Posted on by Zack Albert

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Even Kyle Larson admitted that the way he clinched his third NASCAR Cup Series championship verged toward buzzkill. The 34-year-old California kid salted a hard-fought title away in an abbreviated Stage 1, with nary a “WOO!” or even a lower-case “woo” over the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet’s radio. The championship stage wouldn’t be wheeled to the frontstretch for nearly 190 laps, and the whirring of calculators was the clinch soundtrack instead of fireworks.

“Uh, they’ve declared it. We got it,” said Cliff Daniels, the No. 5 team’s ever-reliable crew chief.

“Like, it’s done?” asked Larson.

“It’s over.”

“OK, that was a little anticlimactic,” Larson said, “but that’s cool. Good job, guys.”

As understated a radio moment as it was, the sense of accomplishment that accompanied one of the most celebrated 12th-place finishes in recent memory should be trumpeted to the Homestead-Miami Speedway rafters. Larson took out all the guesswork early in Sunday’s Cup Series season finale, giving the heralded 1.5-mile track another entry in its rich history of crowning champions.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead

There’s no understating where Larson ranks now in the conversation among stock-car racing’s all-time greats. Getting just one Cup title is an achievement in itself — a feat that many fine racers aren’t fortunate enough to taste. Winning two moves the needle into the next stage of elite. Now as just the 11th driver to reach three championships in NASCAR’s top division, there’s an easy association with some of the sport’s immortals — Yarborough, Waltrip, Stewart, Pearson, Logano.

His ability to excel in other disciplines of racing, however, has placed Larson on a separate, lofty plateau. At Richmond, Larson expressed his faith in Hendrick Motorsports’ process after some early struggles, trusting that both he and the team would have the ability to turn around their fortunes at the most critical time in the postseason. It was also at Richmond where he ran 300 miles, bolted from his No. 5 Chevy to fly halfway across the country to claim his fourth Knoxville Nationals triumph in the wee hours of a damp Iowa morning.

NASCAR, IndyCar, sprint car. Larson has demonstrated searing speed in all, much in the way legends with names like Foyt and Andretti once did. No less an authority than four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon said it’s time to put his driver’s name alongside those icons.

“In our eyes, he’s there, right?” said Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman. “We see what he accomplishes and everything he gets in. It’s hard to pick the most impressive thing that he does because he gets in an IndyCar, he goes fast. Sprint car, he’ll fly overnight, get in the car, go win Knoxville, then come back and win the Brickyard, hop in the car and fly the next day in the stock car. That’s rare air. Very rare. So few guys that are capable of doing that, or even get the opportunity to do that. Whatever stats he needs to accumulate, OK, if that’s what it takes. I think he’s already there.”

Once the championship race became a mathematical inevitability, team owner Rick Hendrick — who had fretted each time early on when Larson tempted calamity in his search for speed up against the outside wall — finally keyed the No. 5 radio to loosen the reins. “Congratulations, champ,” he said. “Now you can ride the wall.”

With newfound freedom, Larson began ripping along the outer barrier without objection — to the detriment of his car’s scuffed right side, but to the delight of those watching his breathless derring-do. His skillset has always felt like a perfect match to Homestead’s high-banked sweeping turns, where the reward/risk balance of running the highest of lines has lured some of the sport’s bravest.

According to race winner Ryan Blaney, one of his generation’s peers, that wasn’t always the case.

“Right when he got in the sport, he kind of changed the game. He’s one of those guys,” Blaney said, noting how he’d pointed this out years ago when the two drivers were marketed heavily in a “they’ve got next” program. “… He revolutionized running the wall. I don’t know if anyone knows that. Go look up when Kyle Larson came into the Cup Series in like ’14 or even before, was then the Nationwide Series, nobody ran the fence like that. Everyone would kind of go in the middle, fade up to the top, come off of it. Kyle was one of the first guys I’ve ever seen just park it entering, two inches off the wall, and not getting two inches off the wall the whole way. That was a talent like I’d never seen before personally. …

“I think he’s really good at finding the edge,” Blaney added. “He used to step over it a lot in his early days. He would always be at the edge, take himself out of contention. As he’s gotten older, more experienced, he’s really refined that skill of he’s still on the edge but he definitely doesn’t go over it a lot. That’s really dangerous for the rest of us. Obviously he’s incredibly talented. His natural, God-given talent is off the charts. He is very deserving to win his third championship. That group makes it very hard on everybody in the garage. They’re a very good team. Everyone has their work cut out for them to keep contending with that group, specifically that pairing of Kyle, Cliff, all those guys.”

That talent came to its brightest focus under the spotlight of the sport’s first go-round with a new-look Chase format. The freshened postseason structure rewarded winning and consistency, and Larson and the No. 5 team delivered on both in epic fashion, rising from a seventh-seed slot to take a commanding lead. Larson shook off a regular-season slump with victories at Gateway, Kansas and of all places Talladega, where his unlikely charge erased all doubt about the strength of his title candidacy.

MORE: Blaney rolls to Homestead win | Hamlin, Bell ‘at peace’ after 2026 season

With three titles in a six-year span and the amped-up performance over this year’s final 10 races, the parallels to another Hendrick dynasty were bound to be drawn. Jimmie Johnson secured all seven of his record-tying Cup Series championships here and was the last to go back-to-back, and Daniels was a key component to the No. 48 team’s repeated success — prosperity he’s enjoying with a team he now leads. Even Denny Hamlin — among Larson’s closest challengers this year — was quick to connect all those dots.

“I mean, just an exceptional talent. He’s this generation’s Jimmie, right?” said Hamlin, who ended up third in the final Cup Series standings. “I mean, I think that’s the only way you can kind of describe it. Just when it comes to playoff time, they perform their best, and that’s something that Jimmie used to do. And you know, Jimmie was a guy that could get tons of speed out of a car. Kyle’s the same way, you could argue even more speed. There’s a little bit more variance in the results because of how hard he pushes it, but he reaps the benefits because he gets lots of wins, and that’s something that certainly he’s going to be winning championships and races well beyond when I’m gone from here. But it’s been fun to really race against him and see how really he’s gotten better and matured over the last 10 years on the race track.”

And that’s where the conversation goes as NASCAR traipses into its offseason break, even with the trophy-shaped confetti still freshly flown — just how many more titles Larson & Co. can accumulate. Richard Petty’s seven Cup championships were once thought of as an unbreakable record until the rise of Dale Earnhardt. Those two stood alone for more than two decades until Johnson stunningly made it a three-man crowd of seven-timers, complete with his own unprecedented five-in-a-row burner.

