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2025 nascar championship weekend
 

 Corey Heim shakes off pressure to win NASCAR Truck Series championship

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

October 31, 2025

 

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The best man won on Friday night, but it was far from a foregone conclusion.

 

The statistics might suggest otherwise. In winning the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Corey Heim swept the first and second stages, led a race-high 100 of 161 laps and took the checkered flag 0.993 ahead of defending series champion Ty Majeski in a second overtime.

 

On the restart for the first attempt at overtime, however, Heim was buried in 10th place on the inside lane, but with four fresh tires from a pit stop under caution on Lap 150, he steered his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota to the bottom of the track and ran wide-open through the dogleg as the field spread out seven-wide into Turn 1.

 

Charging to the inside of Grant Enfinger’s Chevrolet, Heim emerged from Turn 2 in second place, on the bumper of Majeski’s Ford. Joe Shear Jr., Majeski’s crew chief, had opted for two tires on the Lap 150 pit stop—a move Majeski agreed was his only chance to retain the championship.

 

Instead, Heim claimed the title that had eluded him for the previous two seasons, and the weight of the world fell from his shoulders.

 

“I just am so grateful to be where I'm at,” Heim said. “So thankful for the TRICON Garage, Toyota taking a chance on me years ago, (sponsors) Safelite, Mobil 1, Yahoo, Celsius, for every bit of their support.

 

“I was so stressed out ever since we went to the (Charlotte) Roval (where Heim won from the pole Oct. 3 to advance to the Championship 4). I've been, like, so terrible to talk to as a person, so stressed out.

 

“This is just such a relief, to say the least. So thankful for everybody.”

 

Clearly, the pressure had gotten to Heim as he approached a championship he was supposed to win. Coming to Phoenix, the 23-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, had posted 11 victories in 24 races. On Friday, he added a 12th, extending his series record.

 

When Heim took the lead from Chandler Smith on Lap 22, he completed a perfect record of leading laps in all 25 Truck Series races, a unique accomplishment. Heim finished the season with a record 1,625 laps led, eclipsing the mark of 1,533 set by Mike Skinner in 1996.

 

“I don't care if I was on hundred-lap tires, nobody was going to beat me tonight,” asserted Heim, who won for the first time at Phoenix and the 23rd time in his career. “It wasn't going to happen. We struggled all weekend in practice a little bit. In qualifying we missed it a little bit. You can always trust (crew chief) Scott (Zipadelli) up on the box to do everything he can to put me in position to win the race. That's what he did.

 

“Drove it in deep until I couldn't anymore. Drove away with it.”

 

Heim, however, wasn’t in position to win the race until Connor Mosack hit the Turn 4 wall with just over two laps left in regulation to cause the sixth caution and send the race to overtime.

 

At that point, Scott Riggs was leading Heim by less than one second. Eliminated from the drivers’ Playoff on a tiebreaker last weekend at Martinsville, Riggs remained eligible for the owners’ title, and had the race gone to conclusion in regulation, he and Heim likely would have split the two championships.

 

The caution changed everything. Heim already was challenging Majeski for the lead in the first overtime when a four-car wreck in Turn 4 that included Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum necessitated a second try at an extra period.

 

After the restart on Lap 160, Heim cleared Majeski quickly and pulled away to win the race.

 

“Honestly just a little bit short,” Majeski said. “Yeah, very close. Tonight, at portions of the run to the 11, I thought at times we were actually better than him. Overall, he was just too strong.

 

“I couldn't get a good enough restart to take advantage of where in the run my truck was better.”

 

Playoff driver Kaden Honeycutt ran third, overcoming a first-lap penalty for changing lanes before the stripe at the start of the race.

 

Riggs came home fourth, followed by Rajah Caruth, Jake Garcia, Corey LaJoie, Smith, Tyler Reif (in his Truck Series debut) and Jack Wood.

 

Matt Crafton, retiring from full-time NASCAR racing after this season, was 13th in his last ride in the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford.

 

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race - NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race

Phoenix Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

Friday, October 31, 2025

 

                1. (6)  Corey Heim (P), Toyota, 161.

                2. (8)  Ty Majeski (P), Ford, 161.

                3. (5)  Kaden Honeycutt (P), Toyota, 161.

                4. (1)  Layne Riggs (P), Ford, 161.

                5. (7)  Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 161.

                6. (14)  Jake Garcia, Ford, 161.

                7. (12)  Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 161.

                8. (2)  Chandler Smith, Ford, 161.

                9. (13)  Tyler Reif, Chevrolet, 161.

                10. (15)  Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 161.

