Briscoe wins Busch Light Pole Award for Homestead-Miami championship race

Posted on November 7, 2026November 7, 2026 by Holly Cain

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Unseasonably warm temperatures in the high-80s, sunny skies and a championship vibe greeted teams at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Friday’s all-important Busch Light Pole Qualifying session to set the grid for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe ultimately proved himself coolest among the competitors and conditions, claiming the top starting spot with a lap of 166.687 mph in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota — the second pole position of the season — and second in just the last three weeks (Talladega) — for the 31-year-old Indiana native.

“I feel confident we can contend, but I wouldn’t say I was the dominant car,” Briscoe said. “I definitely feel really really good about it [the race]. I think we’ll be in the mix tomorrow, and if we execute, definitely up there.”

Briscoe, a three-time race winner this year, edged his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin by only .017 seconds to claim his 11th career pole. Importantly, however, Hamlin’s front-row start in the No. 11 JGR Toyota leads the three drivers still championship eligible heading into Sunday’s season finale.

The championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, will roll off the 40-car grid from fourth position in the No. 5 Chevrolet. The final driver still vying for the season trophy, JGR’s Christopher Bell, was sixth quickest in the No. 20 JGR Toyota.

Larson holds a commanding 67-point advantage on Bell and a 70-point edge on Hamlin, a three-time Homestead winner. The two JGR teammates both acknowledged all week the long odds of taking the season trophy away from Larson, who is looking to earn a third series title and could become the first driver to win consecutive championships since Jimmie Johnson won five straight from 2006-2010.

Larson, who won in the series’ last race here in March of 2025, said he wasn’t entirely satisfied with his qualifying work — his Chevrolet better than he showed on the lap around the South Florida 1.5-miler. But he likes his chances on Sunday and the forward position he’ll start from.

“We qualified well and it’s a long race,” Larson said. “I’m happy to qualify in the front two rows. … we’ll see. There’s going to be fast guys coming from behind, too, so just hoping we can stay in the top 10 all day.”

The 33-year-old Californian Larson needs only nine points to earn his third title, and on Saturday characterized his team’s approach to the weekend as “extremely loose” and “pretty relaxed” — revealing crew members were debating Saturday if a hot dog is a sandwich and if cereal is a soup. Larson, smiling, said “no” to both.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was third quickest in the session, giving Toyota a top three sweep at the front of the Homestead grid for the third time in the last four races here.

Behind Larson is Team Penske’s Austin Cindric — with Bell, Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and last week’s Martinsville Speedway winner William Byron, Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Spire Motorsports Daniel Suárez rounding out the top 10 starting positions.

Of note, the 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski hit the wall exciting Turn 4 on his qualifying lap, spinning his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford Mustang down into the inside wall. He was okay but will make his final full-time start for the team from last place on the 40-car grid.

“I was trying to run the bottom lane in (turns) three and four because the track was so slick, and wanted to see if I could find something down there,” Keselowski said, “and I found something, just wasn’t what I was looking for.”

Although Hamlin just missed out on the pole position Saturday, he was honored for his series-best six on the season — the largest single-season haul of his career.

Posted on November 7, 2026November 8, 2026 by Staff Report

NASCAR returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway for Championship Weekend, where all three national series will crown their 2026 champions as The Chase presented by Mobil 1 reaches its conclusion. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the action Friday evening, followed by the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday and the Cup Series on Sunday. Championship Weekend returns to the South Florida 1.5-mile oval for the first time since 2019, with Kyle Larson holding a commanding Cup Series points lead, five drivers still eligible for the O’Reilly title and Kaden Honeycutt leading Layne Riggs in the Truck Series. Bookmark this page and return often for your race-week essentials, from qualifying orders and starting lineups to pit stalls, stage results and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC. The categories listed below will be updated with results as the information becomes available.

Tires: Twelve total sets — eight new sets for the race, three for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Race day: Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be updated with results as the information becomes available.

Tires: Eight total sets — five new sets for the race, two for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be updated with results as the information becomes available.

Tires: Seven total sets — four new sets for the race, two for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on November 7, 2026November 7, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Ryan Blaney has pumped the brakes on his working relationship with Josh Berry.

Berry, driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, was penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 by NASCAR officials on Tuesday for brake-checking Blaney during last week’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

MORE: Homestead-Miami schedule | Key players in 2026-27 Silly Season

During the Xfinity 500, Berry appeared frustrated by slight contact from behind by Blaney through Turns 3 and 4, and on corner exit, spiked the brake pedal, leading Blaney directly into Berry’s back bumper and causing significant damage to the No. 12 Team Penske Ford that went to the garage for extended repairs.

The circumstances would be frustrating enough between any two competitors. But for at least one more race weekend, Berry is a quasi-teammate of Blaney’s, as the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing entry operates as a Team Penske affiliate. After Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Berry departs the Wood Brothers — and Ford — for Legacy Motor Club, where he’ll drive the No. 42 Toyota.

