To understand just how wild Kyle Larson's 2026 postseason has been, you have to look at where he started it. Entering The Chase presented by Mobil 1 as the seventh seed, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver was carrying a 50-race winless drought and a 55-point deficit to top-ranked Denny Hamlin. Now, just nine races later, he holds a 70-point lead over Hamlin with only Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway left to decide the title.
The math behind that turnaround is staggering. Larson has outscored Hamlin by 125 points during the postseason, completely reshaping the championship picture. He enters the finale with a 67-point advantage over Christopher Bell and that 70-point cushion over Bell's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin, who are the only other drivers still mathematically eligible for the title. Needing just nine points to secure his third Cup championship and second straight, Larson has put together a postseason that rivals the strongest since the format began in 2004.
That regular-season struggle felt miles away once the standings reset. Through nine Chase races, Larson has racked up a series-best 424 points, averaging 47.1 per race—roughly a 69% increase over his regular-season scoring pace. Bell sits second with 352 points, followed by Joey Logano at 331 and Chase Briscoe at 330, while Hamlin ranks fifth with 299. Larson also leads all Chase drivers with three victories, six top-five finishes, eight top 10s, and 579 laps led, though Bell has collected more stage points with 103 to Larson's 92, and Logano leads the field with five stage wins to Larson's four.
Even a major disaster couldn't derail the momentum. After a blistering start featuring a 2.2 average finish across the opening five races, Larson suffered a tire failure and handling problems at Phoenix, resulting in a 34th-place finish and just three points that shrank his lead to five. But he answered at Talladega in an improbable finish, dropping to 11th on the final lap before threading through the tri-oval to grab a victory that pushed his advantage back up to 73 points. A ninth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway brought that advantage down slightly, leaving him with a 6.78 average finish through nine Chase races. Strip away that disastrous Phoenix afternoon, and his average across the other eight starts sits at a stunning 3.375.
Comparing this run to his previous title campaigns reveals just how sharp this machine has been. Through the first nine postseason races of his 2021 championship run, Larson had four victories, five top fives, seven top 10s, and an 8.11 average finish. During his 2025 title defense, those numbers were zero wins, three top fives, five top 10s, and a 12.33 average. This year's marks—three wins, six top fives, eight top 10s, and a 6.78 average—outperform both in sheer consistency, built on a mix of outright dominance like sweeping the stages and leading 235 of 267 laps at Kansas Speedway, alongside gritty recoveries.
One race remains to close out the chapter at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval where he has two victories in 12 career Cup starts, including the most recent race in March 2025, alongside a series-high 645 laps led among active drivers. Hamlin remains a threat with three Homestead victories and a series-best 4.63 finish on traditional 1.5-mile tracks this season, but Larson's cushion is immense. Should he finish the job Sunday, he will become NASCAR's first back-to-back Cup champion since Jimmie Johnson completed his five-title streak in 2010, the 11th driver with at least three Cup titles, and deliver Hendrick Motorsports its record 16th Cup championship.
