When looking back at 2025 in NASCAR history, there are probably a lot of off-track events that will define the year.
The 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports lawsuit against NASCAR dominated headlines throughout the year. The NASCAR Cup Series went racing internationally for the first time in decades. New TV partners made their debut in the sport while others departed.
The on-track action, however, can’t be ignored. The Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series each saw a blend of historic performances, controversy and great racing.
Here’s the top 10 moments of the year in NASCAR.
10. JR Motorsports Makes Daytona 500 in Cup Debut
The Duels at Daytona International Speedway feel a bit like a product of a bygone era. As years go by, the number of little teams coming to try their hand at making the sport’s biggest race has dwindled from dozens to the single digits. Still, there’s always an interesting cast of drivers and teams trying to race their way into the Daytona 500.
Last winter, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports entered Justin Allgaier in the No. 40 Chevy, marking the team’s first foray into Cup competition. The team that had just come off an Xfinity title the year prior celebrated like it had won it all over again after taking ninth in the first Duel on Feb. 13. Allgaier and Earnhardt’s emotions overflowed on pit road post-race.
It wasn’t the last time JRM got to celebrate that weekend, as Allgaier finished ninth in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16. For the first few months of the season, the one-time entry sponsored by Traveller Whiskey was the series’ top merch seller. And early next year, Allgaier and the No. 40 return for a second crack at the 500.
9. Josh Berry Earns 1st Career Win for Wood Brothers Racing
In late 2020, Josh Berry was fresh off winning a NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly National Championship and was announced as a part-time driver for JRM’s Xfinity program starting in 2021. Not even five years later, Berry paid off years of grinding in the CARS Late Model Tour with his first Cup victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 16.
Berry was one of several drivers hungry for a win on a restart with 20 laps to go, starting beside Daniel Suarez with the likes of Ryan Preece and AJ Allmendinger behind them.
Suarez took the point early, but Berry played the long game and took the lead with 14 laps to go. Berry set sail in the iconic No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing to become what would be the lone first-time winner of the 2025 Cup season.
The rest of the year was hit-or-miss for Berry. He was eliminated in the playoffs after three straight last-place finishes and had nine DNFs. However, Berry out did what the Wood Brothers had managed in their three previous seasons with Harrison Burton, with eight top 10s.
While there are plenty of young faces to the series who have the potential to be stars, Berry’s win at Las Vegas showed his future is just as bright at 35.
8. NASCAR Returns to the Madhouse for the Clash
In recent years, NASCAR’s looked to the future by turning to its past. For all the new, quirky ideas like the Chicago street course or the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, there are the throwbacks like the revitalization of North Wilkesboro Speedway and a return to Rockingham Speedway.
The Cook Out Clash on Feb. 2 took a step back in time with the Cup Series’ first race at Bowman Gray Stadium since 1971. Not only was the race a showcase of NASCAR’s roots, the track is also home of one of the country’s most intriguing local racing scenes. Longtime Bowman Gray Modified rivals Burt Myers and Tim Brown even got a chance to race with the stars of the sport with entries for Team AmeriVet and Rick Ware Racing.
On-track, the race provided the advertised chaos of the Madhouse with myriad retaliations in preliminary races and seven caution flags during the 200-lap main event, which saw Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott battle for the lead throughout the night.
In the end, it was Elliott who held off Ryan Blaney to be the first recipient of the Bobby Allison Memorial Trophy.
7. Heim Finishes Historic Year With Truck Series Title
Check your watch at any point during the 2025 Truck season and it was probably Heim time.
After finishing second in last year’s title race, Corey Heim set record after record during his redemption campaign that started with a win at Daytona. Heim had 12 wins, 19 top fives and 1,627 laps led when the season ended. He also became the first driver in NASCAR history to lead a lap in every race of a national series season.
His title win at Phoenix Raceway on Oct. 31 didn’t come as easy as success throughout the year had. A bad pit stop before the first overtime restart put him back in 10th, but a gutsy seven-wide move all the way to the inside wall of Phoenix’s dogleg saw him wind up second when another caution flag came out.
Heim took off in the final overtime and secured a title to top off the best season in series history.
6. Preece Invents a New Way To Flip at Daytona
Plenty of crashes throughout the 2025 season took headlines for different reasons. Cody Ware’s brake failure at Chicago, Zane Smith’s bizarre flip at Kansas Speedway and a plethora of pileups anywhere from Martinsville Speedway to EchoPark Speedway were just a few that come to mind.
Then again, the biggest and most eye-catching wreck of the season felt destined to be at one track by one man.
With five laps to go in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, Christopher Bell crashed into the outside wall from the front of the pack on the backstretch. When Bell’s car came down into Preece’s right front tire, the No. 60 Ford’s front wheels got off the ground and pointed the nose of the car toward the sky. Eventually, the car fully blew over and flipped up the turn 3 banking before coming to rest on its wheels.
Preece was frustrated initially, having now been at the center of countless hold-your-breath superspeedway crashes. Thankfully, the rest of the season turned out to be one of the best of his career. Plus, it provided some nice social media fodder.
5. Wallace Snaps Winless Streak at Brickyard 400
The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27 had that crown-jewel feel that had been missing in previous years, in large part thanks to it being the final race of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. While Ty Gibbs’ claimed the title to end the Cinderella run of Ty Dillon, it was another Toyota driver that took the headlines by making racing history.