“It was very surprising,” Blaney said Friday after Cup practice at Homestead. “You know, especially the circumstances that it was kind of incidental contact really that he and I had there in the middle of the corner. It was pretty light. So yeah, I mean that surprised me. But you know, he made that decision, and that is what it is. But yeah, being an affiliate and teammate, he and I had a good relationship. I was pretty surprised at that.”

Berry shared his perspective Saturday ahead of Cup Series qualifying, ultimately stating his decision was the result of a lapse in judgement.

“First and foremost, I mean, I regret the decision I made in the heat of the moment there,” Berry said. “Obviously, looking back on it, I mean, Ryan had caught up to me. I was stuck behind the 23 [Bubba Wallace] for a little bit there. Ryan got to me. He peeked out a little bit into (Turn) 3 like he was wanting by, and then he obviously got into me in the center of 3 and 4, and I just overreacted to it really. The contact just rubbed me the wrong way and I got upset, and I made a bad decision in that moment that I regret and obviously wish I’d have made a better decision there. But just really can’t change nothing about it now.”

Blaney shared he and Berry spoke by phone earlier this week and had a “good conversation” about the incident. Berry said that conversation took place on the drive home Sunday night and that he also spoke to Team Penske owner Roger Penske, leaving a voicemail for No. 12 crew chief Jonathan Hassler.

“I felt like I did all I could to at least let him know where I stood on it,” Berry said, “that I regretted the decision that I made and was upset with myself for making that decision. That was really all I could do in that moment.”

But Blaney also believes the relationship between them isn’t exactly the same after an incident like this.

“Yeah, I think it changes a little bit,” Blaney said. “It’s not on fire, but it’s not rainbows and sunshine.”

Berry understands Blaney’s perspective and expects some growing pains in their relationship after this incident.

“I don’t really expect him to forgive me overnight, but I mean, it’ll take time to get better,” Berry said. “I feel like I’ve had a good relationship with all those guys over the last few years. And yeah, I mean, if it takes time to heal these things, that’s fine. But I don’t see it going any further than it did Sunday.”

Blaney entered Martinsville a distant 107 points back of series leader Kyle Larson in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, but the 2023 Cup champion was still mathematically eligible for the championship. Instead, he left the penultimate race of the season with a 35th-place finish, 59 laps down after his stay in the garage, eliminating his title hopes and sinking him to seventh in points, 133 points out.

A three-time winner in 2026, Blaney specified he had no input with NASCAR in any penalty recommendations, but he was in favor of where the sport’s officials landed.

“Personally, I feel like that’s the right call that NASCAR did with just trying to set a precedent of ‘hey, this is not OK,’ and they did that,” Blaney said. “Moving forward.”

Berry was not surprised to see the penalty land after seeing Carson Hocevar pull a similar move by brake-checking another Team Penske Ford — Austin Cindric’s No. 2 car — four times during Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

“I knew I was screwed,” Berry said. “As egregious as his was, I felt like it was two totally different situations. And obviously, mine was reacting to the contact I got from behind, one-and-done kind of deal. As many attempts as he had made to put the 2 out of the race and finally succeeding, I knew that I was probably going to get something related, and obviously that’s what ended up happening.”

If there is any common ground to be found between Blaney and Berry, it’s that both believe more structure could be added to the noses of the NASCAR Cup Series cars on short tracks. A change was made in June to remove the bumper foam of the front bumper of the Next Gen car on short tracks like Martinsville, among others, to reduce the severity of traditional bumper-to-bumper impacts on drivers’ heads.

However, after the significance of the damage done after two instances of brake-checking, there is consideration among drivers for adding more structure back for future events.

“It is the right direction because the impacts we’ve had — the bumper stacks we’ve had there and Bowman Gray — are really hard on our heads,” Berry said. “Bowman Gray was terrible for that, so I mean it is the right direction. In my opinion, how it was done needs some work. Every stock car in the history of time has a bumper bar, and really, removing the foam and leaving the bumper where it was, there’s a huge air gap there that’s created that makes them too weak.

“And I think for the side of short-track racing, you’ve got to have some sort of steel bumper bar, aluminum bumper bar to back up the composite nose for those type of incidents.”

Posted on November 6, 2026November 7, 2026 by Reid Spencer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Under caution with 27 laps left in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Chase leader Kaden Honeycutt was debating whether to pit for his last set of fresh tires.

“I say we pit, put ’em on and go for it,” Honeycutt radioed to crew chief Scott Zipadelli.

That’s exactly what Honeycutt did. Gaining the lead after a restart on Lap 120 of 134, he pulled away from runner-up Christian Eckes to win not only the race but his first series championship.

Knowing the title was his — and screaming with raw emotion — Honeycutt powered his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota across the finish line 1.038 seconds ahead of Eckes to score his fifth victory of the season, his first at 1.5-mile Homestead and the fifth of his career.

“Man, this is amazing,” Honeycutt exulted. “I’ve worked so damn hard to be here. Thank you to every owner, thank you, everybody, that’s let me drive the race car for them, whether it was dirt, asphalt, road course, doesn’t matter.

