NASCAR Cup Championship Up For Grabs at Phoenix; Live Race Updates
Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway (scheduled to take place at 3:00 PM ET on NBC) marks the final race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and at the end of the day, the series champion will be crowned.
Four drivers, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe, who each have solid career track records at Phoenix Raceway, will square off, and the highest-finishing of the four will be forever etched in the history books as the 2025 series champion.
RACE PREVIEW: Setting the Stage for NASCAR's Championship Race in Phoenix
Welcome to the Racing America On SI live-race updates page for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. This page will serve as your guide leading up to and throughout Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoff finale. This page will be updated with key pre-race updates, in-race updates such as lead changes, and video highlights of crashes or incidents. Also included will be stage and race results, and much more. Continue checking back for additional updates.
Final Stage Updates:
LAP 319: RYAN BLANEY AND BRAD KESELOWSKI DRAG RACE TO THE START-FINISH LINE, BUT KYLE LARSON FINISHES THIRD AND WINS THE 2025 NASCAR CUP SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP! DENNY HAMLIN COMES HOME IN SIXTH.
Pos | # | Driver |
|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
2 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
3 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
4 | 22 | Joey Logano |
5 | 8 | Kyle Busch |
6 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
7 | 21 | Josh Berry |
8 | 71 | Michael McDowell |
9 | 60 | Ryan Preece |
10 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
Lap 316: Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece will share the front row. Kyle Larson will restart on the outside of Row 3, Denny Hamlin will restart on the inside of Row 5, and Chase Briscoe is on the inside of Row 8.
Lap 312: Kyle Larson takes TWO TIRES (and will restart fifth), Denny Hamlin takes FOUR TIRES (and will restart 10th), and Chase Briscoe takes FOUR TIRES (and will restart 15th). Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece, and Alex Bowman have stayed on the racetrack.
Lap 309: CAUTION IS OUT! WILLIAM BYRON HAS A FLAT RIGHT-FRONT TIRE! WE ARE GOING TO NASCAR OVERTIME.
Lap 297: Denny Hamlin is GONE! The No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota Camry XSE has a two-second lead over William Byron. With 15 laps remaining, it appears the only thing that can stop the Joe Gibbs Racing driver now, is another caution.
Lap 292: Denny Hamlin has extended his lead over William Byron to 1.3 seconds. Kyle Larson has dropped to fifth, with Chase Briscoe in sixth. Is this over? Will we go green to the finish?
Lap 285: Denny Hamlin lunges to the inside and takes the lead with 26 laps to go! Can Denny Hamlin finally end the drought and win a NASCAR Cup Series championship?
Lap 283: RESTART - Chase Briscoe fires out of the restart zone and gets the advantage over Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. THREE WIDE FOR THE LEAD AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP OFF TURN 2! AND WENT FOUR WIDE FOR THE LEAD AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP! BYRON TO THE LEAD!
Lap 281: NEW LEADER: Chase Briscoe has taken two tires to put the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE in the race-lead, with Kyle Larson in second-place. Denny Hamlin comes off pit road third, with William Byron in fourth. The top-four drivers will be Championship 4 drivers with less than 30 circuits remaining.
Lap 278: CAUTION! JJ Yeley, driving the No. 44 for NY Racing, has a right-front tire down and has impacted the outside wall in Turn 4. There are 33 laps remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
Lap 275: Chase Briscoe, running in sixth, JUST ABOUT got into the fence trying to run the outside lane and gain momentum. No forward motion for the No. 19 at this point, as Hamlin extends his lead to about a second over William Byron.
Lap 268: Denny Hamlin gets around William Byron for the lead, and the current championship, with 44 laps remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix. Chase Briscoe is up to sixth-place.
Lap 262: William Byron wins the race off pit road. Chase Elliott gained a spot to second, while Denny Hamlin dropped to third. Chase Briscoe jumped three spots up and now sits 10th.
Lap 258: Caution! Austin Cindric backed into the outside wall hard and we're under caution.
Lap 256: Denny Hamlin moves into the runner-up spot behind William Byron, who passed Chase Elliott for the lead a couple of laps ago.