When the final round of green-flag pit stops ended with 22 laps to go, Bubba Wallace found himself at the point with fuel being his only concern. That all changed with six laps to go due to rain showers that forced a red flag, forcing Wallace to have to fend off Kyle Larson on not one, but two overtime restarts.
Wallace’s victory snapped a 100-race winless streak and was the first of his career that locked him into the playoffs. Moreover, Wallace became the first Black driver to win a major race at Indianapolis.
His team, 23XI, saw a turbulent year off the track with its legal battle with NASCAR, but Wallace showed growth and picked up the marquee win of his career. He finished 11th in points.
4. Hamlin Captures Emotional Win at Vegas
Slowly over the course of 2025, Hamlin made a turn from one of the sport’s most hated heels to a fan favorite that tugged at the heartstrings.
In a year that saw him holding an 11 Against The World flag after winning at Martinsville and telling the crowd at Michigan International Speedway that he’d beaten their favorite driver, Hamlin’s face turn was slow and gradual. His father’s struggles with illness, his chase for his first championship and a historic 60th win on the horizon helped put people on his side as the season went on.
All of those things came to a head at Las Vegas on Oct. 12. With five laps to go, he passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe for the lead and the win to lock himself into the Championship 4.
The weight the win carried was evident on the cooldown lap as he wiped tears from his eyes. The normally braggadocious Hamlin was replaced by a subdued, humble, emotional one in his post-race interview with USA Network.
For wearing those emotions in such a public, honest way, Hamlin provided one of the sport’s most memorable moments in 2025.
3. Kansas Delivers Another Wild Finish
There could easily be three or four finishes on this list alone. From the drama of Elliott’s last lap pass to win at EchoPark Speedway in July to the stakes at hand in a four-wide finish at the regular-season finale at Daytona, there was great racing plenty in 2025.
The finish to the race at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 28 had everything that makes a great finish, plus a little added in-fighting between Toyota to push it into an unbelievable moment and pivotal turning point in the Cup playoffs.
Coming to the white flag after an overtime restart, Wallace led a pack of Toyotas that included Hamlin and his two JGR teammates, Bell and Briscoe. Elliott was in fifth.
Hamlin got all the way to Wallace’s bumper going into turn 3, then went up the hill into Wallace due to a lack of power steering. Elliott snuck underneath them both for a win to advance to the next round. It left the Toyota camp scratching their heads, but fans got more than their money’s worth.
2. Suarez Wins in Mexico City With Backup Car
Every driver has a home track where a race feels a little more special. For Elliott, it’s EchoPark. For Hamlin, it’s Martinsville and Richmond. For Kyle Busch, it’s Las Vegas. But never had a driver carried the expectation of an entire nation going into a race weekend quite like Suarez did in NASCAR’s return to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
The former Xfinity champion made his return to the division in a one-off ride with JRM on June 14, but his homecoming quickly turned into a nightmare scenario with a crash in practice that placed him dead last on the grid of 39 starters.
On a day when top contenders faltered early and often, Suarez made up for the mistake in practice by driving a clean race to wind up at the front when the checkered flag waved.
NASCAR’s return to Mexico City for the first time since 2008 wasn’t without trepidation from some of the fanbase, teams or drivers. If there was one moment that made the return worth it, the roar of the crowd when Suarez took the lead with 18 laps to go — then again when he took the checkered flag — was it.
While he spent most of 2025 wondering what his future would bring, his effort in Mexico City gave new life to Suarez’s career and solidified him as a national hero in his home country.
1. Larson Wins Cup, Hands Hamlin Brutal Defeat
When the Cup playoffs started, the consensus on Larson was that 2025 was a down year, at least by his standards. Between his spring win at Kansas and the start of the playoffs in August, Larson had just three top fives compared to four finishes outside the top 30, not to mention a disastrous second attempt at the Memorial Day double.
Yet when the series finale at Phoenix arrived on Nov. 2, he was in the Championship 4 riding the momentum of a near-flawless six-race run.
That said, it was Hamlin that was the sentimental favorite among the fans. His chase for his first championship, fueled by the emotions of both his father’s illness and the pending power struggle with NASCAR, made him the easy driver to root for. Plus, there was no arguing he’d been one of the best drivers in 2025 with six wins to his credit.
Hamlin was the dominant car of the championship race with 208 laps led. When all four championship drivers made up the front two rows on a restart with 29 laps to go, Hamlin found himself back in front and pulling away. The only thing he didn’t need as the laps continued to count down was a caution. And that’s just what he got.
Byron’s tire failure with four laps to go brought most of the field to pit road, including Larson and Hamlin. Crew chief Cliff Daniels chose a two-tire stop for Larson. For Hamlin, crew chief Chris Gayle opted for four.
Larson restarted five spots in front of Hamlin in overtime and ultimately held onto to third to claim his second Cup title.
Just as memorable as the race was the aftermath, showing what separated sports from other entertainment. The thrill of victory from Larson and his crew, which endured a tough summer stretch, contrasted with the agony of defeat for Hamlin, who by his own admission might never get closer to a Cup title.
For as much as those two were at the center of the biggest moment of the 2025 NASCAR season, it was the playoff format that garnered the most attention in the weeks before and after. For every benefit the sport gained from it, myriad flaws and imperfections arose. Now, it seems destined that NASCAR will change the format.
While it provided defining moments in the careers of two of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, the 2025 season finale at Phoenix will ultimately be the defining moment of the year for the sport because of how it shaped the future of how it crowned its champions.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in Fort Wayne, Indiana covering minor league, college and high school sports. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.