Now Gordon can only smile as Larson makes gains on his own Hall of Fame credentials, but potentially on others with first-ballot, Mount Rushmore and GOAT cred. Anticlimactic? Hardly.

“He’s going to pass me. I already came to that conclusion,” Gordon said, grinning. “Kind of knew that when he was going to Hendrick Motorsports. He’s special. It was one of the first things that I said to him when I saw him today. All right, there you go, number three, one more to go.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The all-time list of NASCAR Cup Series winners starts with Richard Petty (200 wins) and includes more than 60 drivers who won just a single time at NASCAR’s top level.

Below is the list of all-time winners, in order, in the Cup Series.

Last update: After Race 36 of the 2026 season (Homestead-Miami Speedway).

Active drivers in ALL CAPS

RankDriverWins
1.Richard Petty200
2.David Pearson105
3.Jeff Gordon93
4.Bobby Allison85
5.Darrell Waltrip84
T-6.Jimmie Johnson83
T-6.Cale Yarborough83
8.Dale Earnhardt76
9.DENNY HAMLIN64
10.Kyle Busch63
11.Kevin Harvick60
12.Rusty Wallace55
13.Lee Petty54
T-14.Ned Jarrett50
T-14.Junior Johnson50
16.Tony Stewart49
17.Herb Thomas48
18.Buck Baker46
19.Bill Elliott44
T-20.JOEY LOGANO40
T-20.Mark Martin40
T-22.Tim Flock39
T-22.Matt Kenseth39
24.Bobby Isaac37
25.BRAD KESELOWSKI36
26.KYLE LARSON35
T-27.Kurt Busch34
T-27.Martin Truex Jr.34
29. Fireball Roberts33
30.Dale Jarrett32
T-31.Carl Edwards28
T-31.Rex White28
T-33.Dale Earnhardt Jr.26
T-33.Fred Lorenzen26
T-35.Jim Paschal25
T-35.Joe Weatherly25
T-37.CHASE ELLIOTT23
T-37.Ricky Rudd23
39.Terry Labonte22
T-40.RYAN BLANEY21
T-40.Jeff Burton21
T-40.Bobby Labonte21
T-40.Benny Parsons21
T-40.Jack Smith21
45.Speedy Thompson20
T-46.Davey Allison19
T-46.Buddy Baker19
T-46.Greg Biffle19
T-46.Fonty Flock19
T-50.Geoff Bodine18
T-50.Neil Bonnett18
T-50.Harry Gant18
T-50.Kasey Kahne18
T-50.Ryan Newman18
T-55WILLIAM BYRON17
T-55.Marvin Panch17
T-55.Curtis Turner17
58.Ernie Irvan15
T-59.TYLER REDDICK14
T-59.CHRISTOPHER BELL14
T-59.Dick Hutcherson14
T-59.LeeRoy Yarbrough14
T-63.Dick Rathmann13
T-63.Tim Richmond13
T-65.Donnie Allison10
T-65.Clint Bowyer10
T-65.Sterling Marlin10
T-68.Paul Goldsmith9
T-68.Cotton Owens9
T-68.Bob Welborn9
T-71.CHASE BRISCOE8
T-71.SHANE VAN GISBERGEN8
T-71.ALEX BOWMAN8
T-71.Kyle Petty8
T-75.Darel Dieringer7
T-75.AJ Foyt7
T-75.Jamie McMurray7
T-75.Jim Reed7
T-75.Marshall Teague7
T-80.AUSTIN DILLON6
T-80.CHRIS BUESCHER6
T-80.ROSS CHASTAIN6
T-83.Ward Burton5
T-83.Dan Gurney5
T-83.Alan Kulwicki5
T-83.Tiny Lund5
T-83.Dave Marcis5
T-83.Jeremy Mayfield5
T-83.Ralph Moody5
T-90.Lloyd Dane4
T-90.Bob Flock4
T-90.Charlie Glotzbach4
T-90.Eddie Gray4
T-90.Bobby Hamilton4
T-90.Pete Hamilton4
T-90.Parnelli Jones4
T-90.Hershel McGriff4
T-90.Joe Nemechek4
T-90.Eddie Pagan4
T-90.Ken Schrader4
T-90.Morgan Shepherd4
T-90.Nelson Stacy4
T-90.RICKY STENHOUSE JR.4
T-90.Billy Wade4
T-90.Michael Waltrip4
T-90.Glen Wood4
T-107.AJ ALLMENDINGER3
T-107.Aric Almirola3
T-107.AUSTIN CINDRIC3
T-107.Bill Blair3
T-107.Robby Gordon3
T-107.ERIK JONES3
T-107.Dick Linder3
T-107.Frank Mundy3
T-107.Elliott Sadler3
T-107.Gwyn Staley3
T-107.DANIEL SUÁREZ3
T-107.Brian Vickers3
T-107.BUBBA WALLACE3
T-120.MICHAEL MCDOWELL2
T-120.TY GIBBS2
T-120.COREY HEIM2
T-120.Marcos Ambrose2
T-120.John Andretti2
T-120.Johnny Beauchamp2
T-120.Red Byron2
T-120.Derrike Cope2
T-120.Ricky Craven2
T-120.Ray Elder2
T-120.James Hylton2
T-120.Bobby Johns2
T-120.Joe Lee Johnson2
T-120.Al Keller2
T-120.Elmo Langley2
T-120.Danny Letner2
T-120.Juan Pablo Montoya2
T-120.Billy Myers2
T-120.Jimmy Pardue2
T-120.Steve Park2
T-120.Tom Pistone2
T-120.Marvin Porter2
T-120.David Ragan2
T-120.David Reutimann2
T-120.Gober Sosebee2
T-120.Jimmy Spencer2
T-120.Emanuel Zervakis2
T-147.Johnny Allen1
T-147.Bill Amick1
T-147.Mario Andretti1
T-147.Earl Balmer1
T-147.Trevor Bayne1
T-147.Johnny Benson1
T-147.JOSH BERRY1
T-147.Brett Bodine1
T-147.Ron Bouchard1
T-147.Richard Brickhouse1
T-147.Dick Brooks1
T-147.Bob Burdick1
T-147.Harrison Burton1
T-147.Marvin Burke1
T-147.Neil Cole1
T-147.Jim Cook1
T-147.Cole Custer1
T-147.Mark Donohue1
T-147.Joe Eubanks1
T-147.Lou Figaro1
T-147.Jimmy Florian1
T-147.Larry Frank1
T-147.Danny Graves1
T-147.Royce Haggerty1
T-147.Justin Haley1
T-147.Bobby Hillin1
T-147.CARSON HOCEVAR1
T-147.Jim Hurtubise1
T-147.John Kieper1
T-147.Harold Kite1
T-147.Paul Lewis1
T-147.Johnny Mantz1
T-147.Sam McQuagg1
T-147.Casey Mears1
T-147.Paul Menard1
T-147.Lloyd Moore1
T-147.Jerry Nadeau1
T-147.Norm Nelson1
T-147.Bill Norton1
T-147.Phil Parsons1
T-147.Dick Passwater1
T-147.Lennie Pond1
T-147.RYAN PREECE1
T-147.Bill Rexford1
T-147.Jody Ridley1
T-147.Shorty Rollins1
T-147.Jim Roper1
T-147.Earl Ross1
T-147.John Rostek1
T-147.Johnny Rutherford1
T-147.Greg Sacks1
T-147.Leon Sales1
T-147.Frankie Schneider1
T-147.Wendell Scott1
T-147.Buddy Shuman1
T-147.Regan Smith1
T-147.John Soares1
T-147.Lake Speed1
T-147.Chuck Stevenson1
T-147.Donald Thomas1
T-147.Tommy Thompson1
T-147.Art Watts1
T-147.Danny Weinberg1
T-147.Jack White1
Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin knew the odds were stacked against them heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The hill toward stealing a championship away from Kyle Larson proved too tall to climb, but it sure wasn’t from a lack of effort from the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead-Miami