Lap 244: Right after Denny Hamlin gets by Ryan Blaney for the third spot, which puts him directly behind William Byron, Alex Bowman suffered a flat tire.
Lap 230: Hamlin gets past Josh Berry for the fourth position. Ryan Blaney sits between Hamlin and championship leader William Byron. Chase Elliott continues to lead the race.
Lap 226: Back to Green! Chase Elliott leads the field to green, and he goes up the hill with Blaney, but hangs onto the lead. William Byron moves into the runner-up spot, while Hamlin is stuck in fifth.
Lap 223: Chase Elliott wins the race off pit road ahead of Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, and Ross Chastain.
Chase Briscoe received the free pass, and Kyle Larson took the wave around, and they'll both be back on the lead lap after their tire issues moments ago.
Lap 219: Caution! Carson Hocevar has a flat tire now as well, and debris will lead to a caution.
Lap 218: After the tire failures for Larson and Briscoe, Denny Hamlin has moved to fourth. William Byron continues to lead.
Lap 214: Kyle Larson blows a tire while running 7th. He gets to pit road, but no caution comes out to save him. And as he hits pit road, another Championship contender, Chase Briscoe, suffers a flat tire while running second! Oh my... complete disaster.
Lap 206: Chase Briscoe goes to the inside of Ross Chastain and is fighting for the second spot. Briscoe takes the spot, and now Blaney is fighting Briscoe for 2nd.
Lap 201: After restarting 11th and 18th, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have moved up to 7th and 8th.
Lap 198: Chase Briscoe is around Ryan Blaney and sits third after being mired in 32nd earlier.
Lap 193: Back to green! Ryan Blaney led the field to green, but William Byron sweeps around him to take the race lead.
Lap 188: Ryan Blaney wins the race off pit road over William Byron. Chase Briscoe is up to fifth. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson had rough stops due to their flat tires making the job of jacking the cars up very difficult. Hamlin will restart in 11th, while Larson is 18th.
Lap 186: The caution was a life saver for championship contenders Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, who had tires that were going flat under this caution.
Stage 2 Updates:
Lap 185: Denny Hamlin takes the Stage 2 win under caution.
Stage 2 Results: 1. Denny Hamlin, 2. Ryan Blaney, 3. William Byron, 4. Kyle Larson, 5. Christopher Bell, 6. Ross Chastain, 7. Chase Briscoe, 8. Joey Logano, 9. Carson Hocevar, 10. Chase Elliott.
Lap 182: A couple of laps after Austin Dillon's tire issue, his brother Ty Dillon has had a tire issue and has gone for a spin, and that brings a caution out.
Lap 180: As Blaney continues to try to get around Hamlin for the lead, Austin Dillon has suffered a right front tire failure.
Lap 169: Closing in on the end of Stage 2, and Ryan Blaney has reeled Denny Hamlin in. Blaney isn't a championship contender, but he is a threat to the lead for Hamlin, currently.
Lap 163: Chase Briscoe has come to life. He's back up to 8th, and looking like he could be back in the fight for a championship, soon.
Lap 157: After a sketchy moment in the middle of a three-wide battle, Chase Briscoe has recovered up to 11th after his shredded tire dropped him to 32nd earlier.
Lap 155: Back to Green! Denny Hamlin leads the field to green, and he is shot out of a cannon once again.
Lap 151: Denny Hamlin wins the race off pit road ahead of Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott, Josh Berry, and Joey Logano.
Lap 149: Caution! AJ Allmendinger has crashed, it looked very similar to his crash in Friday's practice session.
The No. 16 gets into the wall and brings out the yellow. pic.twitter.com/PqQkiirgA9
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2025
Lap 146: Kyle Busch has suffered a flat right rear tire, and popped the outside wall. He's on pit road.
Lap 124: Denny Hamlin's team is telling him to use the clutch only when absolutely needed. They're afraid they're going to burn the clutch up if they don't limit it. Hamlin is being told not to cool the engine off under caution to help prevent the issues.
