2026 NASCAR CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Kyle Larson only needs to collect nine points in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to hoist his third career championship trophy and second consecutive. But the 33-year-old Californian has been adamant about taking nothing for granted.

It's an understandable strategy considering the strength of his two closest challengers, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, who for the eighth time in his decorated career has lined up for the final green flag with a shot at the season title.

All three drivers have won races in the last eight events held at the 1.5-mile South Florida oval – a favorite venue among the racers. And any chance of taking the trophy out of Larson’s hands involves a must-win for either Bell or Hamlin.

Larson is a two-time Homestead race winner and the defending race champ, claiming the trophy in the March race here last year. Hamlin is the winningest among the three contenders – with trophies in 2009, ’13 and '20. Bell won in 2023.

Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, rode a 51-race winless streak heading into the Chase, but has answered with three victories and holds a series-best 6.8 place average finish during the nine Chase races to date.

Comparatively, Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota is averaging 11.2 during the 10-race Chase and Bell, driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota, an 11.5. Hamlin’s average finish (10.2) is third best all-time at this track. Larson’s 645 laps out front are most in the field.

However, this season, Hamlin has earned the most points on 1.5-milers by 51 points more than Larson and 84 more than his teammate Bell. He also boasts the most wins (16) on that style of venue compared to Larson (11) and Bell (2).

With Larson taking such a commanding points advantage into the race, Hamlin and Bell concede their path is at least straight if not easy. They must win the race.

“I feel confident that I'll be able to go there and contend," Hamlin said.

Both contenders feel plenty of optimistic despite the challenge.

“My team has done a really good job,” Bell said. “They’re resilient, they’re just really resilient. They’ve shown throughout the years that whenever it matters the most, they show up in the biggest ways.”

“I’m proud of where we’re at, and certainly proud that we’ve been so close year in and year out, but we do want to get that golden egg.”

Larson has consistently maintained that even though statistically he holds a large margin of good opportunity on Sunday, he’s taking nothing for granted and most comfortable finding the same groove he’s thrived on throughout the season.

“You’ve worked so hard to put yourself in this position, so I’d hate for something crazy to happen," Larson said. “I’ve kind of felt some sort of pressure leading up to the week and the race, but for me once I get in the car and put my helmet on, I completely forget what’s at stake. I haven’t really felt any pressure once I’m behind the wheel.

While more typically a championship contender has gone on to win the race, there is still plenty of potential for other drivers to move up in the final standings.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (2024), last week’s Martinsville winner, Hendrick’s William Byron (2023) and three-time series champion, Team Penske’s Joey Logano (2019) are also former Homestead winners.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney has been runner-up in two of the last three Homestead races and has six top-10 finishes in 10 of the last races at 1.5-milers. JGR’s Chase Briscoe has won three of the last four races on 1.5-mile tracks.

Five drivers who won in 2025 are still racing for their first trophy of the season, including Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain.

Busch Light Pole Qualifying is set for 2:30 p.m. ET Friday (truTV, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson’s Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman is the defending pole winner.

Five drivers, one crown: Allgaier leads title showdown at Homestead

Of the three national NASCAR series crowning a champion this weekend, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series features the largest group of contenders - a five-driver test of trophy.

The 2024 series champion Justin Allgaier brings a 22-point advantage over defending series champ Jesse Love into Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Championship Race (5 p.m. ET on the CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The JR Motorsports veteran leads Corey Day by 23 points, his teammate – and last week’s Martinsville (Va.) Speedway race winner - Travis Kvapil by 31 points and Sheldon Creed by 42 points.

The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Allgaier is the defending Homestead winner – taking the trophy in last year’s March race – and actually the only previous winner at the track. His 17 starts here is more than double the number of starts of the other four championship contenders. On the other end of the spectrum, this will be Day’s debut at the 1.5-miler.

Love, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, boasts the best average finish at Homestead among the group – 5.0 in only two starts. Kvapil, who drives the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet, finished 10th last year in his only race at the track and Creed, the driver of the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet, is averaging a 13.3 finish in three previous starts.