“That is because of you guys I’m sitting right here with this group behind me as champions. I’m so out of breath, I wish I could talk harder. Thank you, fans, for showing up. We just won Homestead and the damn championship.”

Honeycutt’s decision to abandon the conservative approach he had adopted early in the race paid enormous dividends.

“The first half of the race I did not want to push it too hard,” he said. “It fell in our hands. I put my nuts on the dash and wanted to win the race.”

WATCH: Honeycutt gives memorable interview following triumph

The drivers’ championship was the 11th in the series for Toyota, achieved in the same No. 11 Toyota Corey Heim drove to a single-season-record 12 victories and the championship last year.

Billed as a shootout between Honeycutt and Layne Riggs, the head-to-head battle never materialized. After side-to-side contact with the No. 77 Chevrolet of pole winner Nick Sanchez on Lap 2, Riggs No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford was never the same.

The contact cut Riggs’ right rear tire, forcing him to pit road on Lap 17. At the end of Stage 1, Riggs stayed on the track to take a wave-around, but on Lap 46, he pitted again with a shredded right rear.

A pass-through penalty for too many crew members over the wall on his stop left him seven laps down. Ultimately, Riggs finished 32nd and ended the season second in the series standings, 83 points behind Honeycutt.

READ: Riggs suffers multiple flat tires

“After that initial contact, I don’t know what happened to the 77 (Sanchez),” Riggs said of the run-in that cost him a shot at the title. “I thought I was good. They said we were close together. I got super free up under him. Next thing I knew, we got a tire down.”

Then the second flat tire cost Riggs any hope he might have had.

“Obviously, we weren’t able to put the consistency together to be champions tonight,” Riggs said. “We knew we were going to have to run an almost perfect race. That’s hard to do anytime, any series, any level and division.

“But I’m just proud of the entire team that we were even in the mix; we even had a chance to become champion. It was disappointing to know I didn’t even know what my truck was going to be.”

Daniel Hemric, Eckes’ teammate at McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, finished third, followed by Ty Majeski and Stewart Friesen. Heim was sixth in the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota after winning the first and second stages.

Despite competing in only nine of the 25 Truck Series races, Heim scored three victories this season and finished 17th in the points.

Chandler Smith, Jake Garcia, Grant Enfinger and Corey LaJoie completed the top 10. Smith finished third in the final standings behind Riggs, his teammate.

Zipadelli claimed his second straight championship as a crew chief, having guided Heim to the title last season. Honeycutt gave Zipadelli enormous credit for his steady-handed encouragement.

“Scott Zipadelli is the best damn crew chief on that pit road,” Honeycutt asserted. “He’s the best man out there. He’s not just a Hall of Fame crew chief; he’s a Hall of Fame man. He’s done nothing but mentor me and make me better every single week.”

Obviously, the guidance bore fruit on Friday night.

The 2027 NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series season begins Friday, Feb. 19, at Daytona International Speedway, with both Honeycutt and Riggs returning for full-time campaigns – and for Honeycutt, championship defense is on his mind.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Honeycutt as the Homestead winner. There were also no issues with the No. 11 engine teardown on Saturday, confirming Honeycutt as the 2026 champion.

Posted on November 6, 2026November 7, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

One year ago, Kaden Honeycutt finished third in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, two spots behind Corey Heim and the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota.

Can’t beat ’em? Join ’em.

Honeycutt won the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, winning the season finale and outlasting Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs over a thrilling seven-race Chase. The championship comes in his second full-time season, bookending a story of perseverance for the once little-known driver.

“Man, this is amazing. I’ve worked so damn hard to be here,” Honeycutt said, gasping for breath just moments after exiting his truck on the Homestead frontstretch. “Thank you to every owner, thank you everybody that’s let me drive the race car for them, whether it was dirt, asphalt, road course, doesn’t matter. That is because of you guys I’m sitting right here with this group behind me as champions.”

Honeycutt secured the title with relative ease at Homestead. Though he made the race-winning pass with 15 laps to go, Riggs suffered two blown tires, falling several laps off the pace. It would’ve taken remarkable circumstances for Riggs to mount a comeback over the final 100 circuits at the Florida oval.

Honeycutt admitted that he would’ve preferred to duke it out all night with the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports driver. But when Riggs suffered his issues, it allowed Honeycutt to relax.

“I really just want to make sure I honestly just finished the race,” Honeycutt said in his post-race press conference. “I knew the race wasn’t over. I mean, anything could happen to me. I could blow an engine. I could blow a transmission. I could blow a right front tire and destroy the truck.

“I just was trying to stay mentally focused. I mean, I lost it when I took the white flag when I knew it was over. It was pretty awesome.”

WATCH: Honeycutt talks mindset shift

Riggs was the most dominant driver over the first 18 races this season, winning six times to earn the No. 1 seed for The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Honeycutt put up stout numbers himself, winning twice for his first two national-series victories. The Willow Park, Texas, native scored his first win in May at Watkins Glen International, coming mere hours after his first career ARCA Menards Series win at the 2.45-mile road course.

