Kyle Larson’s offseason will feature a different kind of racing
MIAMI, Fla. — It took Kyle Larson 3 hours, 7 minutes, 54 seconds to win a 500-mile race at Talladega Superspeedway during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1.
That race proved pivotal in his run for a third championship.
The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet likely will spend more time than that covering 26 miles, 385 yards when he runs his first marathon on Dec. 6.
“What brought it about… I’ve never been into running, and running frustrated me, but I had a couple of friends getting into it and just tried to commit myself to it,” said Larson, who will compete in the California International Marathon from Folsom to Sacramento.
“Once your body stops hurting all the time, and you learn to enjoy it and enjoy the process when you’re training, you want to go compete in a race. For me, getting to compete in Sacramento, where I was born and raised, is special, and to get to do it with my friends is going to be fun.”
The longest training run Larson has done so far measures 16 miles.
“On that training day, it was 12 miles of an easy pace for me in good weather,” Larson said on the morning of the end-of-season NASCAR Awards at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. “It was about a nine-minute (per mile) pace, so your heart rate’s low. And then the final four miles, you crank it up to marathon pace.
So, for me, that’s probably—like I said, in good weather—around like a 7:30 to 7:40 pace. So, yeah, it wasn’t too bad, but doing that pace for three-and-a-half hours is going to be challenging.”
Larson, whose previous off seasons have featured a plentiful dose of dirt racing in sprint cars and midgets, said he hopes to complete the marathon under 3 hours, 30 minutes.
And, of course, he’ll continue to race cars during the winter months, with plans to drive in both the Tulsa Shootout in late December and Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in January.
Carson Hocevar finally found a line he couldn’t cross
Repeatedly brake-checking Austin Cindric during the NASCAR Cup season’s penultimate race at Martinsville Speedway earned Carson Hocevar a team-imposed one-race suspension and a $100,000 fine and points penalty from NASCAR.
When the green-flag waved to start the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hocevar was watching from the sidelines while Justin Haley drove his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Don’t think, though, that the punishment will have a profound effect on Hocevar’s aggressive driving style in 2027.
“Sometimes you can’t get too creative,” Hocevar said. “There’ s a line to be drawn on creatively and aggression. We’re working through that…
“I didn’t die. I didn’t lose my ride. I lost my car keys. My team still loves me. I think I’m in a good spot. I’m excited that we get to get working for Daytona and next year… It’s just one week. Obviously, it sucks, but it’s not bigger than it is.”
The suspension gave Hocevar plenty of time to interact with his fan base, which is legion. In 2026, Hocevar arguably provided more autographs than any other driver.
To Hocevar, the most unusual item he signed was a car.
“Somebody bought a brand-new car and wanted me to sign it,” he said. “I thought that was weird. So, I signed their dash in their brand-new car a couple of weeks ago. I thought that was really funny.
“It was his wife’s car, too, and he’s like ‘My wife really wants this.’ And I was like, ‘Is she here?’ And he was like, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘OK, are you sure?’ and I asked three times, and then ‘All right. Whatever. You’ve got to go home to her—not me.’”
Joey Logano learns the perils of “van life” the hard way
Joey Logano is well-known for his charitable endeavors and for his willingness to expand his family through adoption.
Sometimes, however, the best intentions can turn to… well, you get the idea.
In October, Logano and wife Brittany finalized the adoption of two foster children who had been under their care since the spring, bringing their total number of children to five.
Traveling with the entire contingent requires large vehicles in what Logano calls “van life,” but there can be hazards involved, as Logano found out the hard way on the way to Bristol this fall.
“This happened, and it’s only funny now, ‘cause it wasn’t in the moment,” Logano said on the morning of the NASCAR Awards at the Adrienne Arsht Center. “We’ve got this portable potty, because the driver of the van (Logano) doesn’t like to make pit stops very often.
“Driving to Bristol, there’s a lot of curvy roads, because it’s 10 minutes faster, 15 minutes faster to go through Morganton (N.C.) and up that way. And the potty started sliding, and the potty flipped.
“Made the corner a little too fast. That was disgusting. It was horrible, but that happened. .. I should have had that thing figured out back there. The driver was doing his job to get there. I was on the road. It was sliding back and forth. I heard it slide to the left, and in the next corner it slid back the other way, and then you hear all the kids, ‘Oh, no.’ They were all screaming.”
It’s a fair guess that Logano’s first offseason project will be finding a way to anchor the portable potty.
Mic drop moment didn’t enter Justin Allgaier’s mind after second title
Justin Allgaier had no regrets about agreeing to an extension with JR Motorsports after winning a second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship.
However, he did reflect on what the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway might have meant had he not agreed to continuing driving after the 2026 season.
“A lot of reflection, because I was quitting, and a lot of question marks as to what that looked like,” said Allgaier, who in November agreed to keep driving for JRM in a multiyear deal.
“Standing on the stage (for driver introductions) and speaking with my fellow competitors, and being present in the moment, I told a couple of them, ‘You know, this was going to be my last race ever, and I don’t know how I would have felt,’ had I been standing on the stage knowing that—with the emotion of the championship on the line—with all the things that could and will happen.
“I think I’m glad I made the choice that I made in that moment. There’s going to be a time where you’re not going to have the success, the lights aren’t going to be as bright, and it’s going to be a lot easier to walk away in that moment. But I think I made the right decision, and I’m happy with that.”
The extension gives Allgaier the opportunity to do something no other driver in the series has ever done—win a third championship.
“I saw that stat after the championship was over, and I think about all the people I’ve grown up idolizing in this series,” Allgaier said. “That’s a crazy stat. It really is.
“I’d love to win three. I would love to. I’ve seen Kyle (Larson) with the three (NASCAR Cup) trophies. It was cool to watch. But I said in the media center before the race, when I started my NASCAR journey, I wanted to win a race—just one—and to do what we’ve done and accomplish what we’ve accomplished is far exceeding any expectation I’ve ever had.”
After memorable rookie season, Brenden Queen turns his sights to 2027
To run the full NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series next season, 2026 Rookie of the Year Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will need something he’s never had—a passport.
“I’ve never been out of the country,” Queen said Tuesday morning at the Adrienne Arsht Center, site of the end-of-season NASCAR Awards.
On Sept. 5, the series will race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. That’s one of three tracks on the 2027 schedule that will be new to Queen. The others are Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Pocono Raceway.
“I haven’t ever been to Bowman Gray, surprisingly,” said Queen, who comes from a late model stock car background. “I’ve wanted to go just to watch a normal Saturday modified race…
“It’s probably going to be crazy, but to be a part of the first time the trucks are going there, to be a part of history there… Being a part of the Ram return is history and now being a part of that is going to be something cool, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of tore-up front bumpers there.”
Queen ended the 2026 season 13th in the Truck Series standings, the highest finisher among five entries from Kaulig Racing, which shepherded the return of the Ram brand to the series this year and will field Dodge Chargers in that brand’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027.
— NASCAR News Wire —