Bell (46 laps) and Hamlin (87) combined to lead 133 of Sunday’s 267 laps and ultimately finished the 400-mile contest fourth and sixth, respectively. The battle for the championship was out of reach after Larson clinched the title at the conclusion of Stage 1, but the fight for second was alive and well: Bell entered just three points ahead of Hamlin for the position. At night’s end, Bell landed second in the final championship rundown, 49 points behind Larson, with Hamlin third, 56 points back.

“I would have been really disappointed if we didn’t hold second for sure,” Bell said. “And I knew it was going to be a battle. We knew that he was going to be fast, but I don’t feel proud that I won second. I guess I feel like I should have maintained second, and we did that. So we checked the box and didn’t lose it.”

A late caution triggered a round of pit stops on Lap 254 with 13 laps remaining, with Hamlin emerging second on the front row alongside William Byron. Bell was the third car on the inside row, fifth in the running order. Hamlin knew a win would’ve propelled him ahead of Bell … but that he also had nothing to lose. That aggression led Hamlin into the outside wall and sank Hamlin.

“[Crew chief Chris Gayle] told me that we needed to win,” Hamlin said. “I mean, that’s why I drove it straight in the fence. I was trying to get to the lead and knew that I wasn’t gonna get caught by any of the rest of the guys, so I tried to do everything I could to get to the outside. Just couldn’t quite hold it. But he told me that Bell needed to drop one or I needed to win the race. I wasn’t gonna count on Bell dropping one.”

MORE: Watch Hamlin’s post-race interview

The disappointment in falling short of the championship wasn’t so palpable post-race at Homestead after each Bell and Hamlin contended for the race win. Both knew the chances were about the same as winning the lottery, and Hamlin said he was “definitely at peace with this well before this weekend.”

Both also expressed their respect for Larson, who executed an extraordinary performance throughout The Chase presented by Mobil 1 that allowed the No. 5 team to clinch the championship before the race had reached its halfway point.

“Kyle did a great job. He did exactly what he needed to do,” Bell said. “He clinched it in Stage 1 whenever he got the fourth-place points and they were the best team throughout the 10 weeks. So I will always say that this is way better than what we had for sure. … But it creates high-intensity moments throughout the entire Chase, not just at the last race. So the 5 car earned their buffer for what they had today, and they did. They executed the race exactly like they needed to. So credit to them.”

Hamlin was pleased with his No. 11 team’s performance at Homestead, leading his most laps at Homestead since he last won at the 1.5-mile oval in 2020, when he paced the field for 137 laps.

“That was as competitive as we’ve been at this track for quite a few years,” Hamlin said. “I knew [the championship] was over at the end of Stage 1, but I still thought that we put together a pretty good race. And it developed a chance on that last few laps. It just didn’t quite work out.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Ryan Blaney stole the consolation prize from Tyler Reddick with two laps left in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but it’s Kyle Larson who will leave South Florida with the championship trophy.

Blaney passed Reddick on Lap 266 of 267 in the final race of the reconstituted NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 and powered his No. 12 Team Penske Ford across the finish line 0.314 seconds ahead of Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead-Miami

Long before Blaney secured his fourth victory of the season and 21st of his career, Larson had clinched his second straight championship and third overall with a fourth-place finish in the first stage.

After multiple brushes with the outside wall, Larson eventually rolled home in 12th in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, becoming the first Cup Series driver to win back-to-back titles since Hendrick legend Jimmie Johnson claimed five straight from 2006 through 2010.

“I got word that we clinched it, and I started driving like an idiot,” Larson said with a laugh.

Larson became the 11th driver to win three or more championships in NASCAR’s top division. As broadcaster Jeff Burton pointed out earlier in the weekend, more humans have walked on the moon (12) than have won three Cup titles.

Larson joined an elite group of three-time champions that includes NASCAR Hall of Famers Lee Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Tony Stewart and current Team Penske driver Joey Logano.

SHOP: Champion’s gear | Winner’s gear

The championship was the 16th for team owner Rick Hendrick, extending Hendrick Motorsports’ series record.

“I’m just so proud of my team, first and foremost,” said Larson, who finished 49 points ahead of second-place Christopher Bell and 56 in front of third-place Denny Hamlin. “Hendrick Motorsports, this was statistically probably one of our worst years. To still come away with the championship shows how resilient everybody at the race shop is, everybody on my 5 team, all my teammates, 24 (William Byron), the 9 (Chase Elliott), the 48 (Alex Bowman). GM (General Motors), too, Chevrolet, all the key partners there.