That victory in New York’s Finger Lakes Region was the turning point — at least crew chief Scott Zipadelli thought so.

“I could see a big weight lifted off of Kaden’s shoulders,” said Zipadelli, who suffered serious injuries in an off-season accident and missed the first three races. “I think he felt he had to perform at the level we were when Corey drove last year. It was kind of smooth sailing right after Watkins Glen. We just let our heads down, kept working hard, and Kaden did an amazing job of growing in all kinds of areas and aspects as a young man and a race car driver.

“I’ll be honest with you, this is probably one of the most rewarding championships I’ve had in that aspect.”

But even though Honeycutt scored top fives in three of the next four, he found that May stretch of races as a wake-up call.

“I needed to still work and figure out what I needed to do to be better,” he said. “I think a little bit was pressure, but I think a lot of that was perfecting race craft, getting better at what I needed in my truck. Our connection getting a lot better at the race track and off the race track definitely helped that situation, too.

“I definitely had the expectation to be a champion. It wasn’t because the vehicles weren’t going to be fast enough. It was because I didn’t do my job, right? I didn’t want that. My desire to win is more than probably anybody you can ask for.”

MORE: All Craftsman Truck Series champions

Honeycutt’s second truck triumph came dominantly, leading 225 of 250 laps at Richmond Raceway in August.

That was the moment he felt like he was a true championship contender.

“We sucked at IRP and North Wilkesboro for no reason,” Honeycutt said. “We figured it out what it was. Had a new left-side tire that we struggled on the short track stuff, but then we went to work, Scott went to work and the guys, and we got much better at Richmond. Our short track stuff came alive a lot better.”

Richmond set a tone for the postseason.

A tone that he certainly lived up to.

Starting The Chase with an eighth-place finish, Honeycutt earned top fives in the next four, including wins at Kansas Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. He had one of the best trucks in the antepenultimate race at Talladega Superspeedway but slid back to fifth in the closing moments despite leading late.

Honeycutt was hardly immune to adversity, either. At Charlotte, he brushed the wall while battling Riggs for the victory, opening the door for the No. 34 to capitalize and cut the championship gap to 17 points. At Martinsville, late contact from Tristan McKee shuffled Honeycutt from the top five to 14th, trimming his advantage over Riggs to 20 points heading into Homestead.

Riggs needed to play catch-up from the get-go. In the opener at Bristol, the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team had a loose wheel in the final stage, finishing several laps down in 32nd. A bounce back seemed in order at Kansas, but while battling Honeycutt for the win, Riggs slapped the wall and dropped back to finish 19th — another costly mishap.

Riggs won the next race at Charlotte to cut his deficit to 17 points, but Honeycutt rebuilt his advantage to 43 after Talladega. Even after Riggs dominated Martinsville and reduced the gap to 20, he still faced an uphill battle heading into Homestead.

Honeycutt’s remarkable title-clinching performance comes a year after heartbreak. But he was never supposed to be this close.

In 2025, Honeycutt planned to embark on a full campaign in Niece Motorsports’ No. 45 Chevrolet. He raced for Al Niece in the first 16 events, climbing as high as fifth in points by the midpoint of summer. But before Watkins Glen, Niece released him, saying that Honeycutt had signed with a different team and manufacturer for 2026.

Young’s Motorsports picked him up for a one-off at The Glen to remain eligible for the postseason. For the playoffs, he shifted to Halmar-Friesen Racing’s No. 52 Toyota in place of Stewart Friesen — who had suffered severe injuries in a dirt modified crash in Canada — for the rest of the season.

In his eight races, Honeycutt finished no worse than 18th, recording three straight top 10s to finish the campaign and posing a serious threat to Corey Heim’s championship hopes.

Heim won a series-record 12 races en route to a championship last year — all with the Scott Zipadelli-led No. 11 team that Honeycutt has now driven to a championship.

WATCH: Scott Zipadelli talks title

“I put myself on a pedestal that if you’re not perfect, then you need to get your butt to work and figure out what it takes to win,” Honeycutt said. “Just to be able to work with a race team like this, I never would have thought I’d be able to race for Toyota or Tricon, or let alone a guy like Scott and this race team. It’s been an amazing time. To be honest, I can sit here and say I was not a champion driver to start this season. I really took losses to the heart really, really bad. I gave bad interviews, bad looks outside of the race track. I didn’t handle ’em very well.

“I went to work really hard, perfected my craft a lot better. He worked with me on sim, outside the shop, getting together and talking about life, things like that. I think that can transfer to the race shop, also driving the vehicle. I really think it has for me.”

Before embarking on full-time NASCAR racing, Honeycutt raced three part-time seasons in the Truck Series. He first joined Niece as a driver in 2023, also taking on a shop mechanic and fabrication role while making additional starts for Young’s and Roper Racing.

Honeycutt is a former CARS Pro Late Model Tour champion. As he cut his teeth in the regional ranks, he raced for RFK Racing in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.

And the emotions of that journey came flooding out Friday night.