Of note, Love boasts the best average finish (4.1) by far on the 1.5-mile tracks this season such as Homestead this year. The next best mark is Creed is at 10.7.

The rookie Day- a four-race winner this year - is the only driver among the championship eligible five that has won on a 1.5-miler in 2026. The 19-year-old Hendrick Motorsports rookie won at both Las Vegas and Charlotte during the Chase.

Interestingly, Allgaier is the only other among the title contenders who has won on a 1.5-mile oval – claiming six career victories, including the one here in South Florida last year. Love is the only driver among this group of five to finish top-10 at every 1.5-mile track this season. Creed has two top-five finishes in four Homestead races. And in the last 12 races, Kvapil has amassed the most points among the title five.

“We’ve been putting a ton of effort into our Homestead program and I feel like [crew chief] Andrew [Overstreet] has a great gameplan ahead of this weekend," Allgaier said. “It’s definitely a confidence boost knowing that we won there last year. If we can just go out and execute just like we have throughout the last month, I feel like we will be in a great position to do what [team sponsor] Rick Brandt always says and, ‘cause a party.’"

Qualifying for the championship race is set for 1 p.m. on Friday.

Honeycutt seeks the finishing touch as Riggs pursues title comeback

In what has been a great championship tete-e-tete, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs will now decide the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title Friday night in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 23-year-old Texan, Honeycutt carries a 20-point advantage over the second-generation NASCAR standout Riggs heading to a track where neither has won before. Honeycutt would need to score 57 points to lock up the trophy

Last week’s Martinsville Speedway race certainly played a heavy hand in setting up what should be an ultra-competitive all-for-the-trophy championship 134-lapper on the Homestead-Miami 1.5-miler.

Statistically, Honeycutt has set the series standard. His average finish of 5.3 during the six Chase races so far is exceptional compared to his competition. Riggs is averaging 11.0.

Neither driver has won at the South Florida track previously, with both scoring their career best efforts here last year – Riggs, second place and Honeycutt, 11th. On 1.5-mile tracks this season, Honeycutt is averaging a series-best 2.3 finish, while Riggs is averaging a 6.8. He and McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes are the only two drivers to finish top-10 in all four 1.5-mile tracks this year.

Of note, in the last three races here, the driver who led the most laps did not win the race. Rajah Caruth is the last polesitter to win on a 1.5-mile track (when qualifying was held) and that was in 2024.

Former three-time series champion Matt Crafton returns to competition this weekend, driving the No. 66 ThorSport Racing Ford. Defending champion Corey Heim will also be on the grid, teaming with Honeycutt in the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota.

NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson is the defending Homestead-Miami race winner. Of those full timers in the field, only Grant Enfinger (2024) and Ty Majeski (2022) have won here previously.

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HOMESTEAD, Fla.— Kyle Larson arrives in South Florida on the verge of becoming only the 10th driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to win three championships or more and the first to claim back-to-back trophies since a fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver, Jimmie Johnson, won an unprecedented five consecutively from 2006 through 2010.

But first the 33-year-old Californian Larson must do the work to earn those important honors, and he’s head-down, priority-driven coming into the weekend.

Larson represented the NASCAR Cup Series portion of Championship Media Day alone on stage, thanks to a huge gap separating him from the only two drivers with a mathematical long-shot chance of overcoming Larson’s odds.

He leads Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell by 67 points and JGR’s Denny Hamlin by 70 coming to 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Larson is the defending winner—having taken the trophy last March.

“I’m solo, which is a great thing, but I’ll be honest, it’s an awkward sort of media day for me,’’ Larson acknowledged with a grin. “But we’ve earned the right for it be awkward. I like awkwardness. I’m okay with it, so it’s all right.”

As for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Larson insists he’s not taking anything for granted but instead is taking a conscious approach to race hard and earn not just the season title but the race trophy. Earning eight points in the opening stage of the race, for instance, would secure the title. That’s the tally he needs.

“I foresee my race looking like any other Homestead race for me, try to get to the front and manage the race from there," Larson said. “Hopefully, the first stage goes well, and then you can really just race ‘free’ after that. I still don’t think it’ll change the approach of the race, just less worry at that point.”

