 500), Reed Sorenson (who became a journeyman after his early promise with Chip Ganassi fizzled), Harrison Burton (who lost his Cup ride with the Wood Brothers last year) and Brian Vickers (whose career was limited by health problems). Early returns — particularly in a lower-tier series — are no guarantee of lasting success.

Ultimately, Zilisch will be judged on what he does in a Cup car, just like Gordon, Logano, Elliott, Busch and every other hot prospect who came before him. But just the same, seasons like this one don’t come around too often. By every available measure — production, precocity and potential — Zilisch has already set a standard no prospect before him quite reached. Win or lose on Saturday, if Zilisch’s Xfinity Series campaign is any indication, the sport might be watching the arrival of a truly special generational talent behind the wheel.