“This is for all the dirt track racers back at home in Texas that I raced with when I was 12 years old all the way until 17,” he said. “I worked with my daddy in the shop for so dang long to even be in the dirt track business running Friday and Saturday, running a stock car, running a modified, anything I could hop in.

“I moved to North Carolina to work on the trucks. The only opportunity I had to was to work on the vehicles I was going to drive.”

Less than five years ago, Honeycutt was hardly known. Now, he’s a Truck Series champion – and the sky is the limit.

Posted on November 6, 2026November 7, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Layne Riggs’ championship hopes unraveled almost immediately in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford got loose racing Nick Sanchez for fourth place on Lap 2 and slid the right side of his machine against Sanchez’s left. Fourteen laps later, his right-rear tire came apart, damaging his fenders and ultimately destroying his championship hopes as Kaden Honeycutt stormed to the victory and the title, besting Riggs by a whopping 83-point margin.

By the end of Stage 1 on Lap 30, Riggs was trapped two laps down in 34th place after he was forced to pit road on Lap 16 to replace the flat tire. The team opted to take the wave-around under the stage break to get one of his laps back, but the misery was just starting. Riggs hit pit road again on Lap 45 as his team addressed the damage under green-flag conditions, then received a penalty for too many crewmen going over the wall and had to return to pit road for a pass-through penalty, returning to competition seven laps down.

The dejection was palpable when Riggs finally climbed from the truck, finishing 32nd, six laps down.

“The pressures weren’t even up on the tires yet. We were already out of contention and never even knew what the balance was going to be,” Riggs said. “Never knew how fast my truck was going to be. I look at it as we blew up on Lap 2 or 3, just from a notes standpoint. We don’t really know what we were even going to have, so that’s what’s more disappointing for me.”

But the 24-year-old, second-generation racer managed to hold his head high despite his disappointment. In his third full-time season, Riggs bloomed into a true championship contender, entering as the No. 1 seed in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, all while earning a career-best seven wins.

“I had a long time to think about it in the truck, and I’m just thinking about the positives of the year we had,” said Riggs, who entered Friday’s race 20 points behind Honeycutt. “We knew it was going to be — I wouldn’t say a long shot or Hail Mary, whatever words you guys want to use — but it was going to take a lot of execution today to get it done, and we knew that was going to be difficult no matter what. And yeah, I mean, I’m just glad to put a pin at the end of the season, knowing we tried our best.”

Riggs wasn’t quite sure what happened that upended his day. The contact appeared slight, but the damage was done in a near-instant.

WATCH: Contact with Sanchez leads to Riggs’ damage | More issues strike Riggs

“I don’t really know what happened there at the beginning,” Riggs said. “I feel like it kind of happened out of nowhere. I thought I was all good. Next thing I know, I’m sideways in the 77, and so I have no clue exactly what happened. But I had plenty of time riding around about 10 laps down to think about my day today, my year leading up to it. And of course I’m disappointed about this one race. But at the same time, I’m just so proud that I was even in a position to walk out on the stage before the race (and) had the potential at a championship.”

Riggs will be back in the No. 34 truck next season, likely fighting Honeycutt for the championship all over again in 2027, when the division becomes known as the NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series. The two proved to be the class of the field in 2026, combining for 12 race wins across the 25-race season.

“I think that it’s pretty obvious that we’re the two best, consistently fastest trucks week in and week out,” Riggs said. “Me and Kaden, we raced a long time against each other. This, tonight, was his night. During The Chase, he had a lot better run. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re more consistent like they were. That team has a lot of experience on top of the pit box and in their shop. We’re all still two-, three-year people just trying to learn and figure things out. I think that’s where we lack in our consistency department. But every spot that we weren’t number one is stuff that we’re motivated to get better at.”

Posted on November 6, 2026November 7, 2026 by Staff Report

Chase Briscoe turned the fastest time in Friday’s 50-minute NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the final tune-up session of the 2026 season. Briscoe laid down a fast lap of 165.239 mph around the 1.5-mile oval, earning top honors for the day in South Beach.

Denny Hamlin led the remaining Chase presented by Mobil 1 drivers, turning a 164.684 mph lap for third- best overall. Christopher Bell was fourth fastest at 164.649 mph. Bell trails Kyle Larson by 67 points and Hamlin trails by 70, both needing a win and help to keep their championship hopes alive.

Larson was 10th fastest, turning a best lap of 163.895 mph. He made just 33 laps during the session as he scraped the outside wall multiple times while running the boards.

Austin Cindric was second fastest, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five. Daniel Suárez, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano and Michael McDowell were fifth through ninth fastest.

Blaney had the best 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-lap averages.

The session’s only incident came at the very end. Tyler Reddick contacted the back end of Zane Smith’s No. 38 Ford while entering pit road just 10 seconds before the session officially ended.

Posted on November 6, 2026November 7, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — So you’re saying there’s a chance?

Neither Christopher Bell nor Denny Hamlin feel optimistic heading into the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell is second in points, 67 markers behind Kyle Larson, the series leader and the apparent champion-in-waiting with a healthy advantage over his competition. Hamlin, Bell’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, is third in points, 70 back of Larson. Both Bell and Hamlin are seeking their first championships.

