![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2243467401.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnd, so long to the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
The book is about to be closed and put on the shelf, and the shift comes to what\u2019s ahead in 2026. After how the month of December has played out for the NASCAR community with multiple tragedies, it’s perhaps not a minute too soon. But it was another memorable racing season for one reason or another, the good and the bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We will always remember the dominance of Shane van Gisbergen,\u00a0and the time spent on the streets of Chicago. And we\u2019ll think of this season as the year when Kyle Larson became a multi-time champion, but wasn\u2019t the biggest story coming out of the finale thanks to who lost the championship. On and on it goes.<\/p>\n
So, here is one more look back the year that was 2025.<\/p>\n
Driver of the Year: Denny Hamlin<\/p>\n
At 44 years old, Hamlin had an incredible season;\u00a0one of the best he\u2019s had in his career. The win count was the highest he\u2019s had since\u00a02020,\u00a0but moreso, it appeared there weren\u2019t many weaknesses\u00a0around the No. 11 team. It\u2019s a great to see a driver of Hamlin\u2019s caliber still at the top of his game at this point in his career, because it doesn\u2019t always happen.\u00a0But he is as strong as ever both mentally and physically, and he remains one of the biggest threats on the racetrack.\u00a0Granted, the lasting memory of the season might be\u00a0his\u00a0emotional defeat in the title race, but it shouldn\u2019t overshadow everything Hamlin and his group accomplished before that weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most Improved Driver: Bubba Wallace<\/p>\n
The way the season stared for Wallace and new crew chief Charles Denike, it seemed like multiple wins were in the cards. Wallace was a consistent face up front and through the first few months, was earning plenty of points. While they fell short on multiple wins, they had opportunities and by the eye test, this was a season in which it became the norm to see the No. 23 Toyota in the picture. Denny Hamlin, his co-owner,\u00a0even acknowledged late in the season on his podcast that Wallace was the fastest car 23XI Racing had. Overall, the numbers, from laps led to stage points, and more, as well as Wallace\u2019s attitude were greatly improved and noticeably different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Biggest Surprise: RFK Racing going winless<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to believe, considering how well the organization ran whether it was all three teams, or two of three, or just one during any given weekend. There were opportunities, and some that seemed closer than others, but it didn\u2019t happen. And\u00a0none of the three \u2013 Brad Keselowski, Ryan\u00a0Preece, or Chris Buescher \u2013 made the postseason, which just added\u00a0insult to injury. But there should be a foundation laid for bigger success going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
RFK Racing did a lot of the right things, but had little to show for it at the end of the season. David Jensen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Most Disappointing: Ty Gibbs<\/p>\n
There should always be a grace period for drivers moving into the Cup Series because regardless of talent, the adjustment is steep. The learning curve is wide. But it\u2019s been\u00a0three full seasons (plus 15 races)\u00a0now for Gibbs driving a car for what is arguably one of the three best organizations in the Cup Series, and there has hardly been anything to write home about. Gibbs was the fourth-best Joe Gibbs Racing driver in 2025 and fell way behind the accomplishments of his teammates \u2013 and that was with a new crew chief, Tyler Allen, and added help late on the year from Chris Gabehart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MVP: Amazon<\/p>\n
One of NASCAR\u2019s newest partners only had five races on its slate, but they made the most of it. The group assembled were familiar faces and talented, and it showed in how they presented the racing product. It was fun but insightful, and didn\u2019t seem over the top. \u00a0There was no reinventing the wheel. Plus, the length of the pre- and post-race coverage was a big hit. Viewers want more content, not less, and whether its interviews with drivers or extended highlights and analysis, Amazon brought it all,\u00a0and did so at a high level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Story of the Year: Cup Series playoff format<\/p>\n
No, we aren\u2019t overlooking the lawsuit\u00a0because that was absolutely\u00a0the\u00a0story for the past 14 months. But that was away from the racing.\u00a0So,\u00a0when we look at the season and the product, the biggest underlying story was continued conversation around the playoff format. NASCAR even created a committee\u00a0to discuss is future, which\u00a0held its first meeting the weekend of the very first points race \u2013 the Daytona 500. While there are certainly those\u00a0in\u00a0the garage and grandstands who like the current format, there has been a very vocal opposing side and it seems change is coming. Of\u00a0course, if it wasn\u2019t enough to have talked about it all year, the season finales in all three series produced scenarios that fueled the flames of hate toward the format.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Best Paint Scheme: Axalta (Daytona\u00a0500)<\/p>\n
The colors. The flames. The details.\u00a0William\u00a0Byron\u2019s scheme was a classic, and it flat-out looked good. But let\u2019s talk some more about the details. Hendrick Motorsports got creative with the look of the flames by inserting circles so the wrap color below showed through. There was a clear gradient. However, you might have noticed that the paint scheme changed after the Daytona 500. NASCAR wasn\u2019t a fan of what Hendrick had done to create the scheme, and had the team remove the circles. The team decided that since a gradient wouldn\u2019t work without those, and the flames became a solid color.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2199696051.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
William Byron’s Daytona 500 paint scheme was a one (or won?) and done. Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Best Race: Coca-Cola 600\u00a0<\/p>\n
It might have been a marathon race, but it didn\u2019t feel like a drag watching it unfold. Ross Chastain was the story within the race coming from last place and winning, overtaking William Byron late, but there was plenty more that happened throughout the night. The races within the race, you\u2019d say.\u00a0For example, Kyle Larson\u2019s double attempt. The first race for Amazon. The eight caution flags and incidents that eliminated contenders.\u00a0It was another good night for an intermediate race with the current car, and it\u2019s been better when it\u2019s one of the sport\u2019s biggest races.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Worst Race: Bristol\u00a0Motor Speedway\u00a0(spring)<\/p>\n