                11. (33)  Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 161.

                12. (11)  Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 161.

                13. (25)  Matt Crafton, Ford, 161.

                14. (21)  Tyler Ankrum (P), Chevrolet, 161.

                15. (29)  Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, 161.

                16. (24)  Luke Baldwin, Ford, 160.

                17. (27)  Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 159.

                18. (31)  Greg Van Alst, Toyota, 159.

                19. (28)  Frankie Muniz #, Ford, 159.

                20. (30)  Clayton Green, Ford, 158.

                21. (4)  Tanner Gray, Toyota, 157.

                22. (34)  Caleb Costner, Chevrolet, 157.

                23. (18)  Cole Butcher, Toyota, Accident, 154.

                24. (23)  Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 154.

                25. (26)  Toni Breidinger #, Toyota, 153.

                26. (20)  Connor Mosack #, Chevrolet, Accident, 147.

                27. (17)  Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, Accident, 118.

                28. (3)  Brent Crews, Toyota, Axle, 117.

                29. (10)  Ben Rhodes, Ford, Accident, 117.

                30. (16)  Andres Perez De Lara #, Chevrolet, Accident, 117.

                31. (9)  Giovanni Ruggiero #, Toyota, Accident, 117.

                32. (32)  Mason Maggio, Ford, Engine, 107.

                33. (19)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.

                34. (22)  Dawson Sutton #, Chevrolet, Accident, 0.

 

Average Speed of Race Winner:  87.434 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 50 Mins, 29 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.993 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  7 for 42 laps.

Lead Changes:  10 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   C. Smith 1-21;C. Heim (P) 22-50;R. Caruth 51-53;C. Heim (P) 54-95;T. Majeski (P) 96-99;C. Heim (P) 100-126;L. Riggs (P) 127-150;S. Parsons 151-154;T. Majeski (P) 155-159;C. Heim (P) 160-161.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Corey Heim (P) 4 times for 100 laps; Layne Riggs (P) 1 time for 24 laps; Chandler Smith 1 time for 21 laps; Ty Majeski (P) 2 times for 9 laps; Stefan Parsons 1 time for 4 laps; Rajah Caruth 1 time for 3 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,1,98,71,15,77,52,7,13,17

Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,98,1,52,71,15,34,13,7,17

Ty Majeski Holds His Head High After Gritty Runner-Up Championship Effort

 

October 31, 2025

 

By Holly Cain

NASCAR Wire Service

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Ty Majeski climbed out of his race runner-up No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 on Phoenix Raceway pit road Friday night with the smoke from Corey Heim’s championship burnout nearby still lingering overhead.

 

Less than a second separated the popular 31-year-old 2024 series champion Majeski from the race winner Heim in his bid to become only the second driver in NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series history to claim back-to-back season titles  – matching his ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton.

 

And it certainly was a valiant try. As happens in big-time auto racing, a couple breaks this way or that and Majeski might have hoisted the trophy. He certainly forced Heim to earn it and walks away from Phoenix with his head held high.

 

Majeski, who ran on Heim’s bumper for much of the 161-lap race, bolted out front to the race lead on the first of two overtime restarts in Friday’s Truck Series Championship Race, his two-tire stop to Heim’s four-tire change looked initially to be the winning move.

 

On the ensuing restart, however, Heim’s four fresh tires helped him move forward immediately and he pulled off an amazing seven-wide overtake into Turn 1 that put him directly on Majeski’s bumper. But a second yellow flag flew.

 

This time the front row pitted the two trucks side-by-side and Heim was able to get the edge and pull away to his first NASCAR championship by .993-seconds.

 

It marked the third time in four years Majeski raced for the series title and on this night, Majeski and his team gave it their all, but the season’s most dominant driver, the 23-year-old Heim - a 12-race winner - was just too good.

 

“Really proud of the whole season this group put together," Majeski said. “We had a pretty rough stretch in the April, May, June months. We had a pretty strong meeting with ourselves, looked in the mirror and said, ‘Hey, we're champions, we can turn this thing around.’

 

“We did. We put on a streak of 12 races in a row in the top 10, nine of them top fives. I thought we were poised to do something very special tonight.

 

“Honestly just a little bit short. Very close.”

 

As with his driver, Majeski’s car chief Brad Means said the team could only be proud of the effort despite the near-miss.

 

“Obviously, we had high hopes coming back here from last year’s success we had here as the dominant truck," Means said. “We thought maybe yesterday in practice we were going to have the same trend. But we didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to, I think the daytime temperatures kind of threw us for a loop earlier and we just never quite hit on it like we did last year when we dominated the race.

