Key Highlights
- 8 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the champion."As NASCAR transitions to a revised championship model, the focus is on rewarding driver and team performance each and every race," NASCAR president Steve O'Donnell said.
- "At the same time, we want to honor NASCAR's storied history and the traditions that have made the sport so special."Our fans are at the heart of everything we do, and this format is designed to honor their passion every single race weekend."The changes come amid fan complaints to periodic tweaks over changes to the system that was largely unchanged from its 2004 introduction to 2013, when Jimmie Johnson won six of his record-tying seven championships. Changes slowly followed, with eliminations, an expanded field, a win-and-in guarantee and finally a winner-take-all season finale. Fans had grown weary of the changes.
- Regular-season victories guaranteed a slot in the 10-race playoffs, a win in any of the first three three-race rounds advanced a driver into the next round, while the bottom three drivers at the end of each round were eliminated. Finally, the winner was simply the highest-finishing driver among four remaining title contenders in the season finale. The tipping pointThat system reached its breaking point in November when Denny Hamlin dominated the race until a late caution changed the final sequence and Kyle Larson won his second title by simply finishing ahead of Hamlin despite Larson not leading a single lap at Phoenix Raceway while mired in a 25-race losing streak. Hamlin had won two playoff races -- a Cup Series-high six victories on the season -- and led 208 of the 319 laps at Phoenix.
- He was the leader with three to go when a late caution changed the outcome and sent the race into overtime; Larson finished third, two spots ahead of Hamlin, to automatically claim the championship. It wasn't the only race on the final weekend of 2025 that didn't finish as expected. Corey Heim had 11 victories at the start of the Truck Series finale at Phoenix but needed to dip his truck low in an outrageous seven-wide scramble in overtime to secure the title.
- He did pull out the win and NASCAR dodged the controversy of the most consistent driver being denied a championship because of a gimmicky format. NASCAR wasn't so fortunate the next night in the Xfinity Series when 10-race winner Connor Zilisch lost the championship because Jesse Love won the race.