“We absolutely could not have done what we did in the Chase without the teamwork that it took. That’s what this championship is, makes it so meaningful, just the teamwork. This one, more than any of them, took teamwork.”

Larson’s third championship was official when pole winner Chase Briscoe’s engine blew on Lap 78, ending the first stage. Larson was running fourth at the time, one position behind Bell, with Hamlin in sixth.

By scoring seven stage points to Bell’s eight and Hamlin’s five, Larson put the title mathematically out of the reach of his Joe Gibbs Racing pursuers. Hamlin and Bell were left to battle for second place in the final standings.

“They’ve declared it — we’ve got it,” crew chief Cliff Daniels radioed to Larson during the caution. With his third championship — all with Larson — Daniels is tied for fourth all-time among Cup Series crew chiefs.

“Like it’s done — over?” asked Larson, just making sure. “That was a little anticlimactic, but that’s cool. Good job, guys!”

WATCH: The moment that Larson clinched

Hendrick radioed his delight to the 34-year-old driver from Elk Grove, California.

“Congratulations,” Hendrick said. “Now you can run the wall.”

That’s exactly what Larson did, but the freedom came with a price. On Lap 119, Larson steered the No. 5 Camaro to pit road with a cut right rear tire — the result of contact with the outside wall.

Larson’s trip to the pits started a green-flag cycle, with Bell following from the race lead eight laps later and Reddick right behind him. But it was Hamlin, who pitted three laps earlier than Bell, who grabbed the lead and held on to win the second stage, as Larson faded to 17th on well-worn rubber.

Blaney’s journey to the checkered flag was convoluted, to say the least. During the first stage break, he returned to pit road to remedy a loose wheel and restarted at the back of the field. By the end of Stage 2, he had climbed to fifth in the running order.

In the final stage, Blaney ran long and pitted on Lap 220 and was running down Byron and Reddick from five seconds back when a caution bunched the field and set up a restart with eight laps left.

SHOP: Champion’s gear

Blaney restarted fourth, passed Bell on Lap 263, slipped past Byron a lap later and made the winning pass on Reddick at Lap 266 of 267.

“Pretty cool night battling back from coming down pit road,” said Blaney, who avenged a haunting last-lap loss to Reddick at 1.5-mile Homestead in 2024. “Car was really, really fast. I appreciate everybody for sticking with it.

“Even though we weren’t part of the championship fight, our goal was to try to win the race, end on a high note, get the most points we can.”

The victory elevated Blaney three positions to fourth in the final standings, 94 points behind Larson.

Byron, who was leading by just over one second when Noah Gragson spun Daniel Suárez in Turn 1 to cause the third and final caution with 14 laps left, finished third in front of Bell and Bubba Wallace.

Hamlin came home sixth, followed by Austin Cindric, Suárez, Gragson, and Michael McDowell.

Bell and Hamlin were the only other two drivers still mathematically alive for the title entering Sunday’s race, but winning would have required a perfect night from one of the two JGR drivers along with calamity for Larson.

Neither happened.

SHOP: Champion’s gear

“This year consistently we were in the mix,” Bell said. “We were in there for contention of race wins. Obviously disappointed we didn’t win more. Yeah, just happy and thrilled and thankful that I’m in position.

“Something to build on. Hopefully, we can execute a little bit better and get that grand prize at the end.”

A four-time winner this season, Hamlin echoed Bell’s sentiments.

“We had a great year,” he said. “Every way you can measure the year, it’s been really, really good. Congrats to the 5 team. They deserve everything, the spoils of victory. They performed absolutely incredible during these last 10 races.

“We are extremely happy with the 36 races that we put together. It’s really tough to do in this sport. Certainly felt good to be competitive from the first race to the last.”

Stage 2 recap: Hamlin takes second frame

Denny Hamlin won Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Christopher Bell finished second, followed by Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney. William Byron, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Zane Smith and Daniel Suárez completed the top 10.

Reddick fired back into the lead on the Stage 2 restart, touching fenders with Bell to briefly pull away. Three laps later on Lap 94, Bell crossed Reddick over, clearing the No. 45 23XI Toyota for the lead in Turn 2.

Newly minted three-time champion Kyle Larson pitted with a flat right-rear on Lap 118, surrendering his fourth-place position after contacting the wall. That pit stop came toward the beginning of the expected pit cycle, and Chase Elliott pitted for his Stage 2 service moments later.

MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Hamlin clinch Stage 2 dub

Hamlin pitted on Lap 125, two circuits before leaders Bell and Reddick pitted on Lap 127 — just moments after Reddick washed up the track and nearly contacted the wall while battling for the lead. Once those two pitted, Hamlin cycled to the lead for his first advantage of the afternoon.

With a tire disadvantage for the second stint of the frame, Larson faded well outside of the top 10 by the green-white checkered flag, finishing 17th.

The stage was incident-free.

Stage 1 recap: Reddick wins opening frame, Larson clinches title

Tyler Reddick won Stage 1 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as Kyle Larson’s fourth-place finish clinched the 2026 championship.

Larson earned seven points in the frame, enough to clinch after Christopher Bell finished third and Denny Hamlin finished sixth in Stage 1. Ryan Blaney finished second and Austin Cindric finished fifth, with Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suárez, William Byron and Chase Elliott taking positions seventh through 10th.

Polesitter Chase Briscoe fired out to the lead at the green flag, leading the first 34 laps until pitting for four tires and fuel. The No. 19 team had a 16-plus second pit stop after a hangup on the left side, forcing him out of the top spot once the cycle completed. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Bell pitted one lap later, prompting many leaders to make their first stop of the day.

Reddick and Larson pitted together on Lap 40, exactly halfway through the opening frame. They pitted later in the cycle, losing time on old tires in the short term for an advantage later in the run.

On Lap 43, Bell cycled to the lead for his first advantage of the afternoon with Briscoe in fifth after the pit slipup.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results | Watch Stage 1’s conclusion

Eleven laps later, Reddick powered his No. 45 23XI Toyota to the lead for the first time, just moments before teammate Corey Heim suffered an issue. Heim reported no power in his No. 67 Toyota after running 14th, rolling down pit road for his team to analyze the problem.