 

“But honestly the 11 [Heim] has been the class of the field all year. We’ve struggled this year and as a team had the worst luck. We had really good trucks a lot of the time but never really capitalized on it with the finishes we needed.

 

“We had great pit stops tonight, our guys were phenomenal job and have been all year, but we just didn’t get it done. I thought the two tires was going to be the call to win the race  had a caution not come out. We were like literally 200 yards away from winning the race."

 

Although disappointed to come so close to a second championship, Majeski closed out the season proud of the effort – 18 top-10 finishes and nine top-fives in 25 races including three runner-up finishes.

 

“Proud of [crew chief] Joe [Shear] for making that gutsy call," Majeski said. “Hard to make that in that moment. You always want to be on offense at the end of these races. I think two tires gave us the best opportunity to win tonight.”

 

“I think it was the right call, gave ourselves a shot at a championship. If that restart goes a little bit differently, I get a little bit of a gap, we're probably sitting here as two-time champion.

 

 

Crafton’s Final Lap: A Champion, a Father, and a Fierce Competitor Bids Farewell

 

October 30, 2025

 

By Holly Cain

NASCAR Wire Service

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Matt Crafton’s most cherished photograph from an extraordinary decades-long NASCAR career captures two of his great treasures – his daughter Elladee and the first of his three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship trophies.

 

The grin on Crafton’s face as he gazes adoringly at his seven-month old daughter positioned inside the nearly three-foot tall 2013 trophy is unmistakable, the pride palpable.

 

“It was the best," said Crafton, who is relinquishing his fulltime seat in the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford at the end of the season after 25 years of competition in the series.

 

The “best” is saying a lot for the 49-year-old potential future NASCAR Hall of Famer.

 

What started as invaluable bonding time with his father Danny, a hard-nosed racer in the sport’s early California heydays developed into a celebrated career for Crafton, who has skillfully navigated and mastered the series for more than two decades - era after era after era.

 

Crafton is the only driver in series’ history to claim back-to-back titles (2013-14) and he answered that historic showing with a third trophy in 2019 proving himself tops in multiple championship formats. Not bad for a no-excuses competitor who after growing up working on cars in his father’s shop in the 1980s, essentially started his career filling in behind the wheel for his dad – a talented racer in his own rite - in NASCAR’s Southwest Series.

 

The time spent working on and racing cars with his dad Danny shaped much of Crafton’s approach to the sport and nearly 30 years after his first NASCAR Regional Series start, he leaves fulltime competition following Friday night’s 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) - highly accomplished and highly respected.

 

The work ethic Crafton learned from his father – both on the track and off it is what he says made all the motivational difference.

 

“I haven’t had it handed to me, I had to work for it," Crafton said of his success.

 

“I don’t know how many times I’ve been brought into the NASCAR trailer and told to calm down and not cuss on the radio and not rant and rave. I always told them, the day I don’t do that is the day I need to quit.

 

“If you go back and look at Kevin Harvick or Kurt and Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart or Dale Earnhardt, everybody who has had to work for it from the grassroots, to fight and claw, you’re naturally going to carry more emotion.

 

“If it’s handed to you, your dad, mom, uncle whoever writing a check for you and you tear up your equipment this week and you know they’re going to write a check next week or next year. …it just doesn’t mean as much.”

 

That intensity has always been evident in Crafton’s career – especially noted by those he raced door-to-door with and appreciated by the “next generation” of competitors who are quick to emphasize what Crafton has meant to the sport and to the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, in particular.

 

“I’m just grateful that Matt invested so much of his life into the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and its veterans like him that make the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series credible," said current NASCAR Cup Series driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who raced against Crafton in the trucks and had to beat the veteran to claim his 2017 title.

 

“He helped hold young drivers accountable, myself included," Bell continued. “He’s a veteran and you need people like that in those series and I have a ton of respect for him and what he’s done. He raced everybody hard that's for sure, but it’s that level of accountability that made you better.”

 

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney also credits Crafton with teaching him valuable lessons when they raced trucks against one another. He finished runner-up to Crafton in 2014 as a 20-year-old.

 

“Both years I was in the series he won the championship and waxed our butts," Blaney said with a smile. “We ran second to him in 2014. It was cool to run around Matt. And now having the Menards [sponsorship] connection is pretty neat.

 

“It will be different not seeing him on TV when I watch those races [next year] but it was a pleasure to race with Matt. We always raced well together. He was one of those guys I felt open to talking to when I was a rookie or second year in trucks because he was a veteran and had a big part in the Truck Series.

