Kyle Larson wins a third NASCAR Cup title, clinching it before halfway at Homestead
Kyle Larson sealed the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series title in Stage 1 at Homestead-Miami on 8 November. Ryan Blaney won the race; Bell finished 49 points back.
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The essentials: Kyle Larson won the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday 8 November, his third title after 2021 and 2025. The Hendrick Motorsports driver had such a large points lead that a fourth-place finish in the first stage was enough to make it mathematically certain, long before the end of the race. Ryan Blaney won the season finale itself.
How did Larson clinch the title so early?
Larson arrived in Miami well ahead of his last two rivals, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. According to Motorsport.com, he was battling Bell for third place when the caution flag ended Stage 1, on lap 77 of 267, after Chase Briscoe’s engine failed. Fourth place gave Larson seven stage points, and with Bell third and Hamlin sixth, nobody could catch him any more.
The rest of his afternoon was difficult. SpeedwayMedia reports that he never led a lap, had to make an unscheduled stop on lap 118 for a punctured right-rear tyre, and finished 12th. On the radio, crew chief Cliff Daniels told him he was the champion. “Okay, that was a little anticlimactic, but that’s cool. Good job, guys,” Larson replied, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
Who won the race?
Ryan Blaney won the finale in an eight-lap shoot-out, ahead of Tyler Reddick, according to Motorsport.com and SpeedwayMedia. It was Blaney’s fourth win of the season. “Every time I come [to Homestead], that [2024] race haunts me,” Blaney said, as quoted by SpeedwayMedia, referring to the last-lap pass by Reddick that cost him victory two years ago.
What do the final standings look like?
| Pos. | Driver | Gap to leader |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Larson | Champion |
| 2 | Christopher Bell | −49 points |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | −56 points |
| 4 | Ryan Blaney | −94 points |
| 5 | Tyler Reddick | −104 points |
Source: NBC Sports, SpeedwayMedia.
Hamlin, who has four wins this season, finished third in his 21st attempt at a Cup title, SpeedwayMedia notes. “Congrats to [Larson]. They deserve everything,” he said.
Why does this title matter?
Larson is only the 11th driver in Cup Series history to win at least three championships, and the first to win back-to-back titles since the end of Jimmie Johnson’s run of five in a row in 2010, Motorsport.com reports. All three of his titles came with crew chief Cliff Daniels. The championship is also the 16th Cup title for Hendrick Motorsports, a record for a team.
His season had two very different halves. Larson went more than 50 races without a win, including the whole 26-race regular season, before winning at Gateway, Kansas and Talladega during the 10-race Chase. Over the year he recorded 15 top-five and 21 top-ten finishes, according to SpeedwayMedia. “We’re really honored to have both Cliff and Kyle,” team owner Rick Hendrick said.
What comes next for NASCAR?
The title closes a season OutKick describes as the most turbulent since 2001. Steve O’Donnell succeeded Steve Phelps at the top of NASCAR, the Martinsville race drew a record-low broadcast TV audience, and the series returned to the old Chase format. That format, without elimination rounds or a four-driver final race, is what allowed Larson to wrap up the title so early, and OutKick notes that it has raised questions about how the championship should be decided. O’Donnell, for his part, insisted that “NASCAR has momentum, and momentum they haven’t seen before.”