With three laps left in the stage, Briscoe’s engine expired from seventh, ending Stage 1 prematurely.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the NASCAR Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Blaney as the Homestead winner and Larson as the 2026 champion.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Kyle Larson went the entire 26-race regular season without a victory. A mere 10 Chase races later, he was a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Larson clinched his third Cup title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, completing a remarkable championship turnaround and securing his second consecutive crown in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“All three mean something way different,” Larson said in his championship stage interview after the race. “The first one being your first. Doing it the way we did was extra special. Then last year, we started off the year really hot. Just declined kind of throughout the regular season. But then steadied out in the playoffs. Again, with (crew chief) Cliff’s (Daniels) leadership, kept us in it, to be able to attack when we needed to, get the surprise of that championship.”

The 34-year-old Californian mathematically clinched the championship at the conclusion of Stage 1, finishing fourth and collecting seven stage points after Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota went up in smoke to bring out a caution on Lap 78. Larson entered Sunday needing nine total points to guarantee the title regardless of his rivals’ results, but his seven stage points proved sufficient. Christopher Bell finished third in the stage, earning eight points, while Denny Hamlin finished sixth with five, eliminating both from championship contention. Bell still trailed Larson by 66 points with only 66 available the rest of the race, and Larson was guaranteed at least one additional point for his finishing position.

“Good job to you. We’re going to keep our eyes forward, and we’re just going to keep running through this race, how’s that?” Daniels radioed to his title-clinching driver shortly after.

Larson, ever the racer, replied, “Yeah, love it. Let’s go.”

SHOP: Kyle Larson 2026 Champion gear

Larson’s work wasn’t finished, however, even with the championship already secured. The No. 5 team dealt with nose damage following contact on pit road at the conclusion of Stage 2, and Larson ultimately finished 12th in the 267-lap finale. Ryan Blaney won the race with a dramatic final-lap pass of Tyler Reddick, taking the checkered flag by 0.314 seconds, while Bell finished fourth and Hamlin sixth.

For the first time since Jimmie Johnson completed his remarkable five-title run in 2010, the Cup Series has a back-to-back champion. Larson also joins Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Tony Stewart and Joey Logano as a three-time champion.

“Congratulations to Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the entire No. 5 Chevrolet team on their third NASCAR Cup Series championship,” said Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, in a Chevrolet release. “Championships are earned through preparation, trust and execution, and this team demonstrated all three throughout the 2026 season. They stayed focused through adversity, and performed the best when it mattered most.”

Hendrick team owner Rick Hendrick praised Larson’s evolution from his more timid early years with Chip Ganassi Racing to the looseness he’s garnered since joining Hendrick in 2021.

“I tell you, just from my standpoint, I remember going up to Kyle when he was driving for Ganassi. He didn’t say much; he didn’t show any emotion,” Hendrick said in his championship press conference. “I think after the championship last year, he started enjoying, like watching his kids. They’ve done an unbelievable job in winning races. You see his interviews, how he talks more. He’s engaged more. He’s kind of accepted the fact that he’s a NASCAR champion and that he owes the fans, the media, and everyone a chance to see Kyle Larson.

“I just think back to the early days when he was tight-lipped, when he was sitting in my basement before we hired him, and he says, ‘can tell you, I’m more talented than anybody out there.’ That’s all he said. That’s all I needed to hear. He just has blossomed in the last few years.”

Larson’s path here was anything but straightforward.

The Chase presented by Mobil 1 returned in 2026 with a single points reset following the regular season, followed by a 16-car field and 10 races without eliminations. Wins carried a 55-point reward, but stage points and avoiding bad afternoons mattered, too.

Larson turned out to be exceptional at both – he just needed an entire regular season to find that version of himself again.

Held winless through the opening 26 races, Larson rode a 51-race drought into September while Hamlin entered The Chase as the dominant No. 1 seed, 55 points ahead of seventh-seeded Larson. There was obvious speed in the No. 5. What hadn’t been there consistently were the finishes to match it.

That changed at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where Larson snapped his drought in the second Chase race, then kept turning competitive cars into extraordinary points days as the No. 5 team appeared to grow stronger race by race. He opened the postseason fifth, first, second, first and second, a 2.2 average finish through five races — the best start in the format’s history, according to Racing Insights. He scored 273 points in that run, averaging 54.6 per race to nearly double his regular-season pace.

At Kansas Speedway, he swept both stages, led 235 laps and scored the maximum 76 points. At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 26-second pit stop dropped him a lap down, but he and crew chief Cliff Daniels recovered to finish second.

Kansas showcased the No. 5’s speed. Vegas demonstrated why its championship mettle was becoming the strongest in the field.

RELATED: Race results | Homestead photos

NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsport team owner, Rick Hendrick and crew chief Cliff Daniels celebrate drive Kyle Larson (not pictured) winning the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 08, 2026 in Homestead, Florida
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

Daniels deserves a substantial share of the credit. During the winless stretch, he acknowledged that the team had sometimes overreached in its search for speed, but kept the tight-knit group focused on continually building a foundation of excellence. With questions swirling throughout the first half of 2026, the response wasn’t to invent a new identity, but to dig deep and rebuild around the fundamentals of the team itself.

After Charlotte, Daniels summarized the team’s approach: “I feel like it’s us against us, and it’s always been that way,” emphasizing the importance of focusing on internal improvement rather than the competition.

And then came Phoenix.

Larson had warned after Charlotte that he wouldn’t feel comfortable with his championship lead until it was over. Disaster in the desert displayed why.

His sixth-place finish at Charlotte ended his run of five consecutive top fives, and things took a turn a week later. At Phoenix, handling problems and a tire failure sent him to 34th, with just three points. His 49-point championship lead shrank to five. Seven drivers suddenly sat within 56 points of one another.

What had seemed increasingly inevitable suddenly wasn’t — with arguably Larson’s unluckiest track next on the docket.

Yet Talladega resulted in one of the least likely defining statements for the No. 5 team imaginable.

Larson, winless in his previous 58 drafting-track starts, led 23 laps and banked 16 stage points but fell from the lead to 11th on the final lap. Then came a remarkable charge back through the tri-oval in a stunning last-gasp rally for his first career superspeedway victory, netting a whopping 71 points.

The championship lead went from five points to 73 in one afternoon. The entire complexion of The Chase had changed again.

Not all that separation was Larson’s doing. His rivals endured tire failures, pit-road mistakes and damaging crashes; all 15 other Chase drivers encountered some kind of trouble at Talladega. But the No. 5 had put itself in position to capitalize, collecting stage points, surviving the wrecks and making the decisive move when the chance came.