 

“He’s a great competitor and it was cool getting to know him. The only unfortunate part was he kicked my butt the two years I was in the trucks.”

 

It’s the kind of old school philosophy and head-down work ethic that has served Crafton well during his 25 years fulltime in the series. His 591 starts – 590 of them - consecutively is a series record unlikely to ever be broken.

 

He has 15 victories and his 333 top-10 finishes means that he finished among the top-10 in more than half his starts. He earned 135 top-five finishes - 23 percent of the races he ran. And Crafton has 16 pole positions for good measure.

 

It is however, his ability to rise to the top against different talent, title formats and truck configurations that will always make Crafton a series icon.

 

It’s heralded by fans and deeply appreciated by the multi-championship ThorSport organization where he competed for all but one of his fulltime seasons. His legacy for the team is not just the titles he earned but the lessons in competition he shared with teammates that helped them to titles too.

 

“Everybody needs to know that Matt Crafton has always been a really, really fierce competitor and he’s wise in the truck too," said Crafton’s two-time champion ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes. “He never pushes the envelope too far to wreck. He’s so wise with that. There’s a lot to learn from him with his risk management style with his ability to try to out-smart the competition. Early on when I was a young guy and wrecking everything, I really looked to his ability to manage risks as a veteran and a lot of people could learn from that.

 

“You have to finish the race first to win it and I don’t think a lot of people give him that. I’d say people don’t give him enough credit on that. But he’s a fierce competitor and always has been.

 

“'Race smarter not harder', he always said that to me," Rhodes said smiling. “And he was right.”

 

Longtime ThorSport employee Edgar Riley remembers receiving a call from Crafton in 2002 asking if Riley would like to come back to work at ThorSport as a tire specialist with the team – a chance Riley couldn’t pass up. And he remains forever grateful to Crafton for opening that important career door.

 

“Matt gave me that opportunity," said Riley who worked as Crafton’s front tire carrier from 2002-2011. “We shared so many great memories together, including two wins, one being his very first. I’ll always be grateful for what Matt has done for me and for this organization throughout his fulltime career.

 

Jeriod Prince, who served in many roles leading Crafton’s team was equally as appreciative.

 

“Crafton is a true racer," Prince said. “He’s always at a track, regardless if it’s NASCAR. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Matt both in the Truck Series and in his other racing endeavors. He’s always been like a big brother and helped me shape my career.

 

“Whenever I needed anything, he’s always been there to help, especially when I was doing my own racing. It’s been a pleasure working with him throughout his full-time career at ThorSport."

 

That appreciation – from competitor to teammate - is widespread in the garage. And reciprocated.

 

Crafton, who intends to make some one-off starts down the road and refuses to call this a “retirement” doesn’t give his impending Hall of Fame consideration much thought. Yet. But he smiles thinking about joining so many of his racing heroes there one day – those like Ron Hornaday Jr., who he considers the “toughest” competitor of his career.

 

Reflecting on his career, Crafton concedes it has been quite a drive – from humble beginnings to championship form. He’s respected by his competitors and admired by his fans - the ultimate career ride for this champion.

 

“Let the cards fall and we’ll see what happens," Crafton said of the Hall of Fame mentions. “Just happy to do what I get to do and happy to do what I’ve done."

 

“Not many people can say they got to do what they love to do," he acknowledges. “I’ve been blessed to do what I get to do."

 
 

NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day Notebook

 

Notebook Items:

  • Kyle Larson sees parity among NASCAR Cup Championship 4 contenders
  • Chase Briscoe eyes title in first year with Joe Gibbs Racing
  • William Byron hopes third straight Champ 4 appearance is the charm
  • Denny Hamlin ready to seize the opportunity in fifth Champ 4 try
  • Xfinity contenders aren’t ready to concede title to Connor Zilisch
  • Kaden Honeycutt playing with house money in Championship Race

 

October 30, 2025

 

By Holly Cain and Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

 

Kyle Larson sees parity among NASCAR Cup Championship 4 contenders

 

AVONDALE, Ariz.— Kyle Larson smiled at the question but quickly clarified that, just because he is the only driver in the Championship Four field to have won a NASCAR Cup Series Championship previously, he does not necessarily consider himself a ‘favorite” this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

 

There is no edge with this group of competitors, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion contends.

 

“Sure, we could all probably think up a reason of why there could be an edge that I would have,” said Larson, who drives the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “We’re all just so good and the teams are so good, I just don’t buy into anything like that.

