NASCAR Title Tracker: Everything To Know About Season Finale At Homestead

The NASCAR season is set to end this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway as it crowns champions in all three of its national series.

Here is your complete guide to the weekend, including what has happened so far and what is next.

The Championship Is At Homestead-Miami Speedway?

Yes. Back to the place where NASCAR crowned champions with its season finale from 2002-2019. It is a 1.5-mile oval that has progressive banking; it is banked 18 degrees at the start of the apron and increases to 20 degrees by the wall. That allows a driver up against the wall to have more momentum and potentially make a pass despite going a longer distance.

Is The Format The Same As The Last Decade?

No. The format of having a Champ 4 of four drivers and whoever finishes best is the champion was scrapped before this year. NASCAR went back to a revised Chase format, with points being reset (with a 100-point margin from first to 16th) after a regular season and then a 10-race mini-season (nine races in O’Reilly, seven in trucks) to crown a champion.

So We’ll Have To Do Math?

Yes, you will have to do math this weekend. Sorry. NASCAR awards points based on four factors: finish in the first stage (on a scale of 10-to-1 for the top 10), finish in the second stage (on a scale of 10-to-1 for the top 10), finish in the race (55 to the winner and then on a scale of 35-to-1 for second through 36th, with 37th-40th also getting one point) and one point to the driver with the fastest lap in the race.

The tiebreaker is the best finish in The Chase.

Kyle Larson is on a quest to win his third NASCAR title this weekend at Homestead. (Getty Images)

What Are The Numbers?

— In Cup, Kyle Larson (Hendrick Motorsports) has a 67-point lead on Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing) and 70-point lead on Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing). Larson owns all tiebreakers and needs just nine points in the race. So he can clinch, no matter what the others do, with eight stage points or 28th with no stage points. Bell needs to win and earn 14 stage points (13 if he also has the fastest lap) to have a chance. Hamlin needs to win and earn 17 stage points (12 if he also has the fastest lap) to have a chance.

— In O’Reilly, Justin Allgaier (JR Motorsports) has a 22-point lead on Jesse Love (Richard Childress Racing), a 23-point lead on Corey Day (Hendrick Motorsports), a 31-point lead on Carson Kvapil (JR Motorsports) and a 42-point lead on Sheldon Creed (Haas Factory Team). Finishing scenarios will be determined after the stages. 

— In trucks, Kaden Honeycutt (Tricon Garage) entered with a 20-point lead on Layne Riggs (Front Row Motorsports). Honeycutt won the race (and the title) while Riggs suffered an early flat tire, the result of contact with another truck, and finished 32nd.

So You’re Saying There’s A Chance?

In O’Reilly and trucks, yes. In Cup, Bell or Hamlin would need everything to go right. Just how right? NASCAR didn’t even have Bell or Hamlin join Larson for the championship weekend media day Thursday.

So there was Larson, by himself, doing the rounds and a news conference.

“I’ll be honest, it’s an awkward sort of media day for me,” Larson said at the news conference. “But we’ve earned the right for it to be awkward. I like awkwardness. Or I’m OK with it.”

Will Kaden Honeycutt bring home the crown in the trucks series? (Getty Images)

What Has Happened So Far In Cup?

Here’s the Cup schedule (all times ET):

Friday: Chase Briscoe led the final practice. None of the three championship contenders had any significant issues as Denny Hamlin was third, Christopher Bell was fourth and Kyle Larson was 10th. Larson told USA Sports that he didn’t feel as comfortable as he wanted and did scrape the car. Larson: “Not a great practice.” There was an incident late with Tyler Reddick spinning on entry to pit road and had some contact with Zane Smith.

Saturday: Briscoe followed up his fastest lap in practice by winning the pole. Denny Hamlin will start beside him. Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson will be in the second row while Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell will be in the third row. Larson said it was hard to get a feel of the balance of the car on one lap, but he seemed optimistic. He said his team is loose – they were debating whether a hot dog is a sandwich earlier in the day (Larson said it is not) – and Larson felt he had a car that could earn eight stage points and clinch the title in the first two stages: “Throughout two stages? Probably. I didn’t feel that confident if you’re looking to run third or whatever it is in Stage 1. Starting fourth, I mean, that helps. There’s still a lot of good cars behind me. I thought the 12 [of Ryan Blaney] was actually, actually good. Cindric goes to be good. If it performs out inexperienced, I feel we will keep inside that type of window of the place we’re at.”

Sunday: The race phases can be 80 laps, 85 laps and 102 laps, with inexperienced flag at 3:13 p.m. (NBC). Groups could have 9 units of tires.

What Occurred In The O’Reilly Collection?