Martinsville Speedway offered one final reminder that nothing was guaranteed.

Larson went a lap down after an unsuccessful opening-stage strategy and left the first two stages without a single point. A caution following contact that sent Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Hamlin spinning gave him the free pass, and Larson recovered to finish ninth with 28 points.

His championship lead slipped slightly, but the damage was minimal. Larson entered Homestead 67 points ahead of Bell and 70 clear of Hamlin, needing only nine points — or a 28th-place finish without stage points — to guarantee another title.

Larson’s three championship runs could hardly look more different.

In 2021, he won 10 races and led 2,581 laps, capping a dominant first season with Daniels by winning the Phoenix finale. In 2025, he never led a lap at Phoenix, yet Daniels’ two-tire strategy following a late caution helped Larson finish third and claim the championship while Hamlin’s dominant race slipped away.

This time, there was no single restart or late strategic gamble to define the championship. There was a sustained Chase run that managed to accommodate dominant victories, remarkable recoveries and even the occasional miserable afternoon.

The result is another chapter in Hendrick Motorsports history. Larson delivers the organization’s record 16th Cup championship, following four with Jeff Gordon, seven with Johnson, one each with Terry Labonte and Chase Elliott, and now three with Larson.

Daniels was a race engineer on Johnson’s 2016 championship team before becoming Larson’s crew chief, directly linking two generations of prolific Hendrick title winners. And the No. 5 carries a history of its own, dating to Geoff Bodine’s April 1984 Martinsville victory that helped keep Rick Hendrick’s fledgling operation alive.

Forty-two years later, the same car number has delivered another championship, this time at Homestead — a track where Larson also won the previous Cup race in March 2025.

Perhaps the most telling part of this latest title is how different it looked from the first two. In 2021, Larson overwhelmed the competition. In 2025, he survived the moment that mattered most.

In 2026, he learned to do both.

Posted on by Staff Report

Ready to watch NASCAR in 2026 and want NASCAR TV and streaming programming this week? Here is this week’s NASCAR broadcast schedule. All times listed are ET.

HOW TO WATCH

Key information: FOX, FS1, FS2 | Prime Video | TNT Sports | Max in-car cameras | NBC, USA | The CW

Stream NASCAR races: Get FOX Sports App | Get the NBC Sports App | Watch on Peacock | FloRacing

Watch NASCAR 24/7: NASCAR Channel on Prime Video, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi and Xumo

More on The CW: Find your station

International: Watch NASCAR outside of the US

LISTINGS

Monday, November 9

5 p.m., NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (re-air), FS2
10:30 p.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton, FS1

Tuesday, November 10

7 a.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour: Homestead Recap, FS1
11:30 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour: Homestead Recap (re-air), FS2

Wednesday, November 11

12:30 a.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton (re-air), FS2
6 a.m., NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (re-air), FS2
5:30 p.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton (re-air), FS2
6:30 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour: Homestead Recap (re-air), FS2
8 p.m., Proud to Honor Veterans Day Classic, USA

Thursday, November 12

9:30 p.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton, FS1
10 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, FS1

Friday, November 13

8 p.m., NASCAR Awards Show, NASCAR Channel
8 p.m., SPEED With Harvick & Buxton (re-air), FS2
8:30 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour (re-air), FS2

Saturday, November 14

6 a.m., NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (re-air), FS2
6:30 p.m., Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, FS1

Sunday, November 15

Editor’s Note: The 2026 NASCAR TV Schedule is updated weekly throughout the season.

Posted on by Staff Report

When Casey Mears returned to the NASCAR Cup Series last spring, one of his goals involved a major milestone: make his 500th career start.

Mission accomplished.

Mears reached No. 500 with the green flag in Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), piloting Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 Chevrolet. He was short by 12 starts after his full-time Cup career concluded after the 2016 campaign, but a pair of part-time efforts allowed him to become the 50th driver in history to check that box.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead

“It’s super cool, really,” Mears told NASCAR.com after Friday’s opening Cup Series practice. “I think that it’s all about perspective, right? And you know, after being out of the sport for as long as I was, to be able to come back and do it in the fashion we’re doing it is pretty cool. There’s not a lot of people that get to do that, you know, at a professional level, and so it means a lot.

“I think it’s funny that the same frustrations set in as they always did. Like, I come here and I go, ‘Oh, no matter how it goes, I’m just gonna have a good time, and it’s just fun to be back,’ and then something’s not working right, then you immediately just go into race mode again and start trying to fix the problem. So, I guess in the end, it’s just awesome to have the opportunity to do it.”

The nephew of American open-wheel legend Rick Mears, Casey Mears began his racing career following the same pathway. He debuted in the Indy Lights Series in 1996, running three full-time campaigns between then and 2000 and winning once. Mears began his transition to NASCAR in 2001, eventually debuting at the Cup level in 2003 with Chip Ganassi Racing.

The Bakersfield, California, native spent four years at Ganassi — including three behind the wheel of the No. 41 Dodge — before transitioning to Hendrick Motorsports in 2007, the year of his lone Cup win in the Coca-Cola 600. He spent two years with Hendrick — one season in the No. 25 Chevrolet and one season in the No. 5 Chevrolet — before a switch to Richard Childress Racing in 2009.

After a part-time Cup slate in 2010, Mears joined Germain Racing in 2011, where he drove the team’s No. 13 Chevrolet through the 2016 season, marking the end of his full-time career. Germain has stayed involved with Mears through the years, and his Gracie Foundation charity group have offered support with sponsorship of the No. 62 entry this weekend.

Mears finished inside the top 15 in Cup points twice and recorded 51 top 10s, along with three poles. He also has a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory and three ARCA Menards Series wins to his name.

The now 48-year-old made his first Cup start in more than two years with the 2019 Daytona 500, then didn’t return until 2025 — when he made five starts for the Carl Long-owned Garage 66. Mears powered that team into the Daytona 500 in February this year before making his next five starts for the part-time Beard effort.

His recent partial schedule — a sharp contrast from his bustling years of full-time driving — has afforded him more opportunities to reflect.

