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.

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.”

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 really, really good. Cindric is going to be good. If it plays out green, I think we can stay within that kind of window of where we’re at.”

Sunday: The race stages will be 80 laps, 85 laps and 102 laps, with green flag at 3:13 p.m. (NBC). Teams will have nine sets of tires.

What Happened In The O’Reilly Series?

Here is the O’Reilly schedule (all times ET):

Friday: Anthony Alfredo led the final practice, where Jesse Love had to stop on the track after possibly breaking something at the rear of his car. Of the championship contenders: Creed was fifth, Day was seventh, Love was 11th, Kvapil was 17th and Allgaier was 20th.

Saturday: Creed won the pole for the race while Allgaier was 11th. The rest of the championship contenders were between them: Kvapil in third, Love in fourth and Day in seventh.

Saturday: Justin Allgaer won his second series title as the 2024 champion finished seventh to end up 14 points ahead of Jesse Love in the final standings. Love entered the final stage knowing that if he won the race he would win the title, but he ended up fourth in a race won by Brandon Jones and where Sheldon Creed (sixth) led 99 laps early in the race while Carson Kvapil (second) led 36 laps before being passed by Jones with 14 laps to go.

Even if Kvapil won, Allgaier just had to finish 13th or better to secure the title so he just nestled in a safe spot, or as safe a spot as a driver can be at Homestead, where the fastest line is up against the wall and the JR Motorsports driver still scrubbed it a handful of times.

Allgaier on the CW telecast: “Tonight it was a battle. Idiot driver packed the fence down too many times. I told you before the race I wasn’t going to do that, and I did it anyways. … Hat’s off to this whole team. Just so proud of everybody.”

Love, the defending series champion, to me after the race: “Pinpointing one thing or another is a very challenging thing. I can go back and blame myself for … a thousand different things [in The Chase]. At the end of the day, I know over time I will be extremely hard to beat because I know I will take all these things and I can do better and I can improve on them.”

What Happened In Trucks?

Thursday: In a 50-minute practice, Ty Majeski posted the fastest speed, while Honeycutt was fifth and Riggs was sixth. In 10-lap averages, Jake Garcia was the fastest, ahead of Ben Rhodes, Riggs, Honeycutt and Christian Eckes. There were no incidents.

Friday: Nick Sanchez (Spire Motorsports) won the pole in qualifying, followed by Chandler Smith, Corey Heim, Riggs and Honeycutt — so the two championship finalists are starting fourth and fifth.

Friday: There was never much of a battle for the championship, as Layne Riggs had contact with Nick Sanchez on the second lap, lost several spots and eventually suffered a flat tire before the end of the opening stage. He never got back on the lead lap, falling as much as eight laps down as he suffered another flat and more damage. While Riggs limped home in 32nd, Honeycutt took the lead with 13 laps to go, winning the race and the title by 83 points over Riggs.

Honeycutt won the title with the same team that Corey Heim won the 2025 title.

Honeycutt on FS1 after the race: “I was not a champion driver to start the season. I was very out of my comfort zone. I was caving into the pressure so much just from the team that had success last year. … I finally found my comfort zone halfway through the year. We racked up some amazing numbers. It’s not because of me, under the circumstances … it’s because of this race team [and] the trucks they build that I’m so lucky to drive.”

Riggs on FS1 after the race: “Obviously, we weren’t able to put the consistency together to be champions tonight. 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.”

How Many Championships Have These Drivers Won In Their Series?

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

In O’Reilly, Jesse Love won the title last year while Justin Allgaier won in 2024.

Neither of the truck finalists has won a truck title.

Is Anyone Retiring After This Race?

No. There are no announced retirements for drivers in any of the three series, which is somewhat of a rarity for the season finale.

When Is The State Of The Sport Address?

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

What Dignitaries Will Be There?

As of Thursday morning, NASCAR had not announced its primary dignitaries for the race. University of Miami men’s basketball coach Jai Lucas will be an honorary official.

Performing the national anthem will be the United States Air Force Band, The Singing Sergeants.

When Are The Awards?

NASCAR will have its postseason awards Tuesday night in Miami at the Adreinne Arsht Center.