On the flip side of races with tire wear, fuel mileage, or the ability to battle for position with stories within the race, are the races where it seems absolutely nothing is happening. It\u2019s just logging laps. There is nowhere worse for that to happen than short tracks,\u00a0in particular\u00a0at Bristol when one driver is leading nearly every lap. Those races\u00a0become easy to forget. The checkered flag can\u2019t come soon enough.\u00a0Kyle\u00a0Larson and his team weren\u2019t to blame; it was just one of those days where a race\u00a0happened, we put it on the books, and moved on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coolest Moment: Daniel Suarez winning in Mexico\u00a0City<\/p>\n
NASCAR\u2019s return to Mexico \u2013 but its first visit for the Cup Series \u2013 came with a lot of expectation, and even some skepticism. In the end, there were two great events, and to start the weekend with the star of the show winning on Saturday made it all the better.\u00a0A lot had been put on Suarez\u2019s shoulders as the face of the event, and then he still needed to get behind the wheel in not one, but two races. Add in that the first race started with him wrecking the primary car and having to start in the rear.\u00a0The reaction to Suarez was hard not to be caught up in, and when he won, it was the sort of thing great highlights are made of.<\/p>\n
Breakout\u00a0Driver: Chase Briscoe\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally. Briscoe is one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR but if the resources aren\u2019t there, it\u2019s hard to deliver. Briscoe met the moment in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment with multiple wins and going as far as the title race, the latter of which was icing on the cake. The ability to not just win, but win multiple races in top equipment is key, and after the team went through its growing pains, they were among the fastest in the series. It turned Briscoe into a driver that people got used to seeing the front on a consistent basis. This was a year in which anyone who has believed from the start that Briscoe is capable of big things was finally seeing it come to fruition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2242080514.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Briscoe has plenty of reasons to feel good about his 2025 campaign. Chris Graythen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Wanted More: Bristol fall (tires)<\/p>\n
There was a time when tire wear and fuel mileage races were a normal occurrence in NASCAR. But nowadays when they happen, one of two things results: people don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re seeing and don\u2019t like it, or there is calls for more of it. It\u2019s the latter in this case. A driver\u2019s skillset should include more than just being able to hold the throttle pedal to the floor, and with tire management races, a lot more of the\u00a0day\u2019s\u00a0success is put in their hands. Plus, it\u2019s entertaining to see who is able to manage his equipment better than the competition, or for how much longer during a run. It would be nice to see more of these races return to the sport instead of the high speed, full throttle, air racing that has become all too familiar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Feel-good Story: Wood Brothers Racing\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASCAR has succeeded on the backs of pioneers like the Wood family. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest team in the Cup Series and has built a reputation and following as fan favorites.\u00a0So,when the team does well, it\u2019s all the more special \u2013 and arguably important for the sport. The famed\u00a0No.\u00a021 car had a solid season with Josh Berry behind the wheel as legitimate top 16 contenders, and earning stats that hadn\u2019t been seen in a few years for the team,\u00a0such as in top-10 finishes and average finish.\u00a0Plus, the victory at Las Vegas came on merit, and there could have potentially been some more. But the most important thing is that they were relevant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crew Chief of the Year: Cliff Daniels<\/p>\n
It seems like low-hanging fruit considering Daniels and Kyle Larson won the championship, but that accomplishment helped solidify this sentiment. Daniels is one of the top crew chiefs in the garage, and his talent and leadership have made the\u00a0No.\u00a05 team what is today. More so, Daniels has a way of keeping his driver and team in the game, whether through motivational actions and words, or his abilities within a race. Every team needs that playmaker or the guy who can put them on his back when needed, and where Larson does it on the track, the rest is done by Daniels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Became a Star: Chris Gayle<\/p>\n
Gayle has been a Cup Series crew chief before, but he arrived in 2025 as the leader of the No. 11 team with Denny Hamlin. It was a pairing that could have gone the complete opposite way it did, as Gayle\u2019s resume was not all that impressive and Hamlin admitted he was uncertain about starting over with someone new. Instead, the two looked like a long-time pair that needed little if any time at all to make things work. In the end, Hamlin had one of his best seasons in the series, including the closest he\u2019s ever come to the championship, and Gayle became a household name while likely stockpiling a ton\u00a0of confidence to go forward.<\/p>\n
Best Quote:\u00a0Ty Dillon<\/p>\n
Oh, there are many that could go here but let\u2019s talk about how the in-season tournament created additional storylines and races within the race for everyone to track. NASCAR got what it wanted by busting brackets from the start with the first race in Atlanta, which included No. 32 seed\u00a0Ty Dillon beating No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin. Afterward, Dillon used his TV interview to crack to Hamlin fans that he \u201cjust knocked your favorite driver out.\u201d Of course, a knock to Hamlin saying he \u201cbeat your favorite driver\u201d after winning. Dillon wound up going all the way to the finals, during which he and Kaulig Racing continued to find ways to capitalize on the attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And, so long to the 2025 season. The book is about to be closed and put on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-378988","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\/378988","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=378988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}