 

“But we’ll see. I think having won before, I am a champion, so if I win another one, great. if I don’t, I’m still on the list. There’s that. But I don’t think that gives you any sort of competitive advantage.”

 

The 33-year-old Californian has three victories and topped 1,000 laps led in a season for the fifth time in his career. His 21 top-10 finishes are most among the four title contenders, and only Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe (15) has more top fives than Larson (14).

 

Although he hasn’t won a race since May 11 at Kansas, Larson is confident his team is in good shape, perhaps even peaking at the right time. He’s got 14 top-10 finishes in 22 Phoenix starts—a win to land him the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship and top-five finishes in four of the last five races at the desert one-miler.

 

“Just really excited to get on track and see if it’s what I expect it to be. But all four of us are going to be really good,” Larson said.

 

“We all have experience winning here," he said pausing and smiling, “But I’d really like to win this fall.”

 

Chase Briscoe eyes title in first year with Joe Gibbs Racing

 

Last year at Phoenix Raceway, Chase Briscoe was reluctant to leave the race track.

 

He had just run his last race with his No. 14 team at Stewart-Haas Racing, not as part of the Championship 4 but as a driver for a team that was shutting its doors at season’s end.

 

It was the end of a dream for Briscoe and the beginning of another fraught with uncertainty.

 

“It is crazy, what a difference a year can make,” Briscoe said on Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day at the Phoenix one-mile track. “You go from being sad and down in the dumps… I don’t know, it’s just weird.

 

“We were the last people to leave last year, because we didn’t want it to end. We knew when we walked out of the tunnel that that group would never be together again. They literally kicked us out. They forced us to leave. We were here longer than the champions.

 

“But hopefully this year, I’m the one that’s here the longest again.”

 

In 2024, Briscoe won the Southern 500, the regular-season cutoff race. That earned him an unexpected berth in the Playoffs, but he was out in the Round of 12.

 

After moving to Joe Gibbs Racing this year, Briscoe has three victories, the most recent of which, at Talladega, propelled him into the Championship Race.

 

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas group, however, hasn’t abandoned him.

 

“This week, all the 14 guys—we still have a group chat—they all were sending me motivational videos and trying to pump me up. (Former crew chief Richard) Boswell sent me a text this morning and sent me a video of all his kids wishing me good luck.”

 

Briscoe is the only one of the Championship 4 drivers who hasn’t raced for a NASCAR Cup title in the season finale. Even before he drove a JGR car for the first time, Briscoe knew expectations were high.

 

“I’ve raced against Joe Gibbs Racing, so I knew that, if everything went well, there was a very good likelihood that you’d be racing for a championship,” he said. “Year one—I’m not going to say it’s surprising, but it also I would say exceeded expectations for year one, for sure.

 

“It would mean a lot to do it in year one, just with everything, with Coach (Joe Gibbs) obviously taking a chance on me. Just to start our tenure off together winning a championship would be pretty cool, but it would certainly make the expectations going forward way harder.”

 

William Byron hopes third straight Champ 4 appearance is the charm

 

After a dramatic victory in the Round of 8 elimination race last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, William Byron maintained a deliberately low profile on his trip to Phoenix Raceway for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Byron elected to fly commercial to the title race.

 

“I live 15 minutes from the commercial airport in Charlotte,” Byron explained. “I go TSA Precheck, keep my head down—it’s great. I love it. I love to get treated like a normal person, which I am.”

 

Normal people, however, don’t drive stock cars at breakneck speeds in hopes of securing a series title. That’s what Byron will do on Sunday, when he chases the Bill France Cup for the third year in a row.

 

In 2023, Byron won the pole for the Championship Race and dominated the early portions of the event. He won the first stage and led 95 laps but faded to fourth as the track cooled in the late afternoon.

 

As it turned out, that experience was also emblematic of the current season, where inauspicious circumstances often kept Byron from finishing as well as he ran during most of a particular event.

 

“We’ve learned the hard way this year that it’s never over,” Byron said. “I think that’s what sticks with me. I mean, honestly, until that guy throws the checkered flag, the race is not over.

 

“I’ve learned that the hard way this year, and that’s kind of fueled the way I prepared.”

 

In the first race of the Round of 8, Byron was running up front when Ty Dillon slowed in front of him, planning to enter pit road. Unable to avoid Dillon’s car, Byron slammed into it with a vicious impact that knocked him out of the race.

 

A week later at Talladega, Byron was running comfortably in the top 10 when he spun in the tri-oval a quarter-mile short of the finish line.