Right here is the O’Reilly schedule (all occasions ET):

Friday: Anthony Alfredo led the ultimate apply, the place Jesse Love needed to cease on the monitor after presumably breaking one thing on the rear of his automobile. Of the championship contenders: Creed was fifth, Day was seventh, Love was eleventh, Kvapil was seventeenth and Allgaier was twentieth.

Saturday: Creed gained the pole for the race whereas Allgaier was eleventh. The remainder of the championship contenders had been between them: Kvapil in third, Love in fourth and Day in seventh.

Saturday: Justin Allgaer gained his second sequence title because the 2024 champion completed seventh to finish up 14 factors forward of Jesse Love within the ultimate standings. Love entered the ultimate stage realizing that if he gained the race he would win the title, however he ended up fourth in a race gained by Brandon Jones and the place Sheldon Creed (sixth) led 99 laps early within the race whereas Carson Kvapil (second) led 36 laps earlier than being handed by Jones with 14 laps to go.

Even when Kvapil gained, Allgaier simply needed to end thirteenth or higher to safe the title so he simply nestled in a secure spot, or as secure a spot as a driver could be at Homestead, the place the quickest line is up towards the wall and the JR Motorsports driver nonetheless scrubbed it a handful of occasions.

Allgaier on the CW telecast: “Tonight it was a battle. Fool driver packed the fence down too many occasions. I instructed you earlier than the race I wasn’t going to try this, and I did it in any case. … Hat’s off to this entire crew. Simply so happy with everyone.”

Love, the defending sequence champion, to me after the race: “Pinpointing one factor or one other is a really difficult factor. I can return and blame myself for … a thousand various things [in The Chase]. On the finish of the day, I do know over time I can be extraordinarily onerous to beat as a result of I do know I’ll take all this stuff and I can do higher and I can enhance on them.”

What Occurred In Vehicles?

Thursday: In a 50-minute apply, Ty Majeski posted the quickest velocity, whereas Honeycutt was fifth and Riggs was sixth. In 10-lap averages, Jake Garcia was the quickest, forward of Ben Rhodes, Riggs, Honeycutt and Christian Eckes. There have been no incidents.

Friday: Nick Sanchez (Spire Motorsports) gained the pole in qualifying, adopted by Chandler Smith, Corey Heim, Riggs and Honeycutt — so the 2 championship finalists are beginning fourth and fifth.

Friday: There was by no means a lot of a battle for the championship, as Layne Riggs had contact with Nick Sanchez on the second lap, misplaced a number of spots and finally suffered a flat tire earlier than the top of the opening stage. He by no means obtained again on the lead lap, falling as a lot as eight laps down as he suffered one other flat and extra harm. Whereas Riggs limped dwelling in thirty second, Honeycutt took the lead with 13 laps to go, profitable the race and the title by 83 factors over Riggs.

Honeycutt gained the title with the identical crew that Corey Heim gained the 2025 title.

Honeycutt on FS1 after the race: “I used to be not a champion driver to begin the season. I used to be very out of my consolation zone. I used to be caving into the stress a lot simply from the crew that had success final 12 months. … I lastly discovered my consolation zone midway by means of the 12 months. We racked up some wonderful numbers. It isn’t due to me, beneath the circumstances … it is due to this race crew [and] the vehicles they construct that I am so fortunate to drive.”

Riggs on FS1 after the race: “Clearly, we weren’t capable of put the consistency collectively to be champions tonight. We knew we had been going to need to run an virtually excellent race. That is onerous to do anytime, any sequence, any stage and division. However I am simply happy with the whole crew that we had been even within the combine, we even had an opportunity to grow to be champion. It was disappointing to know I did not even know what my truck was going to be.”

How Many Championships Have These Drivers Received In Their Collection?

Kyle Larson is the one championship contender with a title. He gained Cup titles in 2021 and 2025.

In O’Reilly, Jesse Love gained the title final 12 months whereas Justin Allgaier gained in 2024.

Neither of the truck finalists has gained a truck title.

Is Anybody Retiring After This Race?

No. There are not any introduced retirements for drivers in any of the three sequence, which is considerably of a rarity for the season finale.

When Is The State Of The Sport Tackle?

NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell delivered his state of the sport handle Friday morning at Homestead.

What Dignitaries Will Be There?

As of Thursday morning, NASCAR had not introduced its major dignitaries for the race. College of Miami males’s basketball coach Jai Lucas can be an honorary official.

Performing the nationwide anthem can be the US Air Pressure Band, The Singing Sergeants.

When Are The Awards?

NASCAR could have its postseason awards Tuesday night time in Miami on the Adreinne Arsht Middle.