Kyle Larson is a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Denny Hamlin is left to face the toughest loss of his entire career, and tire issues wreak havoc on championship Sunday. Phoenix certainly delivered a show, and yet, there was simply sadness and disbelief from many fans after the checkered flag.
The 2025 season is officially over, inspection is clear, and now we are left to pick apart 319 wild laps of racing in what is likely the final year of this current playoff format.
And since it is the end of the NASCAR season, we’ve decided to add a ‘bonus’ winner and loser that looks beyond just the Cup race from the weekend. For one final time, the biggest winners and losers from NASCAR at Phoenix:
WINNER: Kyle Larson snatches title away in overtime stunner
Watch: Kyle Larson left speechless after earning title No. 2
Larson hasn’t won a race since May, didn’t lead any laps on Sunday, and wasn’t even the fastest of the Hendrick drivers. But when the opportunity presented itself, he was ready to capitalize. He even moved forward on the final restart and had a shot at the win before finishing third and becoming a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. Larson himself was in disbelief, unable to believe what had just happened. It was perhaps the most unexpected triumph of Larson’s entire NASCAR career, and it follows months of whispers that Larson wasn’t quite the same since the Indy 500/Coke 600 double.
LOSER: Heartbreak for Denny Hamlin as another championship slips away
Watch: Denny Hamlin shares how this loss stings differently to prior years
What a brutal end for Denny Hamlin. He led over 200 laps from pole position and dominated Sunday’s title race. After 20 years of trying, it looked as if he might finally do it. But in the end, the decision to choose tires over track position was a terrible mistake, as Hamlin only moved from tenth to sixth on the final restart and never reached Larson. Hamlin has been close before, but never quite this close. The scene was incredibly emotional around the No. 11 post-race, and no one could believe it. Several people were crying, and everyone felt for NASCAR’s most polarizing figure in that moment.
WINNER: Ryan Blaney refuses to look at Phoenix triumph as ‘bittersweet’
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford, Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
Two years ago, Blaney won the NASCAR Cup title, but he was also the first champion in the history of this format to not also win the race. The story of that race was how he couldn’t pass Ross Chastain for the lead, becoming irate inside the race car. But this time, he got to play spoiler, winning the race with a last-lap pass. And if you think he would be upset over the fact that he just missed out on being part of the Championship 4 after that win, you would be mistaken. Blaney doesn’t think like that, and was only happy to have captured his fourth checkered flag of the year.
LOSER: William Byron laments that he was the race-altering caution
Watch: Byron reacts to late-race caution: ‘Felt like a passenger’
Byron apologized to Hamlin after the race, and seemed quite bothered by the fact that he was the race-altering caution that pushed the finale into overtime. Forget the fact that the blown tire derailed his entire race and dropped him from second to fourth in the championship, Byron was just frustrated that he was the caution and changed the outcome of the title race. And while the title still went home to Hendrick, it’s has to be a strange feeling for Byron when he was clearly faster than Larson for most of the race.
WINNER: Cliff Daniels makes the right call in high-pressure moment
Crew chief Cliff Daniels, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
Larson was at best the third fastest of the Championship 4 drivers on Sunday, but his crew chief was the best when it mattered most. While the JGR drivers both sacrificed track position for four tires, the No. 5 took fresh right-sides in overtime. Even more impressively, they did that in back-to-back pit stops, ending the race with older left-side tires than anyone else around them.
LOSER: RFK nearly snaps winless streak, only to lose it in the final corner
Watch: High five! Kyle Larson clinches Cup Series title; Blaney wins finale thriller
They almost did it. This year, all three RFK drivers missed the playoffs, and all three have been within arm’s reach of Victory Lane. And at Phoenix, Brad Keselowski came out of nowhere to nearly win at Phoenix. He stayed out on old tires, and did an impressive job maintaining an advantage. He even got a push from Larson on the final lap to clear Blaney, but he overdrove the final corner, and Blaney with fresh right sides cut under them as they were seconds away from crossing the finish line. And so, RFK ends the year with three winless drivers.
WINNER: Kyle Busch ends difficult year with his only oval top five
Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
While everyone is paying attention to the championship and the race winner, let’s give a round of applause to Kyle Busch. 2025 was a year to forget for the two-time series champion, ending it 21st in the standings (the worst showing of his career). And yet, he still managed to end it on a high note. Busch held on with a two-tire call to secure his one and only top five on an oval this entire season. He scored two other top fives, but they were at the COTA road course and the Chicago Street Course. He now looks to 2026 with a new crew chief and hopefully, a fresh start.
LOSER: A playoff format that creates drama, but frustrates a disillusioned fanbase
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
This weekend’s championship finale had a strange vibe around it, and there were feelings of anger, frustration, and disbelief from those watching. There’s no question that the current format delivers on the spectacle, but what about the substance? Larson could have been champion with a full-season format when you look at total points scored over the course of the year, and yet, it all feels odd. He was nowhere on Sunday, and then became the only champion to ever win in this format without leading a lap in the finale. He is also the first champion since Matt Kenseth in the final year of the Winston Cup (2003) to have their last win come so early in the year. People were holding their breath on Friday and Saturday hoping the ‘right’ driver would win, and the championship now feels more about who was robbed than who prevailed. It’s time for a change, and a clean slate when it comes to awarding NASCAR’s biggest prize.
BONUS WINNER: Heroics from Heim in Friday night showdown
Watch: Seven-wide! Heim goes from 10th to second on overtime restart
On that same note, no one could deny Corey Heim is the king of Trucks in 2025. His stats weren’t just far better than his rivals — they were unprecedented. He was breaking records left and right, and yet, he restarted tenth in overtime due to a late-race caution. While everyone prepared for the inevitable, Heim dug deep, made a stunning seven-wide pass on the restart, and took the crown by force in the most popular finish of the entire weekend. The only negative is that he doesn’t have a full-time ride lined up for next year, despite being one of the most promising talents in NASCAR.
BONUS LOSER: Zilisch in tears as his historic season ends in defeat
Connor Zilisch, JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
This was brutal. Zilisch wasn’t quite at the level of Heim, but the 19-year-old rookie still dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series with ten wins. No one else had more than three! But he simply didn’t have the car, struggling to hold onto the lead before he was passed by his best friend Jesse Love with 24 laps to go. Adding to that, Aric Almirola then passed Zilisch as well, denying JRM the owner’s championship. Zilisch just sat beside his car on pit road, in tears as he faced the bitter reality, and there was this somber cloud over the championship celebrations.
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