 

Those two incidents set up a must-win situation for Byron at Martinsville, a circumstance that allowed him to race without attention to points. That’s similar to the situation he’ll face Sunday at Phoenix, where the driver who finishes highest among the Championship 4 will claim the title. 

 

“I did look at the board during the race, and I’m like, ‘It’s so nice not to be worried about this BS,’” Byron said of the Martinsville run. “It’s not necessarily winner-take-all per se (at Phoenix), but it definitely is a third stage (is) what matters.

 

“You have to race the race, but the end is all that really matters.”

 

Denny Hamlin ready to seize the opportunity in fifth Champ 4 try

 

Denny Hamlin looked relaxed and said he was relaxed, but the veteran and winningest driver of the 2025 season conceded this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Championship Race represents a significant milestone for him even as he’s already turned in a celebrated career.

 

The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota earned an emotional 60th victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway three weeks ago to claim one of the weekend’s four title bids, and at the age of 44 sees no better time than the present to add a NASCAR Cup Series championship to a legacy that ranks him 10th on the all-time wins list in a career highlighted with three Daytona 500 trophies.

 

“It feels a little bit different,” said Hamlin, whose best championship finish was runner-up to Jimmie Johnson in 2010. “Less rushed, I guess you could say, and simply because we did so much of our (preparation) for Phoenix before this week, so less rushed is the biggest difference I feel over previous (Championship Four bids).”

 

This marks Hamlin’s fifth time in the Championship race under this format—the first since 2021—and he arrives at Phoenix with twice as many wins (six) than anyone else in the championship field this season.

 

“I definitely feel optimistic about it,” he allowed, adding, “Just generally in a good headspace.”

 

Yes, Hamlin conceded, he probably has the most pressure on him as the oldest championship eligible driver. But he is ready.

 

“Is this my last opportunity or not?” Hamlin asked rhetorically. “Any format change coming that will be a bigger sample size should be better for me in general, but you just never know. You have to seize the moment that’s right there in front of you.

 

“So, I would certainly confirm the pressure is probably most on me because these guys know they’ve still got a long way to go (in their careers).”

 

Xfinity contenders aren’t ready to concede title to Connor Zilisch

 

While the season statistics show NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Connor Zilisch with a 10-win trophy haul—more than twice as many as any other championship-eligible competitors—when it comes to this weekend’s title-deciding Phoenix one-mile oval, the competition couldn’t be tighter.

 

Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier is the only driver among the Xfinity Series Championship 4 with a previous win at Phoenix Raceway. He boasts two career Phoenix victories and won the title last year with a runner-up effort in a back-up car.

 

Another title contender, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love, has never finished outside the top-10 in three series starts at Phoenix and boasts the best overall average result among the four drivers (also including JR Motorsports rookie Carson Kvapil) competing for the title Saturday.

 

“I know statistically as far as wins go, it looks very lopsided (in Zilisch’s favor), but we’re actually tied in amount of laps led, we (Allgaier’s team) have the most stage (wins) and we’ve really done all the right things this year,” Allgaier said.

 

Love, a native-Californian, finished runner-up in his first Xfinity Series race at Phoenix in 2023 and has never finished worse than ninth for a Championship 4 best 5.7 average finish at the track.

 

Although he has only a single win in 2025, he also likes his chances of hoisting the championship trophy this weekend. He was in contention to win last year’s race, too.

 

“I keep hearing about and know Justin is really good here, but I don’t think Justin’s any better than I am at this race track," said Love, noting his chance at the Phoenix trophy ended last year after contact with Allgaier and race winner Riley Herbst on an overtime restart.

 

“He (Allgaier) has more experience than me, but I feel as confident as he does or probably more. This place is technical and it’s interesting and I’ve had a lot of races here, probably coming up on 10 (in assorted series) and between truck and Xfinity, I’ve never run outside the top-10 here, so there’s some confidence in that.

 

“I had to think about it all offseason, all year that I was a couple hundred feet from closing out last year with a win here before the caution came out and obviously, Justin put us in the fence after that. I know I can put myself in same position this year, and obviously the stakes are even higher, so there’s some good to come out of that.”

 

Kaden Honeycutt playing with house money in Championship Race

 

The 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season has been a rollercoaster for Kaden Honeycutt—literally and emotionally.

 

Honeycutt was sixth in the series standings when Niece Motorsports released him after 16 races, citing information that Honeycutt had signed with a new team and manufacturer for 2026, though the specifics of the move were not released.

 

Preserving his eligibility for the Playoffs, Honeycutt found a fill-in ride with Youngs Motorsports for the 17th race of the season at Watkins Glen International.