Lap 115: Back to Green! Denny Hamlin leads the field into Turn 1 with the lead. Kyle Larson slips in with the second spot ahead of his teammate William Byron. Chase Briscoe is looking to rally from 32nd.
Lap 110: Denny Hamlin wins the race off pit road over Kyle Larson, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell.
Lap 105: Caution! Shane van Gisbergen has gone for a spin, and as that happened, the right rear tire on Chase Briscoe's No. 19 Toyota shredded apart. He is going to pit road, but there will be some damage from that tire.
A driver in the #Championship4 with issues! @chasebriscoe limps his race car to pit road. pic.twitter.com/EY77mn2q4G
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2025
Lap 100 Running Order: 1. Denny Hamlin, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. William Byron, 4. Ryan Blaney, 5. Chase Briscoe, 6. Carson Hocevar, 7. Joey Logano, 8. Alex Bowman, 9. Ross Chastain, 10. Christopher Bell, 11. Josh Berry, 12. Austin Cindric, 13. Chris Buescher, 14. Chase Elliott, 15. Tyler Reddick.
Lap 94: Hamlin has pulled out to a 3-second lead over Kyle Larson. William Byron is third, 3.625 seconds back, and Chase Briscoe is up to sixth.
Lap 89: Bubba Wallace slowed on track, was attempting to get to pit road it looked like and missed pit road entrance. It looks like he has picked up speed. No caution.
Lap 84: Denny Hamlin is turning incredible lap times, and has pulled out to a 1.8 second lead over Kyle Larson. Hamlin has excellent short run speed, but will it doom him on the long run?
Lap 80: Back to Green! And Denny Hamlin gets an incredible restart to take the lead from Ryan Blaney! Blaney loses spots as the field fans out behind him. Kyle Larson has moved to second, William Byron is third, Carson Hocevar is fourth, and Blaney has fallen to fifth.
Lap 72: Caution! As Denny Hamlin was sizing up Ryan Blaney for the race lead, John Hunter Nemechek has gone for a spin and has stopped on track. We're under caution.
Lap 69: Back to Green! Ryan Blaney leads the field to green. Denny Hamlin is battling William Byron for the runner-up spot, and it looks like Hamlin is going to prevail in that battle.
Lap 66: Ryan Blaney wins the race off pit road over William Byron, who lost the lead under this caution. Deny Hamlin came off pit road in third, Kyle Larson was fourth, followed by Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, and Austin Cindric.
Denny Hamlin is reporting that his clutch pedal is long as he experienced in practice on Friday, so there could be some concern mechanically for the No. 11 team.
Stage 1 Updates:
Lap 60: William Byron takes the Stage 1 win.
Stage 1 Results: 1. Byron, 2. Ryan Blaney, 3. Denny Hamlin, 4. Austin Cindric, 5. Kyle Larson, 6. Carson Hocevar, 7. Alex Bowman, 8. Joey Logano, 9. Chris Buescher, 10. Chase Briscoe
Lap 58: Ryan Blaney gets past Hamlin for the second spot.
Lap 53: Lead Change No. 1 -- William Byron works past Denny Hamlin to take the race lead, and lead in the Championship 4 battle as the leaders had gotten bogged down in lapped traffic.
Lap 50: Denny Hamlin has gotten stuck alongside lap car Michael McDowell, and that allows William Byron to massively close the gap on the leader with 10 laps remaining in Stage 1.
Lap 47: After Closing In, Byron Losing Ground
William Byron had closed the gap on Denny Hamlin to under two tenths of a second as Hamlin encountered lapped traffic, but Hamlin has pulled the lead back to approximately 0.600 seconds. Hamlin has led the opening 47 laps from the pole.
Kyle Larson sits 4th, and Chase Briscoe is 10th.
Lap 8: Hamlin Stretching His Lead
Denny Hamlin has pulled out to nearly a one-second lead over William Byron. Austin Cindric remains in third, while Kyle Larson is fourth, and Carson Hocevar is up to fifth. Chase Briscoe, the fourth Championship 4 contender is up to 10th.
3:35 PM ET: Green Flag!
