{"id":376468,"date":"2025-12-30T03:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T03:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376468\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T03:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T03:41:07","slug":"notable-achievements-from-2025-nascar-cup-series-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376468\/","title":{"rendered":"Notable achievements from 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 2026 right around the corner, the focus will quickly shift to the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15. Until then, let’s look back at some of the most notable achievements from a thrilling 2025 NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series season.<\/p>\n

William Byron repeats as Daytona 500 champion<\/p>\n

For just the fifth time in series history, a driver repeated as the winner of the “Great American Race” as Byron maneuvered his way through a last-lap crash that was triggered by Cole Custer and Denny Hamlin. After the dust had settled, Byron emerged as a two-time Daytona 500 champion<\/a>, joining Hamlin (2019-20), Sterling Marlin (1994-95), Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough (1983-84) and Hall of Famer Richard Petty (1973-74) as the only repeat winners.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristopher Bell’s trifecta<\/p>\n

Bell followed Byron’s season-opening win with three of his own<\/a> at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta), Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix, all of which were consecutively. That was the first instance of a driver winning three consecutive races in the Next Gen era (since 2022).<\/p>\n

Josh Berry’s first win<\/p>\n

Berry picked up his first Cup Series win<\/a> in the spring race at Las Vegas in just his 53rd career start. It involved some late strategy, but a pass around Daniel Suarez with 16 laps to go punched his playoff ticket in just his fifth start with the Famed Wood Brothers Racing organization.<\/p>\n

Ross Chastain’s last-to-first drive at Charlotte<\/p>\n

Despite starting the Coca-Cola 600 from the 40th starting position after a practice crash, Chastain surged ahead of Byron with six laps to go for his first crown jewel win<\/a> and became the first driver since Hall of Famer Bobby Allison in 1969 to win a race after starting last.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShane van Gisbergen’s road course dominance<\/p>\n

The Cup Series rookie and road course ace dominated the series’ first international points-paying race since 1958<\/a> at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with a 16.5-second margin of victory over Bell. By season’s end, van Gisbergen won five consecutive road course races and proved everyone must go through him when right-hand turns are thrown into the mix.<\/p>\n

Bubba Wallace kisses the bricks for the first time<\/p>\n

Despite a late rain shower and a challenge from 2024 Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Larson, Wallace prevailed for his third Cup Series win<\/a>, ended a 100-race winless streak and secured his playoff berth.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTy Gibbs claims inaugural In-Season Challenge<\/p>\n

The trial run of NASCAR’s new bracket-style tournament was not without its flaws, but Gibbs ultimately came away with the $1M prize<\/a> after notching three top-10s in the five-week stretch and finishing ahead of Ty Dillon in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe puts on a clinic in Southern 500<\/p>\n

Briscoe repeated as the Southern 500 winner by leading 309 of the 367 laps. One year removed from winning the final race for the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe showed what he is capable of<\/a> at Joe Gibbs Racing and locked up his spot in the Round of 12.<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin notches 60 career wins<\/p>\n

With a win in the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas, Hamlin became the 11th driver in Cup Series history to reach 60 wins. The championship may have eluded him once again<\/a>, but that is an exclusive list of drivers to be on.<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson claims second title<\/p>\n

Larson did not lead a single lap in the championship race at Phoenix, but a late caution for Byron and a two-tire call gave him enough track position over Hamlin to become the 18th driver with multiple Cup Series titles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 2026 right around the corner, the focus will quickly shift to the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-376468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}