Bell, Hamlin chase Homestead victory as title hopes hang by a thread
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 (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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.
Carson Hocevar addresses team suspension at Homestead
Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar addressed his team-mandated one-race suspension Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 23-year-old driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet earned the first NASCAR Cup Series trophy of his young career at Talladega Superspeedway in April.
But in addition to his success, Hocevar’s style of competition has also been a regular topic of concern among more experienced drivers who question his brash, often full-contact racing techniques.
At Martinsville (Va.) Speedway last week, for example, he brake-checked Team Penske driver Austin Cindric multiple times damaging both their cars. And there have been incidents and warning about his rough driving in the preceding weeks.
NASCAR fined Hocevar $100,000 following the Martinsville race and his Spire team executives made the unusual move to bench him this week for the season-finale. Justin Haley will instead drive the No. 77.
“There’s certainly some challenges, right? But I like what he brings to the fan base in terms of going out, meeting with fans, talking,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said Friday when asked about Hocevar.
“Does he have some things to work on on track? Absolutely. We’ve talked about that, and we all know where that stands today.”
Since he isn’t under a NASCAR suspension, Hocevar is trackside this week in South Florida and maintained his media appearance commitment despite the situation. He issued a lengthy apology statement on social media Thursday evening as well and answered questions from reporters for nearly a half hour Friday.
“For sure,” Hocevar told the Homestead media of possibly adjusting or finetuning his style of racing going forward.
“There’s obviously things I can work on to change, so Martinsville won’t happen again. But, at the same time we still want to keep the Bristols [Motor Speedway] because that’s still part of racing. We can’t lose the aggression side. We just can’t get that creative and flagrant foul-ish.’’
“The line in the sand is probably the sportsmanship and integrity” part of it,” Hocevar said acknowledging, “I’m well past that. … I made a flagrant, unsportsmanlike foul.”
Connor Zilisch wins the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year
Connor Zilisch will formally wrap up the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors this weekend in what’s been an important season for the 20-year-old, both on and off track. The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet earned only two top-10s – seventh place at both the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course this summer and at the World Wide Technology Raceway in September.
He’s led a total of nine laps – eight at the San Diego street course and another at Kansas. And he had six top-10 qualifying efforts including a best start of third place only two weeks ago at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. He heads into Sunday’s season finale ranked 33rd in the series points standings.
More big news out of his rookie campaign was an announcement this Fall that he will move to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 in 2028 following immediately in the footsteps of Alex Bowman and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson before that.
“I’d be lying if I said it was the season I’d hoped for,” Zilisch conceded. “It certainly hasn’t been a picture-perfect year by any means, but I’m just glad the last few months we’ve started to show some growth, and I feel like I’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. It’s certainly taken time.
“There’s been some rough patches for me, for sure, and that’s been both mentally and inside the racecar. It’s definitely taken a toll on me, but these last few months, I feel like we’ve been qualifying better, running better, and at least in the game, staying on the lead lap and just doing the basics.
“Hopefully, we can continue that going into next year. But yeah, certainly not the year I hoped for or wanted, but I’m proud of myself for sticking through it and getting some results on the back end.”
Zilisch said the big gains he’ll take forward were more mental.
“For me, I didn’t realize how hard it is,” Zilisch said of not running up front for really the first time in young career. “My entire life racing, I’ve raced for wins. I’ve been the guy to beat. I’ve showed up to the track and expected to win. This year, I haven’t had that.
“I think trying to find motivation when you’re not racing for the win every weekend is something that I’ve never experienced in my life. I’ve never dealt with that kind of adversity. I had to find a way to keep myself motivated and my team motivated through races where you’re not contending for wins every week. I’d say that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve learned is just trying to find goals that are achievable and just focus on those and block out the outside noise because it’s really easy to focus on the results sheet Sunday night and see where you finish.”
Kaulig Racing taps Allmendinger and Dillon to drive Dodges in 2027
Kaulig Racing followed up on its major announcement this week that it will field Dodges in the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season. Team owner Matt Kaulig and executives Chris Rice – along with drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Ty Dillon – fielded questions from the press at Homestead Friday afternoon.
“Huge deal is an understatement,” Allmendinger said of the new opportunity, conceding it will initially, at least, be a big year of learning with the new manufacturer.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I’m all in and we’ll do everything possible to make this learning curve as short as possible.”
This marks the return of Dodge to NASCAR’s premier series, the first time its been on the grid since Brad Keselowski won the 2012 championship driving for the make.
The team expects to debut the car on Dec. 4, and Rice said the organization “would love to add a third car” for the Daytona 500, but didn’t reveal any specific details.