“I tend to, these last few races, soak in the pre-race ceremonies a little bit more, walk out, see the crowd, spending time with fans,” Mears said. “I think that I always did a pretty good job of that, but at the same time, there’s moments where you’re just in the middle of your job, right? So it’s hard to stop sometimes and sign autographs, but definitely, you appreciate what I got to do at a high level for so long, and when I was in it, it was just what I did. You don’t think about it from that perspective because you’re just trying to go faster week in, week out. But after being out of it for a while, and then getting a chance to come back, to be able to even be on the track and compete at this level is a privilege, really, and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Mears’ first start in NASCAR came 25 years ago at Homestead-Miami in what’s now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the Jeff Welliver-owned No. 66 to a 28th-place finish. He said that he’s not sure if Sunday’s race will bring full-circle closure to his career, leaving the door open for Cup Series start No. 501 or opportunities in other series.

“I don’t know what next year looks like yet,” Mears said. “Right now, I just really wanted to reach this goal, but I never stopped the love of driving race cars. You know, that never went away for me. It’s just, the opportunities did. So if there’s an opportunity to do something, I wouldn’t mind running in the Truck Series or in the O’Reilly Series a little bit. I mean, I’ve had a really fun time coming back and being in a race car, so I would be open to doing something else, too.”

Contributing: Zack Albert in Homestead, Florida

Posted on by Zack Albert

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jesse Love made a point to stroll the length of several pit stalls Saturday evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway, embracing each member of his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team before fulfilling his post-race obligations. His title defense in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series had just ended one spot short in the standings, but he made sure to share his appreciation with his colleagues from the last three seasons.

That final campaign came to an end just 14 points shy of a second consecutive O’Reilly Series crown, as Justin Allgaier powered to championship No. 2 in Saturday’s season finale at the 1.5-mile Homestead track. Love — who finished where he started in fourth place — joined fellow title contenders Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed and Corey Day on the minus side of the points after the 300-mile curtain-closer.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead

Love is bound for the Cup Series next year, when the 21-year-old driver will team up with Wood Brothers Racing for his rookie season in the No. 21 Ford. First, he offered a heartfelt goodbye.

“These things sting, and you know, obviously it hurts, right?” said Love, who led just once for four of the 200 laps. “It doesn’t hurt as bad as I thought it was going to, just because I feel like the gratitude I have for the last three years of my life and the people that I’m around and got to spend time with these last three years, that emotion overwhelms the loss of a championship, which is very mind-boggling to me. At the end of the day, the company you keep on journeys like this sometimes matters more than the destination of it all.”

The journey was promising early on as Love erased six points from his 22-point deficit at the stages, but as the race entered its second half, a victory nearly became essential for his title hopes. Those chances dimmed on the race’s final restart, when Love’s No. 2 Chevy slipped from third to seventh as it bogged down on slightly older tires. He worked his way back to fourth over the final 49-lap green-flag stretch to the end.

Creed made a strong stake in the championship pursuit early, as he started from the pole and led the most laps (99) in his dark-horse bid for his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship. He slightly closed the gap on the 42-point deficit that he carried into Homestead from the outset, with dominance that came early as he traded the top spot with Haas Factory Team teammate Sam Mayer, who swept the stage wins.

Creed was running third before a wall scrape in the closing laps caused his right-front tire to shred at the start of his final lap, with Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet hitting the carcass as he took the checkered flag. Creed ultimately came home sixth in the race and fourth in the standings, 33 points back, and he volunteered his frustration with 26th-place finisher Joey Gase’s role in traffic.

“I was running down (Kvapil) pretty quickly, and yeah, we got to lapped traffic and kind of at the end of every run, I would die and just lose a lot of grip for whatever reason, and it made it really hard to make pace,” said Creed, who will move to Sam Hunt Racing next season. “We got to some lap cars and the 55 (Gase), and he just is in the way, never gets out of the way, doesn’t have any respect or awareness for the leaders. That’s Joey Gase for you, all the time, all the time. But yeah, I really struggled behind him; I needed to clear him, and I didn’t as quickly as I needed to.”

Like Creed, Kvapil’s season produced his first three O’Reilly Series victories, and it yielded at least a faint mathematical shot at his first title. But he was forced to rally after reporting a low-voltage reading to his crew on Lap 37, prompting his No. 1 JR Motorsports crew to change the battery nine laps later during the stage break.

His power-packed comeback efforts nearly netted a race win. Kvapil led 36 laps late and was the top finisher among title-eligible drivers, but his second-place outcome ended up almost four seconds behind finale winner Brandon Jones at the checkers.

“I don’t think we had a good enough first half of the race,” said Kvapil, third in the final standings with a minus-28 margin. “We didn’t get enough stage points, and we just needed the 7 to have a mistake or have something happen to them at the end, even if we wanted to give us those points that we needed, but I don’t know. We did our best. We fought all day and worked on it a little bit, got it really good. One thing, I was super-nervous about ripping the fence. I felt like in practice I never really got the hang of it. But by Stage 2, we made an adjustment, and I felt like I was one of the best up there. So, a small victory for me, I guess you’d say.”

Day’s shot fizzled earliest as he collided and crashed with Rajah Caruth on Lap 8, squeezing both HendrickCars.com Chevrolets into the outside wall at the entrance to Turn 3. Day’s No. 17 ride was towed to the O’Reilly Series garage for repairs, and he lost 17 laps to the leader. He accepted the blame after he finished 25 laps in arrears with a 34th-place result in the 38-car field, winding up fifth in the championship tally, 61 points off the top.

“I just messed up,” said Day, who wrapped up his first full O’Reilly season with four wins. “Yeah, I just didn’t have the pace I needed on the short run, and the 7 got by me, and I needed those points, and I just got greedy and wasn’t clear and cleared myself. So, it’s as simple as that. No one did anything wrong besides me.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones took the lead with 14 laps remaining and pulled away to a nearly four-second victory in Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway — impressively delivering Toyota its 700th win in NASCAR competition.

Just behind all the admirable work out front, JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier claimed his own hardware – his seventh-place finish in the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet good enough to earn the 2026 series championship trophy; his second title in the last three years, which makes him the first driver in the storied JRM history to claim multiple championships.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead-Miami

Five drivers came into the night mathematically eligible to decide the title, and Allgaier’s four closest contenders certainly kept him honest. All but one of those drivers (Hendrick Motorsports’ Corey Day) led laps. Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed led a race best 99 of the 200 laps, the most laps he’s ever been in front in a single race.

But the 40-year-old Allgaier did exactly what he needed to, if not pacing the field, at least keeping the leaders in sight. A career-best six-win season and just enough of a points advantage at the drop of the green flag kept him tops at the wave of the checkered flag, too.

