Nearly nine months after the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series commenced with Tyler Reddick winning the Daytona 500, the season will come to an end with the Championship Race on Sunday. Officially titled the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, the green flag will drop at 3 p.m. ET from Homestead-Miami Speedway. Here’s what you need to know about the Cup Series season finale.
The Track
The new venue for the Championship Race is actually an old venue. After Phoenix Raceway hosted the season-ending race from 2020–25, it relocated to Homestead this year. However, this isn’t the first time that the 1.5-mile oval located just southwest of Miami will host the Championship Race. Homestead previously was home to this event from 2004–19 before handing the reins to Phoenix.
The Contenders
While the NASCAR Championship Race 2026 will have a full 40-driver field, with all of them fully capable of winning this race, just three drivers have a chance of winning the season championship. Kyle Larson is head and shoulders above them all as he tops the NASCAR Chase standings. He has a 67-point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point cushion over Denny Hamlin. The maximum amount of points in a race is 76, so only those three can win the title, with Larson needing just 9 points to clinch.
He could very well get those nine points in Stage 1 and make the rest of race day moot. Without any stage points, Larson only has to finish in 28th place to win it all, which seems extremely likely considering Larson has finished in the top 15 in 10 of 12 starts at this track.
However, an accident or vehicle problems are always a possibility, and Bell or Hamlin would benefit from either of those. They are certainly viable contenders, as Hamlin is a three-time NASCAR Miami winner, tied with Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle for the most in the track’s history. Meanwhile, Bell won at this track in 2023 and won this year’s first playoff race at Darlington, so he’d love to bookend the NASCAR Chase with another visit to the winner’s circle.
The Rest of the Field
Outside of those three, there are another 37 drivers who would love to end their season on a high note. Reddick certainly began his with the high of winning at Daytona, and he also owns the season-high of six triumphs this season. He’d love to bookend the season and notch a seventh victory in what’s been a breakout season for the 23XI Racing driver.
There are also a couple of drivers who’ll mark milestones when the green flag drops on Sunday in Casey Mears and J.J. Yeley. The former will make his 500th start in the Cup Series, with just one victory over the previous 499. However, that’s one more victory than Yeley has as he makes his 400th NASCAR Cup Series start. What better way to celebrate the milestone occasion than by visiting Victory Lane for the first time?
Then there’s Austin Hill, who has driven the last few months with a heavy heart. Following the shocking death of Kyle Busch in May, his No. 8 car for Richard Childress Racing was renumbered to No. 33, with Hill being Busch’s substitute. The 32-year-old has already been promoted to being a full-time driver for the 2027 Cup Series season, but he’d love to end 2026 with his first career win, which would also honor Busch’s legacy in the process.
What’s at Stake
Besides the obvious of being the Cup Series champion, a couple of other things of significance could take place on Sunday.
If Larson wins the championship, it would be his third and also his second in a row, following victories in 2021 and 2025. Just 10 other drivers in NASCAR history have at least three Cup Series championships, with Joey Logano the only other active person. Larson would also become the first driver to repeat since Jimmie Johnson’s historic five consecutive wins from 2006–10.
Hamlin and Bell have combined for 78 Cup Series victories, but neither has ever been the Cup Series champion. Each is a part of Joe Gibbs Racing, and them miraculously pulling off an upset would result in its sixth Cup Series championship. That would tie it with Richard Childress Racing and Junior Johnson & Associates for the third most ever, trailing only Hendrick Motorsports and Petty Enterprises.
Finally, the 2026 NASCAR Championship Race could be the swan song for veteran Brad Keselowski. Named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers, Keselowski is one of six people to win a championship on both the Cup Series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. But he doesn’t have a home for 2027, as he’s leaving both his driver and ownership roles with RFK Racing at the end of this season. It’s been two-and-a-half years since Keselowski’s won a race, but his fans—and many fellow NASCAR drivers—would be thrilled if he turned back the hands of time, won the NASCAR Championship Race, and received a proper sendoff into whatever’s next for him.
