The NASCAR Cup Series 2025 season wraps up on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, with four drivers battling for the title. Will Kyle Larson earn his second NASCAR Cup Series title, or will a new champion be crowned?
Date: November 2, 2025
Track: Phoenix Raceway (Avondale, Arizona)
Time: 3:00 p.m. ET
TV: NBC/Peacock
Stages: 60/185/312
Defending Winner: Joey Logano
Entry List: 38 cars for 40 spots
Date
Time
Session
TV
Fri., Oct. 31
5:35 p.m. ET
Practice
truTV
Sat., Nov. 1
5 p.m. ET
Qualifying
truTV
Sun., Nov. 2
3 p.m. ET
NASCAR Cup Series Championship
NBC/Peacock
dark. Next. Watch. Watch NASCAR Make HIstory, Crown Champions in Phoenix
Crowing a Champion
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Sunday’s race marks the culmination of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and the crowning of this year’s champion. Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson will battle for the championship, with the highest finisher among the four drivers taking the honor.
Larson is the only former champion of the quartet, winning the title and the final race of the season in 2021. The other competitors are seeking their first Cup Series title.
Hamlin is a sure-fire future Hall of Famer with 60 career wins, including three Daytona 500 wins, three Southern 500 wins and a Coca-Cola 600 victory.. However, he has been chasing a Cup Series title for 20 seasons.
Briscoe joined Joe Gibbs Racing this year, replacing Martin Truex, Jr. in the team’s No. 19 entry. It’s the opportunity Briscoe has been chasing for his entire career, and he has parlayed that into a spot in the Championship 4 after winning at Talladega.
William Byron’s clutch win at Martinsville one week ago earned him a spot in the Championship 4. Byron is making his third consecutive appearance in the Championship 4, looking for his first title. Can he cap off a year that started with his second Daytona 500 win with his first championship?
Navigating Phoenix’s Dogleg
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
A unique and defining characteristic of Phoenix Raceway is its dogleg frontstretch. Cars will fan out three and four-wide, if not more, on the spacious straightaway on starts and restarts before funneling into turn one.
This creates plenty of opportunity for movement up and down the leaderboard, as well as chaos. Championship contenders will need to be aggressive on restarts to pick up spots during these opportunities, the best chance to gain positions on a track that can otherwise be very difficult to pass on. However, one misstep can lead to plenty of lost ground, if not a big crash.
Weighing the risk and reward in those moments will be crucial for the title hopefuls.
Ending 2025 On A High Note
Alex Gould/Special for The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
The spotlight will be on the four championship contenders in Sunday’s race. However, 34 other drivers will be on track, all looking to end their season with a victory before going into the offseason.
In 2023, Ross Chastain did just that, finishing ahead of champion Ryan Blaney and scoring the win at Phoenix.
It’s not a common occurrence – the Championship 4 drivers are in the position they are in for a reason – but it’s not unheard of for a non-title driver to win the finale in this format. Drivers not in the title picture have to be mindful of not impacting the championship race, but the best way to do that is to stay in front of them.
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