Phoenix Shuffle: Heartbreak and Comebacks in NASCAR’s Final Race of The Season

 
By: Front Row Kenny and T. Walker
 
photo credit: Instagram/@teamhendrick
 

A late caution, split-second pit calls and clutch driving decide titles across NASCAR’s national series.

Phoenix was supposed to be simple. Winner takes all. Walk away with the Cup. Instead, Sunday delivered heartbreak, a comeback, and the reminder that in NASCAR, nothing is decided until the checkered flag falls.

Denny Hamlin paced the weekend. He led more than 150 laps and claimed Stage 2. For much of the race it looked like his long chase for a title might finally end. He had the pole and the car. The storyline into Phoenix carried weight beyond lap charts. This was Hamlin’s 20th season and his dad is terminally ill. Fans and peers felt like they were watching a son try to give his father something he has chased his whole career.

Then the late caution came and everything pivoted. Strategy choices piled up. Hamlin took four tires while others took two or stayed out. He lost track position on the restart and was shuffled back. With only a few laps left there was not enough green-flag time to recover. After the race he was blunt. “I’m gonna need some time on this one,” he said. That loss felt raw and real.

Larson’s Quiet Clinch

Kyle Larson kept his head in the chaos. He did not win the race, but a third-place finish was enough. By finishing highest among the Championship 4 he clinched his second NASCAR Cup Series title. Larson was measured and empathetic in the aftermath. “We’ve all gone through our own defeats. I really can’t imagine what he’s [Hamlin] feeling. It’s got to be something completely different than I ever felt before through any of my defeats,” he said. At NASCAR’s annual awards banquet Larson thanked family, crew, sponsors, his childhood idol Jeff Gordon, and team owner Rick Hendrick. The two-time champion also singled out Hamlin, calling him a driver whom “nobody in the sport works harder or expects more of themselves.”

Ryan Blaney’s win was pure racing. He held off Brad Keselowski in overtime and took the checkered flag, a clean piece of racecraft under pressure. For Larson it was a clinch by position. The format doesn’t just crown a winner, it reveals who adapts fastest when the margins disappear.

NASCAR’s playoff model will always spark debate. Fans will argue a late caution and a pit call should not decide a championship. Others will point out the format creates last-lap, last-call moments that make the sport tense and memorable. No format is perfect.

VIDEO: The Final Battle: Hamlin vs. Larson for the Championship | NASCAR

Lessons Learned

Chase Briscoe and William Byron left Phoenix with clear takeaways. Briscoe, in his first Championship 4 appearance, said, “It was big. Just in the sense of you always think you can do it. You never really know if you can. This year to prove to myself and certainly a lot of other people, too, that I feel like I belong here, right?” He added that the team learned through the season and will start next year aiming to be stronger from the drop. Byron, who closed the regular season as the Cup points leader, was similarly reflective. “Yeah, we brought our best towards the end of the Playoffs, for sure. The win last week was great. Today was really good, too. I thought we were kind of right there, but not quite enough,” he said. Those are honest lines from teams that closed hard and now must find the final step.

The emotional aftershock spilled beyond the pit boxes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke for many fans: “Denny is heartbroken, it sucks. I think the only thing that might be out there for him is his dad.” He then tried to find a silver lining: “This is me trying to find that silver lining. Imagine if Denny, this is a chapter in his book, the one we just wrote. This is what f*cking movies are made of. He loses a championship with 40 seconds to go in the race. All he needed was 40 seconds of green flag racing to get that title that’s been so elusive. He follows that season up with a championship year. That could be pretty incredible. Days of Thunder two story line right there,” he said on the Dale Jr. Download. For many that framing is the only comfortable way to look at a late loss.

Championships Beyond Cup

There were small but telling Xfinity moments at Phoenix. Justin Allgaier grabbed Stage 2 and finished fifth, while Carson Kvapil ran solid and ended up 13th. The race boiled down to a late duel: Jesse Love passed Connor Zilisch with 25 laps to go and held on to take the Phoenix win and the Xfinity title.

The season’s ledger is clearer when you step back. Zilisch still posted a dominant year with ten wins and the regular‑season crown, but he finished third in the championship battle and took Rookie of the Year. His team also lost the Xfinity owners’ trophy to Joe Gibbs Racing. Zilisch will move up to Trackhouse in Cup next season, taking the seat vacated by Daniel Suarez. Suarez ran his final race for Trackhouse at Phoenix and will head to Spire Motorsports. Aric Almirola finished runner‑up in the title fight and helped Joe Gibbs Racing secure its seventh Xfinity owners’ crown.

The Craftsman Truck Series closed with a late-call thriller. Corey Heim dominated the regular season with 12 wins and then sealed the championship in double overtime. A late caution forced a pivotal tire decision. Heim restarted ninth and charged to the front to take the title for Tricon Garage, outpacing Tyler Ankrum, Kaden Honeycutt, and Ty Majeski. Majeski’s two-tire call proved pivotal. Layne Riggs set the fastest qualifying time but started at the back after a pre-race infraction. Matt Crafton ran his final full-time Truck race and will step into retirement tied for the second most championships in series history with three titles

Offseason Fallout

Phoenix left the human stuff front and center. We believe Denny Hamlin will return, although he says he needs time to process. Kyle Larson will quietly prepare to defend. Men like Chase Briscoe and William Byron will try to turn near misses into wins. Young champions like Jesse Love and Corey Heim will defend crowns. Connor Zilisch will try to translate Xfinity dominance into Cup success. Questions about whether Larson’s Indy 500/Coke 600 double left a mark will follow him into winter. Denny also has an active lawsuit against NASCAR, a legal and emotional subplot that will shadow the early months of the off season.

Teams will dig into the data, run tire tests and make personnel moves that trace directly back to that caution. The winter will be a long reel of data and decisions, with every team hoping to write a different ending. Who will flip Phoenix heartbreak into next season’s comeback?