MORE: Homestead-Miami schedule | Cup standings

The odds are not in their favor. Larson would clinch the championship by scoring as few as eight stage points, even if either Bell or Hamlin score a perfect 76-point day. But they stand a chance. Sort of.

“I mean, I don’t have any optimism,” Hamlin said. “I don’t. I’m here to try to have fun and try to win the race if possible. No matter what — I mean, there’s obviously a chance you can win the lottery as well. But do you really count on that?”

Missteps throughout The Chase presented by Mobil 1 have cost both points that would have tightened the gap to Larson entering the 2026 finale. Bell’s most apparent mistake came at Talladega Superspeedway, where he entered just five points behind Larson but crashed entering pit road during Stage 1, squandering a golden opportunity to manage the point gap to Larson heading into the final two races of the season. That hasn’t proven to cost him a shot at this championship yet, but Bell lost a whopping 69 points to Larson that afternoon.

In short, execution has been the Achilles’ heel of Bell and the No. 20 team throughout The Chase.

“It was certainly not ideal,” Bell said of his postseason. “I mean, we had the car performance, had the speed, and yeah, just execution … lack of it is the reason why we’re not in a better spot than we are.”

Hamlin walked into The Chase as the apparent man to beat, the No. 1 seed with a 25-point advantage over the next-nearest competitor. But throughout this 10-race postseason, the No. 11 team has yet to mirror the dominance it once showed this season, winless since June when it strung three consecutive victories together. Instead, errors and unfortunate circumstances put Hamlin behind week after week throughout the postseason, culminating in a performance that may leave Hamlin short of the championship yet again.

“I think as long as the season is, this Chase can be defined by a few really small, short moments, and you just don’t really know what they are until it happens or it’s post-mortem,” Hamlin said. “But yeah, it’s a long, grueling season, but there’s just little moments that just was the turning point that you’re either gonna end up winning the championship or not.”

Time is running out, and a scheduled 267 laps are all that stand between the drivers and establishing the 2026 Cup Series champion. There is a shared disappointment between Bell and Hamlin, who have watched Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet gap the field across the last two weeks. Toyota has not won a championship since 2019, when Kyle Busch clinched the title at Homestead-Miami.

The expectation at Joe Gibbs Racing — which fields Toyota Camry XSEs for Bell, Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs — was to end the championship drought. Instead, it continues into 2027.

“I was very confident that it was going to be a Toyota driver that won the championship,” Bell said. “And ultimately, I think whenever we got into The Chase, the 5 car had a pickup in performance, but I still think by the numbers there have been guys in Toyota cars specifically that have been faster than them. But we all shot ourselves in the foot one way or the other.”

Hamlin has been with JGR for all of its tenure with Toyota. With Busch’s two championships and Martin Truex Jr.’s title in 2017, the manufacturer has three Cup Series driver championships since joining Cup in 2007.

“I think it needs to be looked at personally, internally with Toyota and JGR and Legacy and 23XI,” Hamlin said. “I think we have to figure out that the win ratio to championship ratio has just not been as good as it needs to be, so I think that needs to be a deep dive and honestly figure out what needs to be changed.

“I don’t think we should just rinse and repeat and let’s just do this all again next year. I think we really should think about what it’s going to take to win the big prize at the end, because our cars are too fast for there to be just … three championships in 20 years. We’ve got to fix that.”

Tyler Gibbs, president of Toyota Racing Development, agreed late Friday evening that there is “some more work to do.” He stopped short of signaling a full retooling, particularly after an 18-win season for Toyota clinched the company its first Cup Series’ Manufacturers’ Championship since 2019. But that ratio of wins to drivers’ championships looms.

“When you look at the numbers from a top level, let’s take the last 10 years, so (2017), ’18, ’19 — very, very strong,” Gibbs said. “Won a couple of manufacturers’ championships, won a couple of drivers’ championships. The car changes to the Next Gen car (in 2022). We see some challenges there candidly. You look at last year, we won 14 races. This year we won 18 races. It feels like we are getting back to a little bit of where we were in ’17, ’18, ’19. Not that we were far off. But this is a really tough garage. They’re going to take advantage of every single weakness, whether it’s a mistake you make or whether it’s them just excelling in the given moment, as we saw a number of times in the championship race itself.

“I don’t think there’s a fundamental flaw, if you will. Again, this year we won 18 races. Thrilled that we won the manufacturers’ championship. When you look at what that means, the way that whole — we’ve affected so many drivers and so many individual car teams. That shows the breadth of our impact. It’s not just us, it’s the drivers, the teams. But it’s that partnership across all of them. I think we take a lot of pride in that.”

TRD also takes pride in having two contenders still eligible for the 2026 drivers’ championship in Bell and Hamlin.

“To have won 18 and not won the drivers’ (championship) is disappointing,” Gibbs said. “We still have a shot. We’ve got two shots. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re going to need some help. But anything’s possible. We’re going to give it all we’ve got on Sunday.”

