Kyle Larson Wins Third NASCAR Cup Title, First Repeat Champion Since 2010

Kyle Larson clinched his third NASCAR Cup Series championship on Sunday before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway was even half over, becoming the first driver to win back-to-back Cup titles since Jimmie Johnson in 2010.

Larson entered the Straight Talk Wireless 400 with a 67-point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point edge on Denny Hamlin in the standings, needing only nine points over the course of the race to be mathematically assured of the title. He got there almost immediately: a fourth-place finish in Stage 1 earned him seven points, and when leader Chase Briscoe's engine failed moments later, NBC and other outlets covering the race reported that the resulting caution period made the math final before the field had completed even a third of the 267-lap race.

An anticlimactic coronation

Larson's own crew chief, Cliff Daniels, delivered the news over the radio during that caution. "Like it's done, over? OK," Larson said, according to the race recap published by NASCAR. "That was a little anticlimactic, but that's cool. Good job, guys." He went on to finish 12th in the race itself, content to protect his points lead rather than race for the win, and closed out the championship by 49 points over Bell in the final standings.

It is the third Cup title of Larson's career, following a championship in 2021 and a second in 2025, both with Hendrick Motorsports, and the first time since Johnson's run of five consecutive titles from 2006 to 2010 that any driver has repeated as champion. The 2026 season was the first run under NASCAR's revived "Chase" playoff format, which rewards a cumulative points battle across a 16-driver postseason field rather than a single winner-take-all finale among four drivers, as the sport had used in prior years.

Blaney wins the race

The race itself went to Ryan Blaney, who passed Tyler Reddick on the outside exiting the final turn with two laps remaining to win for the fourth time in 2026 and the first time at Homestead, according to NBC Sports's race coverage. It marked the second consecutive year Blaney has won the season finale without having a shot at the title himself, having been eliminated from championship contention earlier in the playoffs. Reddick finished second, followed by William Byron, Bell and Bubba Wallace to round out the top five, with Hamlin sixth.

For Larson and Hendrick Motorsports, the title is the organization's second in as many years and extends a run that has made the team the dominant force in the sport's current era; Hendrick has now won more than a dozen championships over the past three decades. Larson, who also competes in sprint-car and dirt-track racing in the off-season and has periodically expressed interest in attempting the Indianapolis 500 "double," said little immediately after the race about his plans beyond acknowledging the achievement. NASCAR's 2027 schedule, including whether the Chase format will carry over unchanged, is expected to be formally released in the coming weeks.

Bell, who finished the season as runner-up for the second time in three years, and Hamlin, now 45 and still without a title despite more than 50 career wins, both face renewed questions about whether they can get past Larson and Hendrick's resources next season. For NASCAR as a sanctioning body, a repeat champion driving the sport's most recognizable current star gives network partners a marketable storyline heading into a 2027 season that will also mark the ongoing evolution of the Chase playoff system first introduced this year.