William Byron started 2025 with a win in the Daytona 500 and powered the No. 24 team to the regular-season title prior to winning his way into the championship race at Martinsville last week.
Chase Briscoe’s maiden campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing initially produced lukewarm results, but wins at Pocono, Darlington, and Talladega have brought him back to the venue of his first Cup Series win three years ago for his first chance at a championship.
Kyle Larson exploded on the scene this season with an impressive drive at Homestead followed by dominating efforts at Bristol and Kansas. The 5 team scraped and clawed their way through these three rounds to make it to the championship round, champing at the bit for their second title in five seasons.
Denny Hamlin got to victory lane early and often, snagging victories at Martinsville, Darlington, Michigan, and Dover in the regular season before adding trophies from Gateway and Las Vegas to lead the series in wins. With that Bill France Cup in sight once again, Hamlin enters his 20th title bid from the pole in the Progressive Toyota Camry.
The venue for this championship bout is none other than the desert diamond of the Estrella Mountains: Phoenix Raceway.
This rough and tumble circuit stands at one mile in length, and with a mostly flat and seemingly endless track surface, Phoenix presents infinite options to its competitors — if they’re brave enough.
Over the course of three stages and 312 laps, these four racers must battle it out amongst themselves as well as 34 other hungry drivers ready to crash their trophy presentation by doing burnouts of their own.
As the shadow of Rattlesnake Hill descends upon the track, one champion will be crowned.
Briscoe. Byron. Larson. Hamlin. Four drivers. One title. Who will win it all?
Welcome to Phoenix Raceway and the championship race.
This Week in NASCAR
The latest rumblings around the federal antitrust case against NASCAR filed by teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports keep producing headlines as both sides filed trial briefs at the beginning of the week.
The teams included in their brief that 75% of NASCAR teams lost money last season, and the sport signed non-compete agreements with their own tracks and Speedway Motorsports that would’ve prevented another major stock-car racing series to form until at least 2026 when those agreements end.
In addition, 23XI and FRM filed proposed jury instructions for the case that included some rather interesting nuggets of information:
NASCAR suffered a major loss in the antitrust case this week when the Honorable Kenneth Bell threw out NASCAR’s Countersuit against the teams on Tuesday.
Xfinity Series driver Sam Mayer lost his Haas Factory Team ride for the Phoenix finale after being levied a suspension from the sanctioning body due to a post-race clash with Jeb Burton at Martinsville last week. Ryan Sieg filled in for Mayer in the 41 car.
Kaulig Racing decided to put a pause on their Xfinity Series program for the time being to get their new Craftsman Truck program off the ground with Ram, declaring that Saturday would be their final race in the series they got their start in just 10 seasons ago.
That wasn’t the only lower series news for Kaulig Racing as their truck program announced that Xfinity Series rookie Daniel Dye and Cup Series castoff Justin Haley will drive full-time for Ram in 2026.
Newly-crowned Xfinity Series champion Jesse Love looks ahead to his Super2 debut down under as he’ll look to compete in the Supercars series’ second-tier division at Adelaide.
The entire 2025-31 NASCAR Cup Series charter agreement was filed into the public record this week for all to see and comb over, just like all the well-paid attorneys in this case:
Front Row Motorsports locked up Truck Series star Layne Riggs for the next few years, giving the second-generation racer a stable home for the foreseeable future.
In the Craftsman Truck Series finale, the dominant Corey Heim showed everyone what time it was for the 12th time this season at Phoenix Raceway, making a daring seven-wide maneuver on the very bottom of turns 1 and 2 on the first overtime restart to put himself in position to win the race and the title.
As for the Xfinity Series finale, the equally dominant Connor Zilisch left two positions on the table, which made all of the difference in this one-race, winner-take-all format. His best friend Jesse Love passed the 88 car with 25 laps to go to cruise to his third career victory and his first NASCAR national series title.
Though it was mentioned in the intro, Denny Hamlin snagged the pole while William Byron lines up outside of him on the front row. Kyle Larson lines up third as Briscoe starts the race in 12th. For a full lineup, click here.
The Race
Today’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race takes place today at the flat, 1-mile oval of Phoenix Raceway, and it will be broadcast on NBC starting at 3pm Eastern time with commentators Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte on the call.
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will go on for 312 laps over 312 miles, which roughly equates to a 500-kilometer race. Those 312 laps will be split among three stages, ending on the following laps: 60-185-312.
As for the average Phoenix championship race, it looks something like this: 6 cautions for 40 caution laps, 14 lead changes, an average duration of 2 hours and 58 minutes, the final caution flies around lap 277 (or 36 laps to go), and only one instance of overtime, all the way back in 2016.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Ryan Blaney, and after taking the lead from Byron during a pit sequence, he was unable to hold off the 24 car, ceding the lead with 60 laps to go and never getting it back.
Today, I’m riding the Progressive bandwagon of Denny Hamlin to win the race and the championship today.
Six short years ago, I was in attendance for Hamlin’s most recent victory at Phoenix that vaulted him into the championship race at Homestead where a late-race pit stop foiled their title bid.
With Phoenix the venue of the title race, Hamlin made unsuccessful back-to-back trips here in 2020 and 2021, but the old saying goes, “The third time’s the charm!”
Hamlin sits on the pole today with 19 years of prior experience to lean on at this track and in the sport. I suspect that he will pull away early and often to claim that elusive first Cup Series championship at the ripe age of 44 to put an end to 20 years of trying and 20 years of frustration.
(Top Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
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