Homestead-Miami Speedway delivered two very different victories on Sunday, with Ryan Blaney taking the checkered flag and Kyle Larson leaving Florida with a NASCAR Cup Series championship. Blaney kept a steady pace as the laps wound down. Larson had done enough to settle the title before the afternoon was halfway complete. The result gave the crowd a finish and a champion to celebrate in very different ways.
The No. 12 Team Penske Ford crossed the finish line as the checkered flag fell, 0.314 seconds ahead of Tyler Reddick after 267 laps around the 1.5-mile track. Blaney started ninth, led seven laps, and secured his fourth victory of 2026. It was his 21st Cup win, earned after a late exchange at the front kept the race alive until the final two laps.
Reddick led 53 laps and finished second. William Byron placed third after leading 38 laps, while Christopher Bell came home fourth. Denny Hamlin finished sixth after leading a race-high 87 laps. However, the order did not reflect how often the lead changed hands near the finish, when track position became more important than the laps already led.
Blaney found his opportunity with two laps remaining, getting past Reddick to take control. He then kept the No. 45 Toyota behind him for the final run to the stripe. The margin gave Team Penske the season-finale win, while Reddick settled for second after spending much of the day among the contenders. Larson’s day at Homestead-Miami followed a different strategy and, by all accounts, a different calculation.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver entered the finale with a 67-point cushion over Bell and a 70-point advantage over Hamlin. He needed only nine points to make the championship unreachable, collecting seven in Stage 1 with a fourth-place finish. Bell placed third and Hamlin sixth in the stage, leaving Larson with enough points to clinch before the second segment.
The No. 5 Chevrolet eventually finished 12th. Even so, that could not change what had already been secured. Larson became a back-to-back champion, defending the title he won in 2025 and joining the group of drivers with three Cup championships. He is the 11th driver in series history to reach that total, alongside some of NASCAR’s most accomplished champions.
The path to this title was far from easy. Larson went winless through the 26-race regular season and carried a 51-race victory drought into the Chase. The turnaround began with a win at Gateway. From there, the No. 5 team repeatedly converted speed into results, building a run strong enough to put the championship within reach before Homestead. Larson’s title marked another milestone for Hendrick Motorsports, giving the team its 16th Cup Series championship.
Cliff Daniels and the No. 5 team turned an uneven start to the season into another championship run, proving that persistence and execution can change the direction of an entire year. Blaney owned the result at Homestead, and yet Larson owned the season’s biggest prize. One driver won the 400-mile race; the other completed the championship defense. For both, the finale closed a season that demanded speed, patience, and execution when opportunity arrived.
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