By Holly Cain and Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels embraces the intensity of Cup finale

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson was 11th fastest on the practice chart—third best among the four NASCAR Cup Series championship-eligible drivers in Friday’s opening practice—even after a slight brush with the Phoenix Raceway wall.

Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 01, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

Larson is the only driver among the title contenders—a group includes teammate William Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe—with a championship trophy at home already.

Much is expected of Larson, who qualified third behind Hamlin and Byron for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. His crew chief, Cliff Daniels, told the media Saturday morning the team is in good shape to try and make him only the third multi-time champion currently driving full-time in the series.

Daniels was encouraged with the pace of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet in practice and optimistic about race day. Even though the team hasn’t won since May at 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway, Larson’s 21 top-10s are most among the championship contenders, and his 1,106 laps led this year are second only to Byron’s 1,278.

Larson is a former Phoenix winner, claiming his 2021 season championship with a win from pole position at the one-mile track.

“Now that we’re here, I do think we’re closer than what we’ve been in the past,” Daniels said. “So, the flow of the weekend of just having less, let’s just call it identity question marks of ‘Are we this package, that package?’ We’re kind of zeroed in on where we want to be.

“Also, just the execution side of the weekend from the team perspective, we’ve been building on our notes every year of just how to be smarter, a little cleaner, a little more efficient when we come here.

“So, it’s actually nice to see that play out where the team and how we execute is a lot more streamlined, I would say, and a lot more buttoned-up than what we’ve been.”

Used engines are the rule for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

Kyle Larson shocked his fellow competitors when he recited the origin of the engine in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the championship race.

Under NASCAR’s sealed engine rule, teams must run a used engine in the season finale. Typically, not one to pore over setup details, Larson nevertheless was well aware of the source of his power plant.

“I think mine came out of Chase (Elliott’s) Martinsville car last week,” Larson said during a press conference featuring all four Championship 4 drivers on Saturday afternoon. “So, yeah, (crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody had a long night Sunday night getting it out and getting it ready.”

Pole winner Denny Hamlin was astounded.

“I can’t believe he knows,” Hamlin said.

“I wouldn’t normally know,” replied Larson, “but Cliff called me Sunday night.”

Neither Hamlin nor Briscoe knew the respective sources of their engines, but Briscoe brought down the house with his final response.

“I know Denny and I do not have our last week’s engines,” Briscoe quipped.

Good thing. Both engines failed at Martinsville.

Joey Logano highly motivated despite ouster from NASCAR Cup Playoff

Three-time and reigning series champion Joey Logano will not be racing for a second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series title this weekend, but the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford remains very much motivated to hoist a trophy here again.

“I told [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] that [a victory] would be the most bittersweet win of all time. … But wins matter,” Logano said, adding with a smile. “They count, and obviously it would be good for everybody’s Christmas bonus.”

With a win at Texas and two pole positions this season, Logano is ranked eighth in the standings heading into the Phoenix finale—80 points behind Christopher Bell in fifth place, but only seven points behind Tyler Reddick in seventh and 24 back of Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in sixth.

Having hoisted two of his three championship trophies at Phoenix Raceway and feeling obviously sentimental toward the one-mile desert oval, Logano said he understood and supported NASCAR’s decision to begin rotating the championship race locations.

Next year, the race returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway, which played host to the season finale from 1999 through 2019. The 1.5-mile oval was the site of Logano’s first championship win in 2018.

“I think it’s fine, wherever we go, we’ll just have to figure out how to win,” Logano said of the plan to change venues for the championship. “Obviously, this [Phoenix] has been a great race track for us. I’m not sure that when they first moved the championship race we were super excited about it being here, because we were pretty good at Homestead.

“This wasn’t always our best race track, but the timing of it worked out well as we got good here, and hopefully the next place will be the same way.”

Is pit stall No. 1 at Phoenix Raceway all it’s cracked up to be?

Conventional wisdom at the vast majority of race tracks says that pitting in stall No.1—the box closest to the exit from pit road—is a huge advantage.

After all, it offers both unimpeded egress and proximity to the final timing line, allowing quick acceleration back to the racing surface.

There were mitigating factors, however, in Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship event at Phoenix Raceway. At the first stage break, Ty Majeski beat eventual winner Corey Heim off pit road, even though Heim was pitting in stall No. 1.

On Lap 150, on the stop that proved decisive, Layne Riggs left pit road ahead of Heim when both drivers made four-tire stops. Only a breathtaking seven-wide charge into Turn 1 made Heim a winner in overtime.

Scott Zipadelli, Heim’s crew chief, said rubber build-up in the first bit box prevented a smooth exit.

“It’s supposed to be a benefit, but it really wasn’t,” Zipadelli said. “There was a lot of rubber, residual rubber, from past races there. Our guys prepped the box.

“What happens is you’re just prepping the rubber that’s already down. When he was spinning his wheels, it was just spinning on top of the rubber that was there. It got worse…

“You’re going to see the same thing (Saturday night) and on Sunday, if they don’t scrape the boxes, put new traction compound on top of them.”

Doubtless, crew chiefs in the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series were paying close attention to Heim’s difficulty. Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Championship 4 Cup driver Kyle Larson certainly was.

“Most likely (we) would pick that stall,” Daniels said. “What you just described is certainly a consideration for the grip level in the stall. That’s always a big thing out here.

“We have a couple other stalls in mind. Hopefully, we’re in that position where I have to make that decision. Pit stall No. 1 offers a lot of good things, so it’s hard to overlook that.”

Indeed. When Larson and Daniels won the series championship in 2021, it was a lightning-fast stop in stall No. 1 that vaulted Larson from fourth to first among the title contenders and propelled him to the race win and the championship.

Kyle Busch reacts to NASCAR’s expanded eligibility rules for lower series

Kyle Busch’s reaction was predictable.

“Gee, what do you know? Kyle Busch isn’t winning—let’s open it back up, OK?” was Busch’s tongue-in-cheek response when asked about the expanded eligibility rules next year for what will be the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

“I’m not spiteful at all.”

Busch is the career wins leader in both series, with 102 victories in the current Xfinity Series and 67 in Trucks. His prolific trips to Victory Lane were in part responsible for NASCAR curtailing the number of races a veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver could run to five in each series.

The expanded rules, announced Saturday, will allow a Cup driver with 3-plus years’ experience in NASCAR’s top division to run 10 O’Reilly Auto Parts events and eight Truck Series races, starting in 2026. 

Cup drivers remain ineligible for cut-off, Playoff and championship races.

After reaching 100 Xfinity wins, Busch cut back his presence in that series. He ran four events for Kaulig Racing in 2023 and one last year for Richard Childress Racing. His last victory in the series came at Atlanta in 2021, when he won all five of his starts.

Though Busch expects to run Truck Series races for Spire Motorsports next year (he won his 67th race in a Spire Chevrolet this season), his opportunities in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will be limited. Kaulig is abandoning its program in that series in favor of a five-truck effort with new manufacturer Ram.

“It would be nice,” Busch said of potential rides in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. “I don’t have any free funds behind me that I could just go in and buy myself a ride. I’ve got to rely on somebody calling me to put me in with something they’ve got already.

“So that’s kind of where I’m at, I guess.”