 

Three days earlier, Halmar Friesen Racing had announced that Honeycutt would replace Stewart Friesen in the No. 52 Toyota for the rest of the season, starting Aug. 15 at Richmond Raceway. Friesen sustained season-ending injuries while driving a dirt modified race car in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, in late July.

 

Honeycutt made it through two Playoffs rounds, advancing on a tiebreaker at Martinsville to Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

“Honestly, man, we’re playing with house money this weekend,” said Honeycutt, whose second-place finish at Martinsville was a career-best. “We’ve accomplished the goal of being here. That was the whole deal whenever me and (crew chief) Jimmy (Villeneuve) talked at Richmond.

 

“They just wanted to make it and have a fighting chance. The fact that we get to come here and mix it up, I feel like we’ve had speed all the Playoffs. We just get to have fun this weekend, treat it like a normal race and go out and try to win it.”

 

Honeycutt believes fate had a hand in his opportunity to race for the title. Admittedly, it’s an uphill battle against heavy favorite Corey Heim, an 11-time winner in a record-setting season.

 

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I think the reason when Stewart got hurt was for me to fill in and do the job right for ‘em and show off how good this team is in this Playoff that he wasn’t able to do because of his injuries.

 

“I think that’s the reason why we’re here for that.”

NASCAR Weekend Preview: Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway

The Showdown in the Sun: Phoenix Set to Decide NASCAR’s 2025 Champion

AVONDALE, Ariz. – And so it has come down to this – 312 laps in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway to crown the 2025 champion. Four drivers representing two of the sport’s powerhouse teams – Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports - will settle the title.

 

And for three of the four eligible drivers – veteran Denny Hamlin (No. 11 JGR Toyota) and his new Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota) along with Hendrick Motorsports’ two-time defending Daytona 500 champion William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) are hoping to hoist the sport’s most cherished trophy for the first time.

 

Byron’s Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson (No. 5 Chevrolet) is racing for his second title and would become one of only three multi-time champions (Joey Logano and Kyle Buch) currently competing fulltime in the sport.

 

This is Hamlin’s record 19th Playoff appearance and fifth time in the Championship Four. His best finish is runner-up in 2010 to NASCAR Hall of Famer and seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson.

 

After 35 compelling races this season including nine weeks of intense Playoff competition, the title simply comes down to the best finisher Sunday among those four drivers – Hamlin, Briscoe, Byron and Larson - at the one-mile Phoenix oval. Hamlin’s six wins – the most recent at Las Vegas in the penultimate Playoff round – is double that of each of his competitors.

 

All four of the title contenders have previous wins at Phoenix. Byron (2023) and Briscoe (2022) have Spring race victories. Larson was the 2021 Fall race winner and the veteran Hamlin (Spring, 2012 and Fall, 2019) is the only one among the four championship drivers with multiple wins in the desert.

 

Interestingly, Larson is the only championship contender still without a victory in this year’s Playoff stretch. However, the encouraging news for the No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet team is that his 10 top-five finishes at Phoenix are the most for him at any track on the schedule.

 

“Hopefully this will be good for the fans and everybody and the excitement," team owner Joe Gibbs said. “Probably won't be good for me. I'll be so nervous and uptight about it (smiling).

 

“To get to the Final Four is a thrill, and we're thrilled to be in it. It's great for our sponsors and our entire organization. You got to give Rick [Hendrick] and them just all the credit in the world.”

 

Even the manufacturers represented in this title round have a strong recent Phoenix resume with both Toyota and Chevrolet winning twice in the last five races there.

 

Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet started from pole position and led 107 of the 312 laps in his 2021 title-season victory. He led a dominating 201 laps only to finish fourth in Byron’s win in the No. 24 Hendrick Chevy two years later.

 

Briscoe, a three-race winner this season, led 101 laps in his 2022 victory in the desert driving a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota led a race best 143 laps of the 312 laps in his 2019 Fall win prior to the track’s hosting the championship finale - and he led 61 laps in his 2012 Spring victory.

 

Defending race winner and reigning series champion Logano and his Team Penske group may well have a lot to say about Sunday’s race trophy however. Neither he nor 2023 championship teammate Ryan Blaney advanced to have a shot at the title this year but like the other non-championship contenders in the field remain fully committed to a victory to close out the season.

 

Logano has four Phoenix wins including this race last year that earned him his third series title. JGR’s Christopher Bell has won two of the last three Phoenix races including this Spring. Richard Childress Racing’s Busch would love to return to Victory Lane for the first time in two seasons at Phoenix, where he’s won three races.