Denny Hamlinleads the field to the green flag, as they all fan out through the dogleg at Phoenix Raceway. Hamlin leads Lap 1 over William Byron, Austin Cindric is up to third, and Kyle Larson is fourth. Chase Briscoe has gained a spot to 11th.
Pre-Race Updates
3:26 PM ET: Engines Fired!
Engines have roared to life following the command to start engines, which fell in line after the invocation and National Anthem. It's just about time for Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe to fight it out for a championship.
NASCAR Reveals Pre-Race Festivities Schedule
- Invocation: 3:15:40 PM ET
- National Anthem: 3:16:30 PM ET
- Command to Start Engines: 3:25:00 PM ET
- Green Flag: 3:34:00 PM ET
There is only one car that will drop to the rear prior to the green flag of Sunday's race, and it is the driver who was already slated to start last. AJ Allmendinger, who suffered a hard crash in Friday's practice and had to go to a backup car, will start at the rear of the field.
Tires Not Expected to Be A Troubling Issue in Race
While left-side tires were coming apart in a matter of a few laps in Friday's NASCAR Cup Series practice session, Goodyear and the teams are confident that the issue was that teams were being too aggressive with ultra-low tire pressures in the 50-minute practice session.
While it'll be something to keep an eye on early in the race, tires are expected to hold in Sunday's event. However, tires will be a key component of how the race plays out. The tire compound this weekend will be a soft left and right tire, which will lead to fall off, and there will be comers and goers throughout the race.
Whoever comes up with the best balance of charging hard, while not abusing their tires, will likely carry a massive advantage.
No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Team Spent Saturday Night Scraping No. 1 Pit Stall
After the No. 1 pit stall at Phoenix Raceway proved to be super slippery for Corey Heim and Carson Kvapil in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Races on Friday and Saturday night, Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team, which earned the No. 1 pit stall by way of taking the pole for the race on Saturday, spent extra time on Saturday night scraping the pit stall clean.
According to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota enlisted 22 people who spent two and a half hours working to remove the built up tire rubber, and gunk that had led to a slippery surface.
To clean all the rubber buildup in the No. 1 pit stall last night after Xfinity, JGR/Toyota had 22 people work on it for 2.5 hours. Had to go buy tools from a local store and everything. Apparently that rubber had been building up for years without being scraped off.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 2, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race Pre-Race Information
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway will be televised on NBC and can be streamed on Peacock and HBO Max. The race broadcast will begin at 3:00 PM ET on Sunday, November 2.
The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 will provide the radio broadcast of Sunday's event. For subscribers of the HBO Max streaming service, NASCAR Driver Cam, which streams live in-car camera footage from every car in the field, will be available for today's race.
The overall race purse, which teams will fight for their portion of in Sunday's event in Arizona, amounts to a total of $12,394,135.
The race distance is a total of 312 laps around the 1-mile oval in Avondale, AZ, which equates to a race distance of 312 miles. The Championship Race will be broken up into three stages. Stage 1 will end at Lap 60, Stage 2 will end at Lap 185, and the final stage of the race will conclude at the end of Lap 312, barring an overtime finish.
Sunday's event is the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. At the conclusion of the event, the highest-finishing driver of the four-driver Championship 4 field will be awarded the Bill France Cup, the award given to the series champion.
Joey Logano is the defending winner of this event, and with the win, he took home the 2024 championship.
Starting Lineup
Denny Hamlin, who is seeking his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship, will do so from the pole position in Sunday's Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Hamlin topped a strong qualifying session for championship contenders.
Fellow Championship 4 contenders William Byron, and Kyle Larson will start from second and third, while Chase Briscoe, the final championship contender, will start from the 12th position.
The highest-finishing NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 contender in Sunday's race will walk away as the champion at the end of the race.
Pos | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
1 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (P) |
2 | 24 | William Byron (P) |
3 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) |
4 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
5 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
6 | 77 | Carson Hocevar |
7 | 21 | Josh Berry |
8 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
9 | 17 | Chris Buescher |
10 | 22 | Joey Logano |
Click here for the full official starting lineup.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.
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