AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Larson prevailed in NASCAR Overtime to win his second-career NASCAR Cup Series Championship, while Ryan Blaney won the race at Phoenix Raceway.

Denny Hamlin was well on his way to winning his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship in his 20 full seasons of competing at NASCAR’s highest level, when Championship 4 contender, William Byron below a tire and brought out the caution with three laps to go.

“I don’t know, three laps to go, I’m thinking, Let me get to the end,” Byron said. “I felt something funny off of two, thought it might be a flat. I thought at the time if it’s left rear, you can kind of get back. It just went straight into three. Laid down on the right rear, went straight. I hate that. Yeah, just felt like a passenger at that point. Proud of the team.”

Teams hit pit road, and the race completely changed. Larson took two tires and restarted fifth, while Hamlin took four tires and restarted 10^th. On the NASCAR Overtime restart, Hamlin tried his best to pass by Larson, but he was unable to, and a third-place finish earned the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet the series title.

“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” Larsen said. “Like, we didn’t lead a lap today. Somehow won the championship.

“I mean, really, I’m just speechless. I can’t believe it. We had an average car at best. We had the right front go down, lost a lap. Got saved by the caution. Did the wave-around. Was really bad that run. We took two tires. I was like, Oh, God, here we go. We’re going to go to the back now. It had a lot more grip than I anticipated. We got lucky with the final caution.”

Larson ended the season with three wins, 15 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes. He also led 1,106 laps throughout the year as well.

Hamlin started on the pole, led a race high of 208 laps and was in prime position until the caution came out.

“Yeah, nothing I can do different,” Hamlin said. “Prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend. My team gave me a fantastic car. Just didn’t work out. I was just praying that no caution. Had one there. What can you do? Just not meant to be.”

Even though the No. 11 Progressive Toyota team lost, Hamlin still stood behind the four tire call on the final pit stop of the day. The unforeseen issue the team ran into was that six teams took two tires.

“I thought still okay,” Hamlin said. “We took four tires. I thought that definitely was the right call. Just so many cars took two there. Obviously put us back. Team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. Just didn’t happen.”

This year’s championship run felt like it would be Hamlin’s best opportunity; however, he’ll look to capitalize in 2026.

“I got a couple more shots at it,” Hamlin said. “Man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win.”

In the midst of the Championship battle, Blaney won the race, earning his fourth win of the season. Blaney started fifth and finished second in Stage 1 and 2.

“It’s just cool to end it on a good note,” Blaney said. “It’s just cool and obviously we had a fast car all day. Those other guys were just kind of faster getting going and I could never retain the lead. Those guys were just really good and it took my car a while to come in, but it was a really good call for two there and keeping track position. I got a decent restart and I was able to kind of roll the bottom in three and four and eek the 6 (Brad Keselowski) out at the line.”

Keselowski finished a close second, followed by Larson, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Josh Berry, Michael McDowell, Ryan Preece and Chase Elliott, who led 30 laps throughout the day.

Championship 4 contender, Chase Briscoe finished 18^th after also taking four tires on the final pit stop. He overcame a flat tire, made his way up to second and then blew another tire. Briscoe once again, worked his way towards the front and was poised to get a top-10 prior to the final caution.

“Certainly eventful,” Briscoe said. “We never gave up. That’s been the story of my whole career, never giving up. You never know what can change at any point.

“Felt like we were good enough. We came from the front to the back two or three different times. Had a really good Bass Pro Shops TRACKER Toyota. Wish we could have been on an even playing field at some point.”

Byron finished 33^rd after the late-race crash.

Byron won Stage 1 and Hamlin won Stage 2.

There were nine cautions for 65 laps. Seven of the cautions were for single-car accidents, mostly for flat tires.

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season will kickoff at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 15 for the 68^th running of the DAYTONA 500.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images