Championship Race: Larson becomes three-time Cup Series champion; Blaney wins Homestead finale

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — After a generational run in the return of The Chase postseason format, Kyle Larson won the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his third premier-series title and his second consecutive Bill France Cup.

Larson won the 2025 Cup Series title without winning a race since May of that year, then carried a 51-race winless streak into the 2026 season as the defending champion. Once The Chase started, Larson not only broke that streak at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, but proceeded to go out and win two more races at Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, while also finishing inside the top five three other times (Darlington, fifth; Bristol, second; Las Vegas, second).

The 34-year-old is now the third-youngest three-time Cup Series champion, joining fellow Hendrick Motorsports greats Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

“All three mean something way different,” Larson said. “The first one being your first. Doing the way we did was extra special. Then last year, we started off the year really hot. Just declined kind of throughout the regular season. But then steadied out in the playoffs. Again, with Cliff’s (Daniels, crew chief) leadership, kept us in it, to be able to attack when we needed to, get the surprise of that championship.

“This one, I mean, it’s somewhat similar, but such a different format that really takes consistency. We had a new car this year. The Chevrolet was just hard to get used to in the beginning. We all worked really hard at Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet. We were just building. I could feel we were OK, but I definitely didn’t think we would go on the run we did in this final 10 weeks.”

Larson’s third Championship is now Hendrick’s 16th Cup title with five different drivers: Johnson (seven), Gordon (four), Larson (three), Terry Labonte (one) and Chase Elliott (one).

Mark Reuss, President of General Motors, gave a congratulatory message to the No. 5 team for sealing the deal.

“Congratulations to Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the entire No. 5 Chevrolet team on their third NASCAR Cup Series championship,” Reuss said. “Championships are earned through preparation, trust and execution, and this team demonstrated all three throughout the 2026 season. They stayed focused through adversity, and performed the best when it mattered most.

“We also congratulate Rick and Linda Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews, Chad Knaus and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports on the organization’s 16th NASCAR Cup Series championship,” Reuss added. “This achievement reflects the leadership and teamwork that are hallmarks of Hendrick Motorsports. We’re proud of our partnership and honored to celebrate another championship together.”

Final NASCAR Cup Series Standings:

Race Facts

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney won the final race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for the third time in the last four years. Blaney only led 7 of 267 laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but spent most of the race up front and completed a pass on Tyler Reddick with two laps remaining to earn his fourth win of the season.

“You definitely want to end on a high note,” Blaney said. “We hated coming in here and not having a shot to win a championship, but the best thing we could do was try to win the race and get as much points as we can and we’ll see where it takes us, so I was really happy we were able to execute that today and get all we could.”

23XI Racing’s Reddick looked to be on his way to his seventh Cup Series win of the 2026 season before giving up the lead to Blaney.

“I haven’t seen a replay yet, but it was Denny (Hamlin), (William) Byron, and out of nowhere here comes the 12 (Ryan Blaney) through those guys quick, and just from my seat it seemed like he was really good around the bottom of (Turns) 3 and 4, so I tried to at least keep him behind me until we go there,” Reddick said.

“Me being me, I felt like if it played out how I wanted it to, I would have stalled his momentum out and ran the top of (Turns) 3 and 4, but he just had too big of a run, I think. I blocked low and it seemed in the moment he was still able to break the plane of my back bumper, and I lost the ability to have the top lane. Very fitting that it played out the way that it did, but pretty much exactly the same as what we did in 2024. Thanks to Chumba Casino, Toyota and everyone at 23XI Racing for a great season.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron ended his 2026 campaign on a high note after one of the worst seasons of his Cup Series career.

Byron’s third-place finish at Homestead was his third straight top-three finish after winning at Martinsville Speedway last week and finishing runner-up at Talladega Superspeedway the week before that.

Results from the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin were the only drivers who had a mathematical chance at winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship against Kyle Larson. Bell finished fourth after a strong 50-point day, while Hamlin, who arguably had the most dominant car all race, led 87 of 267 laps, hit the wall in the closing laps and fell to sixth.

“We were fine in the daylight with our DEWALT Interstate Batteries Camry,” Bell said. “Just, I don’t know. I was really loose in the daylight and pretty fast and we felt like whenever the nighttime came that we were going to get better and honestly, it was the opposite. Just kind of got a little bit worse compared to the guys up front. I don’t know. Overall, a really solid day running top five and almost running top three in the stages. We did what we needed to do today, but didn’t do what we needed to do throughout the previous nine.”

“It was really good,” Hamlin added. “I’m really proud of the whole Progressive Toyota team. We made lots of gains from Friday to the race tonight. Really happy with the effort we put forth there on the race track today. Just going for it there at the end and cost us some spots, getting into the wall. Definitely wanted to try to win. It was a fun race. Certainly, we picked up a little steam from where we were on the other mile and a half last time.”

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Tyler Reddick	12.18	9th	2nd	12.58	5th
Denny Hamlin	12.09	11th	6th	12.09	11th
Christopher Bell	11.12	18th	4th	11.31	15th
Kyle Larson	11.50	15th	12th	11.18	16th
Ryan Blaney	N/A	N/A	1st	10.61	19th

Week 32 of the GRID Ranking:

Now that the NASCAR Cup Series season has concluded, Tyler Reddick is the 2026 NASCAR GRID Rating Champion. Reddick’s six wins, 15 top-five finishes and 21 top-10 finishes helped him earn the highest rating among all NASCAR drivers.

This marks the fifth consecutive season in which the Cup Series champion was not the NASCAR GRID Rating Champion.

NASCAR GRID Rating Results All-Time

Year | NASCAR Rating | Real Champion
2026 | Tyler Reddick | Kyle Larson
2025 | Denny Hamlin | Kyle Larson
2024 | Kyle Larson | Joey Logano
2023 | William Byron | Ryan Blaney
2022 | Ross Chastain | Joey Logano
2021 | Kyle Larson | Kyle Larson
2020 | Kevin Harvick | Chase Elliott
2019 | Martin Truex Jr. | Kyle Busch
2018 | Kyle Busch | Joey Logano
2017 | Martin Truex Jr. | Martin Truex Jr.

The 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season gets underway at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 21, with the 69th running of the Daytona 500.

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