“Means more than you’ll ever know,” Allgaier said. “It’s obviously not the finish we wanted tonight. Wanted to be in Victory Lane. But this team never quits.”

Not only did the championship contenders deliver a suspenseful, action-packed night at the 1.5-mile South Florida track, but the 29-year-old Jones — also a Chase driver — reminded everyone that he expects to be part of that title mix going forward too. The win — by 3.937 seconds over JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil — marked his second of the year (Chicagoland) and ninth of his career, putting the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota eighth in the championship points standings.

“There were so many cool positives to come out of today, first of all knocking Toyota’s 700th win out of the park, and it’s so cool to be a part of these big moments for this company,” Jones said.

“I would say we weren’t really the best car to begin this race,” he continued. “We were capable of running inside the top-five and top-10, and we consistently made better gains on the car all night long. Our long run pace was really our strong suit tonight, but this track can produce these long runs like we saw tonight … luckily it played out for us tonight.

“Just an incredible way to cap the year off,” Jones said. “Looking forward to having a couple months off, couldn’t ask for a better way to end the year.”

JGR’s Brent Crews finished third, with championship contender Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love finishing fourth and Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff rounding out the top-five.

Despite his massive time out front of the field, Creed finished sixth, followed by Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer and William Sawalich.

“There’s a thousand different things that could have gone differently to gain us those 15 points,” the RCR driver and 2025 series champ Love said of the margin he trailed Allgaier coming into the race. “I feel that at the end of the day obviously it stings, right? It’s a painful thing to go through, losing and it being close.

“I was obviously upset getting out of the car. When I get to be around our group of guys on the 2 car, a lot more happiness and gratefulness kind of overwhelms me than the sting of the loss,” added Love, who ultimately came 14 points shy of becoming a back-to-back champ before moving to the Wood Brothers Racing team next year to campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“This closes out a big chapter in my life over the last three years that I’m going to miss tremendously, but I’ll always be grateful for it.”

Allgaier was similarly emotional. He claimed his first title only two seasons ago, but conceded this one gives off decidedly different vibes. At 40 years old, he is the second oldest series champion since Tommy Ellis hoisted the big trophy as a 41-year-old back in 1988. And the Illinois-native and hugely popular personality in the garage had openly discussed retiring from full-time competition after this season.

Instead, he stayed on the grid with his beloved parents, wife and two daughters trackside to witness Saturday’s cherished title victory.

“The first one was for me and the first one I really enjoyed,” Allgaier said of the 2024 championship. “But this one is for all these men and women standing back here. They have worked their tail off.

“These two, my wife, my parents, everybody you mentioned, it means so much. … Congrats to all the guys in the Chase this year. It was super fun. Really proud of our whole team. Everybody knows [longtime sponsor] Brandt and our culture at Chevrolet. Andrew Overstreet, first championship as a crew chief. That’s really cool for him.”

Allgaier’s NASCAR Hall of Fame team co-owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was understandably proud. Not only did Allgaier take the title, but his 23-year-old teammate Kvapil finished third in the championship, 28 points behind. Creed was fourth in the standings, 33 points back, and the 20-year-old Day, who crashed only eight laps into the race, was an impressive fifth, claiming four wins in his first full season.

MORE: What happened to Corey Day

Chevrolet earned the series’ manufacturer’s title.

“Obviously we’re thrilled with the way this season went. [Crew chief Andrew] Overstreet did a great job, the pit crew did a great job, Hendrick engines did an awesome job,” a smiling Earnhardt Jr. said. “Been a really strong season for all of our cars and looking forward to next season, let’s go win some more. But we’re going to celebrate this one.

“This is a special night.”

The 2027 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season begins Saturday, Feb. 20, at Daytona International Speedway, with all 33 races next year airing on The CW.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage without issues, confirming Jones as the Homestead winner. Engine teardown on the No. 7 Chevrolet will occur Sunday. 

Posted on by Staff Report

With O’Reilly Auto Parts as the official sponsor of NASCAR’s secondary circuit in 2026, a new season-long financial program will reward race winners across all 33 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races this season.

RELATED: 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

What is the program? 

Designed to reward drivers financially for winning O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races, the program serves as a platform to highlight driver excellence and reinforce the strong connection between driver performance and the automotive community that supports their endeavors. Such a physical, mental and mechanical passion defines both NASCAR and O’Reilly Auto Parts, and this program is meant to emphasize the passion and grit displayed every weekend.

How does the program work?

O’Reilly Auto Parts will award $5,700 — “57” representing 1957, the year O’Reilly Auto Parts was founded — to the winner of each O’Reilly race this season, meaning $188,100 will go to the 33 race winners in 2026. Additionally, a $26,000 end-of-year bonus will go to the driver with the most per-race bonuses at the end of the season. Finally, a $57,000 bonus will be paid out at the end of the season to the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.

Justin Allgaier had the most wins and also earned the championship.

Together, $271,100 will be awarded and, when combined with this year’s Dash 4 Cash program, full bonus distribution will amount to $671,100.

All drivers — full-time and part-time — qualify for each race bonus.

MORE: 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victors so far

Check out every O’Reilly race winner from the 2026 season.

2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series winners

RankDriverRaces wonBonus earned
1Justin Allgaier6 (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Nashville, Pocono, EchoPark-2)$34,200
2Corey Day4 (Talladega, Dover, Las Vegas-2, Charlotte-2)$22,800
T-3Carson Kvapil3 (Indianapolis, Iowa, Martinsville-2)$17,100
T-3Sheldon Creed3 (EchoPark-1, Darlington-2, Bristol-2)$17,100
T-5Jesse Love2 (Gateway, Phoenix-2)$11,400
T-5Kyle Larson2 (Las Vegas-1, Texas)$11,400
T-5Connor Zilisch2 (Bristol, Watkins Glen)$11,400
T-5Austin Hill2 (Daytona-1, Naval Base Coronado)$11,400
T-5Shane van Gisbergen2 (COTA, Sonoma)$11,400
T-5Brandon Jones2 (Chicagoland, Homestead)$11,400
T-11William Sawalich1 (Rockingham)$5,700
T-11Taylor Gray1 (Kansas)$5,700
T-11Ross Chastain1 (Charlotte)$5,700
T-11Ryan Sieg1 (Daytona-2)$5,700
T-11Sammy Smith1 (Talladega-2)$5,700