Indeed, Kyle Larson can still lose this title to either Bell or Hamlin if disaster strikes the No. 5 team under the lights at Homestead-Miami on Sunday.

So whether or not the drivers are optimistic, there is still a chance.

Posted on November 6, 2026November 6, 2026 by Zack Albert

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Carson Hocevar held court and answered questions about his recent on-track conduct Friday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway, two days ahead of a NASCAR Cup Series season finale that he won’t run, saying, “I lost the keys to my car for the weekend. I did not lose the ability to be here, and it’s a privilege to be here.”

Spire Motorsports suspended Hocevar for Sunday’s year-ending race (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after he repeatedly stabbed his car’s brakes to initiate contact with Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford last weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Justin Haley will drive the No. 77 Chevrolet this weekend in Hocevar’s place.

Hocevar’s responses were halting at times during the 20-minute question-and-answer session, though he acknowledged responsibility for his Martinsville actions.

“I think it’s important for everybody included that it’s defendable when it’s racing, and that wasn’t really racing,” Hocevar said. “There’s just not really like a defense for it. So, yeah, I think ultimately the line in the sand for all of us is just, let’s just keep racing.”

NASCAR officials added their own penalties hours later on Tuesday, issuing a $100,000 fine and stripping him of 25 points in the Cup Series driver standings. The severity of the punishment, competition officials said, stemmed from Hocevar’s multiple violations of the code of conduct.

Spire released a statement that accompanied its decision Tuesday, and Hocevar also hinted at the accumulation of missteps on his ledger in a video he released Thursday. “The way Carson conducted himself at Martinsville doesn’t meet the standard we set for our drivers, team members or employees, and there are consequences for that,” the Spire statement read. “That doesn’t mean we don’t love him and support him. Racing at the Cup level is a privilege, and it comes with an expected level of professionalism from everyone who represents Spire Motorsports.”

Hocevar said Friday that he accepted the penalties, both from his team and NASCAR. “I forced their decision,” he said. “It’s not anybody else that’s doing this to me. I did this.”

Hocevar’s third full Cup Series season has been a breakout one, with a springtime first win at Talladega Superspeedway and his debut appearance in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. It’s also been a polarizing campaign, with several on-track run-ins – most notably a fevered scrap with Ryan Blaney at Bristol and a pair of high-profile altercations with longtime rival Zane Smith.

It’s also not the first time he’s drawn fines for on-track behavior. “Maybe the stove wasn’t hot enough,” Hocevar said. “I keep putting my hand on it until it finally burned and burned my hand. I think so. I think my hand’s pretty burnt. So yeah, hopefully for my wallet, but also for my team and everybody, this is the last fine I’ve got to deal with. But ultimately, it’s not the fines; it’s more so obviously the actions that come with the fines.”

Last Sunday at Martinsville, Hocevar abruptly slammed on his brakes multiple times in front of Cindric, causing terminal damage to his Team Penske entry and ending his race in Stage 2. Hocevar said only “it’s just Martinsville” after finishing 21st, but later admitted to brake-checking his fellow Chase competitor during his Thursday video.

Asked how he would balance his aggressive nature without pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable, Hocevar was blunt.

MORE: Friday recap from Homestead

“I think it’s very simple,” Hocevar said. “You know, they put it in the highlight and commercial reels with the front bumper. They’re not going to put it with the rear bumper, and badasses make moves going forward, not backwards.”

NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell acknowledged Hocevar during the annual State of the Sport address earlier Friday as part of a more general discussion about drivers being free to carve out their own identities while being more open about on-track drama. O’Donnell noted Hocevar’s recent actions but also his rise in popularity with fans, who have been the beneficiaries of his fondness for at-track interactions.

“There’s certainly some challenges, but I like what he brings to the fan base in terms of going out, meeting with fans, talking,” O’Donnell said. “Does he have some things to work on on-track? Absolutely, and we’ve talked about that, and we all know where that stands today. But I think if you look at licensed merchandise, engagement, fans are really hungry to embrace a driver, to find their driver, and the more drivers we can have the fans say ‘that’s my favorite driver,’ the better the sport will be.”

The fans’ embrace has not necessarily meant the same in the Cup Series garage, an area where Hocevar admits he has room to grow.

“Ultimately you can have respect, but also know that yeah, I’d probably be super-aggressive, right, and kind of balance that line,” Hocevar said. “But I think the line in the sand is the sportsmanship, integrity part of it that I’m probably well past that. So, when it’s not checked at the door, you probably start taking and get greedy and keep going for further throws and further fouls, and eventually I made a very flagrant unsportsmanlike foul, so I think that’s where the difference is.”

Posted on November 6, 2026November 6, 2026 by Reid Spencer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — In his first “State of the Sport” news conference as NASCAR CEO, Steve O’Donnell accentuated the positives — and there was much to accentuate.

O’Donnell took to the dais at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the announcement of car maker Dodge’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series less than a week old.

The return to Homestead for the season finale also coincided with the adoption of a multi-race Chase format for determining the champions in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series this year.