 

In preparation for the season finale, all three national series will run a full practice session Friday (5:35 p.m. ET, TruTV, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) ahead of Busch Light Pole Qualifying  on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, TruTV, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Martin Truex Jr. started from pole position last year, his final fulltime race.

 

Title on the Line: JR Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing Collide in Phoenix Finale

 

As has been the case for so much of the season, the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series title may simply just come down to who can better JR Motorsports’ rookie sensation Connor Zilisch who has already claimed 10 victories this year.

 

The 19-year-old driver of the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet will be contending with a formidable threesome, however, in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race (7:30 p.m. ET on CW Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) that includes his teammate and the reigning series champion Justin Allgaier (No. 7 JRM Chevrolet), their JRM teammate, rookie Carson Kvapil (No. 1 JRM Chevrolet) and Zilisch’s best friend, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love (No. 2 RCR Chevrolet) in an all-Chevrolet battle for the big trophy.

 

Should Zilisch or Kvapil win the title, they would become only the fourth rookie to do so.

 

“It’s really cool to be in the Championship 4 with my teammates Justin and Carson," Zilisch said. “It’s going to be a crazy busy weekend in Phoenix but I’m glad to be doing it alongside them.

 

“We just need to execute the day and make the most of it on Saturday. We’ve made sure that everything we do is calculated and are accounting for any and all situations to be prepared for anything.

 

“Before the season started my crew chief Mardy Lindley had me fill out a points and win prediction. I had us winning four races so to sit here today with 10 wins and winning the Regular Season Championship plus locking into the Championship 4 early, this No. 88 team has certainly outdone my expectations.”

 

Of the four championship contenders, only the veteran Allgaier owns a Phoenix trophy, winning at the track in Fall, 2019 and Spring, 2017. He finished runner-up to non-Playoff driver Riley Herbst last November to claim his first career title.

 

Allgaier (fifth) and Love (ninth) are the only ones among the championship-eligible foursome to score top-10 finishes in the most recent race at Phoenix in March. And Allgaier led a race best 130 of the 208 laps.

 

Phoenix has proven to be a strong venue for Love as well, who is a perfect three-for-three in top-10 showings at the track including a runner-up finish in his series debut there in Spring, 2023.

 

There are four other former Phoenix winners in the field, including Aric Almirola, who won this Spring, Front Row Motorsports Chandler Smith, who won in Spring, 2024, JR Motorsports Sammy Smith (2023) and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones (2020).

 

The last two Phoenix races have featured last-lap passes for the win.

 

Not only is there the highly-contested driver’s title to be decided Saturday, but there is a slightly different look for the owner’s championship too. It will include Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota – driven by Almirola – and RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet driven by Austin Hill in addition to the JR Motorsports cars driven by Zilisch and Kvapil.

 

This race also marks a significant time in series history as longtime sponsor Xfinity ends an 11-year tenure.

 

Practice is set for 4:35 p.m. ET (CW App) on Friday, followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET (CW App). Joe Gibbs Racing’s William Sawalich is the defending race pole-winner.

 

Corey Heim’s Historic Season Faces Its Final Test in Phoenix

 

As with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, one driver has dominated the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season and comes to Phoenix racing for his first major NASCAR Championship. TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim has turned in a season for the record books and hopes to top it off Friday in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Heim will be competing for his maiden title against reigning series champion and defending race winner, ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski (No. 98 Ford), along with Halmar-Friesen Racing’s Kaden Honeycutt (No. 52 Toyota) and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum (No. 18 Chevrolet).

 

The season statistics mightily favor Heim, but as record-breaking a season as he his having, he has never won at Phoenix. Heim comes into the title race with a record 11 wins including six in the last eight races alone and is the only driver in series history to have a streak of 10 straight top-three finishes. Only one other driver in the Championship Four, Ankrum (one) has a win this year.

 

The 23-year-old Georgia native and driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota has led more than 40 percent of all laps this season– an all-time record. Heim’s streak of leading laps in 25 consecutive races is not only a record, but should he lead a lap Friday he would become the first driver to lead every single race in a season. He is six laps shy of breaking former champion Mike Skinner’s single season record of 1,533 laps led (1996).

 

Heim scored his best finish at Phoenix last year, finishing runner-up to Majeski by almost four-seconds.

 

Front Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith is the only other fulltime driver with a victory at Phoenix (2021).

 

Practice for the race is Thursday night at 7:35 p.m. ET with Kennametal Pole Qualifying on Friday at 3:35 p.m. ET (FS2). Majeski won pole position for last year’s race en route to the series championship.

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