HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The vibe for Kyle Larson’s closest NASCAR Cup Series championship chasers, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, is predictably and markedly different than the points leader heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race.
Bell and Hamlin trail Larson by 67 and 70, points respectively, giving them mathematical chances to catch the reigning series champ should absolutely everything go their way – essentially from pole position to stage wins to laps led and a race trophy.
And Larson – the defending Homestead-Miami race winner – suffer some tough luck early. He only needs to earn nine points on the day.
Although they concede the title trail is tough, both would at least like to end the season on a positive note.
Bell had trailed Larson by only a mere five-points heading into the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway race two weeks ago, only to have a poor result (35th place) while Larson went on to claim his first career win at a drafting track.
The 45-year-old Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who is still chasing his first NASCAR Cup Series championship, entered the Chase as the No. 1 seed but has endured a Chase not indicative of his early season work. His best finish in the Chase was third at Kansas Speedway, but that and a fifth place at Charlotte two weeks later are his only top-fives in the crunch run to the big trophy. A 28th-place finish at Phoenix, just before Talladega really set him back.
Hamlin leads all drivers with three Homestead wins and six pole positions. Larson has two victories here – including last March – and Bell has one (2023).
“Certainly, not ideal,” Bell said of his longshot championship chance. “We had the car performance, had the speed and just execution or lack of it is why we’re not in a better spot than we are, I don’t know what to say.”
On the upside, Bell extended his winning and pole positions streaks to six consecutive seasons and he’s already equaled his career-best top-five total (15) with a race to go. His 795 laps led in the No. 20 JGR Toyota heading into the finale is second only to the 1,145 laps he led in 2024. And most importantly, the 31-year-old Oklahoman extended his streak of top-five championship finishes to five seasons.
“I was very confident it was going to be a Toyota driver that won the championship,” Bell said of the start of the 10-race Chase. “And ultimately when we got into the Chase, the 5-car [Larson] had a pick-up in performance, but I still think by the numbers there have been guys in Toyota cars that were faster than him [Larson].
“But we all shot ourselves in the foot one way or another. All of us – myself, Chase [Briscoe] and Denny all had unique circumstances that got us to where we are today and the five-team [Larson] just had the cleanest nine races and put themselves in the right spot.”
Hamlin, a huge sentimental favorite among fans, has announced that 2027 will be his final fulltime season. And the Virginian certainly competed with the kind of urgency fans have expected from him.
His 16 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes through the 35 races to date is his best effort since 2021. His four wins marks the eighth consecutive season he’s won multiple races and 14th time in his 21-year fulltime career. His six pole positions is a career best. And this season marks the seventh time he’s led at least 1,000 laps.
“I don’t have any optimism [about winning title], I’m here to win the race,” Hamlin said of the slim chance he could still emerge with the season title, adding with a slight smile, “There’s a chance you can win the Lottery too.”
“I think probably both just going to really focus on trying to qualify as good as we can, race as good as we can and try to win the race,” Hamlin said of the weekend outlook.
