Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar Correspondent
Practice already hinted at the form for the entire championship weekend, and in the end Kyle Larson's third title was settled long before Ryan Blaney even saw the finish line at Homestead.
For three days the 2026 Championship Race dominated the action at Homestead-Miami Speedway, from Chase Briscoe's fastest practice lap on Friday to his pole on Saturday and Ryan Blaney's win in the season finale on Sunday. But the real arc of this weekend was not a straight line: whoever was up front on Friday was not necessarily still there on Sunday night, and some of those who started near the back saved their strongest session of the weekend for the race itself. In between came the championship decision for Kyle Larson, which fell so early that it made the rest of the 267-lap race meaningless for the driver standings.
Joe Gibbs Racing dominated practice and qualifying
Chase Briscoe set the tone from the start. In Friday's only practice session he was fastest at 32.680 seconds, 0.073 seconds ahead of Austin Cindric and 0.110 seconds ahead of his teammate Denny Hamlin. In Saturday's qualifying Briscoe confirmed that form and lowered his lap to 32.396 seconds, just 0.017 seconds quicker than Hamlin. That put Joe Gibbs Racing on the front row with a one-two heading into the finale, and Christopher Bell rounded out a strong weekend for the team in sixth.
Tyler Reddick, only 20th in practice, climbed to third on the grid in qualifying, 0.041 seconds off the pole. Kyle Larson secured the second row alongside Reddick in fourth with 32.463 seconds, a starting spot that was more than enough for his title defense.
The title was decided before the race got going
What followed on Sunday barely changed the championship. Briscoe's engine failure on Lap 78 ended Stage 1 early under caution and froze the running order, with Reddick winning the stage ahead of Blaney, Bell and Larson. Larson's fourth place in that stage was already enough to make his lead in the Chase standings insurmountable, with well over two-thirds of the race distance still ahead of him. For Hendrick Motorsports it is the 16th Cup title in team history, for Larson the third after 2021 and 2025, and the first back-to-back title since Jimmie Johnson's run that ended in 2010.
In the race itself, the finishing position no longer mattered for Larson. That he came home only 12th from fourth on the grid, eight spots worse than in qualifying, changed nothing about the championship he had already locked up. Contact with the wall and a right-rear flat that forced him into an unscheduled pit stop were to blame. For Briscoe, after a strong practice and qualifying, it was the bitterest possible contrast: from the pole to 39th.
Midfield and back of the pack: Gragson charges forward, Elliott falls back
Up front, Sunday above all confirmed Ryan Blaney's upward trend: from ninth on the grid to the win, with Reddick second just 0.314 seconds behind and William Byron, who improved from eighth in qualifying to third in the race. Bubba Wallace delivered one of the biggest gains among the leaders, jumping from 18th on the grid to fifth.
In the midfield it was Noah Gragson who gained the most ground. From 33rd on the grid he drove up to ninth, a gain of 24 positions and the best result for his Front Row Motorsports team this weekend. Zane Smith also improved clearly, from 27th in qualifying to 14th in the race, while Daniel Suárez confirmed his strong pace from practice and qualifying with eighth in the race. On the other side was Chase Elliott: after a solid seventh in qualifying he dropped to 22nd in the race, the biggest drop among drivers from the front half who made it to the finish.
At the back, Ross Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse Jr were hit especially hard: Chastain lost twelve positions compared to his qualifying spot and finished a lap down, while Stenhouse Jr lost ten and ended up 32nd. Brad Keselowski, on the other hand, who could only manage the last starting spot after a spin in qualifying, still drove up to 28th in his final race in the RFK Ford. Corey Heim's race was over even before Briscoe's: he reported a loss of power and had to retire, falling from 16th on the grid to last in the classification.
What Homestead means for the 2027 season
In the final 2026 driver standings Larson leads with 2,501 points ahead of Christopher Bell with 2,452 and Denny Hamlin with 2,445, followed by Ryan Blaney with 2,407 and Tyler Reddick with 2,397 points. In the team standings Joe Gibbs Racing took the top spot with 9,618 points ahead of Hendrick Motorsports with 7,726 and Team Penske with 7,099 points.
Bell and Hamlin remain the closest pursuers at 49 and 56 points back, but they could not catch Larson. Blaney, for his part, at least takes a conciliatory end to the weekend with the win at Homestead, after a season in which Team Penske finished behind Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing overall. How big the gap to the top really is in 2027 will probably only become clear once the new season starts from scratch and Larson's advantage from this year no longer counts.