And should he clinch the championship early in the race, he added—with a smile—of his crew chief Cliff Daniels, “Knowing Cliff, I’m sure he’ll be locked in, ‘Hey man here’s what just happened, stay locked in, we’ll take four tires here.’

“I hope that’s ‘robot Cliff’ on the radio and we can just stay locked in. I want to have a great day. I want to win the race and the championship. I’m trying not to think ahead and just approach the weekend like any other weekend and just do the job.” — Holly Cain

During a banner season with the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team, Justin Allgaier is delighted he decided not to leave NASCAR racing last year—but it was a close call.

“I don’t think the general public will know how close I was to really walking away,” Allgaier said Thursday during Championship Media Day at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“We bought a house in Illinois. We were making after-racing-career plans. I was a hundred percent sure that this was it, that this would be the end of my career.”

It would have been, if JRM co-owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller hadn’t talked Allgaier into a contract extension that will keep him with the team at least through the 2028 season.

The move proved serendipitous. Allgaier won six of the first 21 races this season and held a 229-point lead before points were reset for the nine-race Chase.

With last Saturday’s second-place finish at Martinsville Speedway, Allgaier took the Chase lead by 22 points over defending series champion Jesse Love, who suffered a litany of issues at the venerable short track and finished 30th.

In addition to Allgaier and Love, there are three other drivers within striking distance of the title—Corey Day (23 points back), Carson Kvapil (31 behind) and Sheldon Creed (42 behind)—entering Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race (5 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

To Allgaier, retaking the Chase lead from Love wasn’t crucial, given the relatively small margin.

“I went over to Jesse at the end of last week,” Allgaier said. “I think at first he thought I was messing with him, but I really was genuine in the fact that I hated it for him. I hated to see their day go the way that it did…

“I hate the situation ‘cause I know that this week it could easily be the same for us or any one of the top five. I’ve had a lot of fun battling all of these guys. I’ve had the most fun racing this year probably that I’ve ever had.”

Allgaier feels that his willingness to step away from racing and decision to return have had a positive effect on his psyche.

“I’m probably the freest, loosest, confident enough that I’ve been all year,” he said. “There’s just been something different this year for me. Maybe it was because I was walking away, so I looked at different ways to value the sport that maybe I hadn’t looked at.

“But I have more confidence in my race team than I can describe. The pit crew’s been on fire lately. This whole team has just operated at a really high level. Eddie D’Hondt, my spotter, and I have a great relationship.

“All the things that you want to be going your way have been going that direction. And, honestly, if we execute how we know we can, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can’t go win both stages and win the race.” — Reid Spencer

Head-to-head battle brings drama to NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series title race

First, it’s entirely appropriate for the two drivers to settle the championship between them in Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Second, to win the championship, Honeycutt and Riggs both believe they will have to win the race.

“I think we’ve had a great season for both of us,” said Honeycutt, who leads Riggs by 20 points entering Friday’s finale.

Honeycutt drives the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota that carried Corey Heim to last year’s series title under the elimination format.

“I think, for, me, I was just trying to adapt early on in the season with this group and to have the trucks handling where I needed to be at. I think our mile-and-a-half program has been extremely well throughout this year.

Riggs thinks the change in format to a seven-race Chase has been largely responsible for putting the best two drivers in the series this season in a head-to-head battle in the final race.

“It’s a lot clearer picture for us,” said the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “It’s a lot more straightforward. (In the previous elimination format) we still had the potential that the fourth-place guy could in one race outrun us and get the championship.

“I feel like that’s a lot more fluky. I enjoy the format that we’re in. It definitely rewards consistency, which I feel like we haven't had the best of, which is why we're not in the points lead. And I think we've had more raw speed, but the consistency hasn't gone with it.”

Friday’s race won’t end the rivalry between the drivers, who will race for the same teams next year. But Honeycutt thinks the pool of potential winners might expand.

“I don't expect to two-man race next year again,” he said. “I think we'll have quite a few competitors.” — Reid Spencer