Gone were the headwinds of a lawsuit overhanging the industry during last year’s Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Last December, NASCAR reached an amicable settlement of the suit brought by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.

During the months that followed, the sport has seen significant increases in attendance at its races — notably among younger fans — a burgeoning social media presence and a year-long partnership with The CW that has elevated the prominence of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

O’Donnell condensed his synopsis of the 2026 season into a single statement: “NASCAR has encouraging momentum, but we have work to do.”

“Looking back,” he added, “I think there’s a lot for the entire industry to be proud of. Our teams and drivers have given us terrific competition. Fans are coming out to the race track. New brands are investing in the sport like never before.

“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen the activation from sponsors around our teams and drivers, which is terrific.”

O’Donnell also highlighted the return of The Chase presented by Mobil 1, which has played out differently in all three series. On the Cup Series side, Kyle Larson has raced into a dominant position with one event left, needing to score a 28th-place finish in Sunday’s Championship Race to secure his third title.

The O’Reilly Series, on the other hand, features a five-driver free-for-all, with veteran Justin Allgaier enjoying a slim 22-point lead at the top of the Chase standings. In the Craftsman Truck Series, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs were set to go head-to-head for the title on Friday night.

“The return of The Chase, at least in my opinion, has put the focus back where it belongs, on the performance week-in and week-out for the drivers,” O’Donnell said. “If you look at the championship media session for the Cup Series this weekend, there was one driver in there.

“I would say that’s successful. We looked at one driver who’s had an outstanding Chase, and that’s where the focus should be, in my opinion.”

O’Donnell also stressed the importance of expanding the television audience for all three national series.

“Television audience, which we all focus on as one of many factors for the sport, is consistently strong and it remains so, but it’s a focus for our entire industry and will be in the coming years,” he said. “We’ve all seen the numbers, and I think it’s important to really look at where NASCAR is.

“If you compared NASCAR to a new sport that’s just emerging, you’d say it’s an incredible success story: Consistently large television audience, 36 straight weekends; it’s amongst the largest in sports.

“But the audience can and will grow, and that’s an area of focus for all of us in the industry as we go forward.”

WATCH: O’Donnell: NASCAR considering qualifying changes

Dodge announced on Monday that it would return to the Cup Series for the first time since 2012. Kaulig Racing will field two Cup entries for the 2027 season. O’Donnell also indicated NASCAR is having ongoing world-wide discussions with other potential OEMs.

“It’s going to be fun seeing what Dodge does,” he said. “We’re going to be all around the globe looking at new OEMs, for sure, but happy that we got a fourth. Happy to say that versus saying, well, we’re looking at it, for sure.”

Named NASCAR CEO in April, O’Donnell pointed to five pillars crucial to NASCAR’s future growth: competition, audience growth and engagement, schedule and media strategy, international expansion and at-track fan development.

“I’m excited about the future, and most particularly I’m excited about our team and the folks who are going to work together, because I think for the first time in a long, long time there’s alignment on where we’re going,” O’Donnell said.

“We do the blocking and tackling race-to-race really, really well. The five-year plan of where we’re going hasn’t been something we’ve focused on as an industry. That’s all changed, and we’re coming together to work together to really grow this sport.”

Other important subjects raised during the discussion included NASCAR’s ongoing commitment to safety; the highlighting of rivalries between team principals; the continuing development of competition packages, including possible augmentation of horsepower; partnerships with United States Armed Forces that could take NASCAR racing to military bases — such as Naval Base Coronado — in underserved markets and the possibility of stand-alone O’Reilly Series races on weekdays.

One change that will be coming is the metric used for ordering the starting fields in the case of qualifying rainouts. This year, the metric was weighted more heavily toward finishing position in the previous race, a formula that proved burdensome during The Chase.

“This had been put in place back in COVID, and I think everybody just didn’t see it or didn’t read it, and all of a sudden we got rain, rain, rain, and it became a big issue or a big talking point,” O’Donnell said. “So that is something we’ll look at.

“We’re also looking at tweaking qualifying a little bit at select events as well that I think the fans will embrace. Nothing to announce today, but we’ve got some good things working in the off-season, not only about tweaking what you talked about, but some different formats we can explore as well.”

John Probst, NASCAR president of event management, later confirmed that starting order will revert to owner points alone in the case of canceled qualifying sessions.

O’Donnell prefaced his remarks with recognition of the profound loss of champion driver Kyle Busch, who died from a sudden illness in May.

“It’s tough to not talk about Kyle when you’re back in Miami,” O’Donnell said. “An extraordinary competitor, two-time champion in our sport and won the championship here, and I think he’s left a forever mark on our sport.

“I said this back at Charlotte and it still stands today, and it’ll stand forever really, and that’s to (widow) Samantha, (son) Brexton and (daughter) Lennix, they’re always going to be a part of the NASCAR family.

“We all miss Kyle. It’s not the same without him in terms of celebrating a championship, especially how he embraced this place, but he’s going to be with us for years and years to come.”