NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson entered Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway one point ahead of Christopher Bell. As it turned out, William Byron captured the third spot in next Sunday’s Championship 4 race, which put Larson versus Bell for the final transfer spot.
Larson turned in a P3 in Stage 1, P2 in the second stage and P5 at the finish, earning 49 playoff points.
Bell went eighth and third in the stages and seventh overall, leaving the No. 20 Toyota team seven points behind the No. 5 Chevrolet.
Larson turned a stressful situation into a joyride.
“I think it was a little less stressful because I recognized that we were better than Christopher in car performance, and we were in front of him all night,” Larson said, as reported by Racer.com. “I knew when we got a good first stage that it was not going to be easy, but the math was going to be much easier. I just had to keep him within my sights at that point.
“Our team did a great job. We didn’t have any hiccups, really. I definitely could have had some better restarts, but like I said, when I outscored Christopher, I was just playing it a little bit easy and wanting to just tuck in line and go from there. We had a good long run car.”
Will the 2021 Cup titleholder duplicate the effort against Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Byron on Sunday?
Four left in the fight.
This is the #Championship4 in the NASCAR Cup Series! pic.twitter.com/0UT1XbuNrZ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 26, 2025
NASCAR National Series’ Championship Races, ARCA Menards Series West Weekend Schedule
Here is a list of NASCAR National Series’ championship races and ARCA Menards Series West events this weekend at Phoenix Raceway (All Times ET):
Thursday
- 7:35 p.m.: Truck Series practice
Friday
- 2 p.m.: ARCA Series West practice
- 3 p.m.: ARCA Series West qualifying
- 3:35 p.m.: Truck Series qualifying
- 4:35 p.m.: Xfinity Series practice
- 5:35 p.m.: Cup Series practice
- 7:30 p.m.: Truck Series Championship Race
Saturday
- 1:30 p.m.: ARCA Series West Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 100 race
- 3:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series qualifying
- 5 p.m.: Cup Series qualifying
- 7:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Championship Race
Sunday
- 3 p.m.: Cup Series Championship Race
Let's see those #Championship4 posts!#KL5 #A11In #HookedOn19 #WillyB#KL5 #A11In #HookedOn19 #WillyB#KL5 #A11In #HookedOn19 #WillyB#KL5 #A11In #HookedOn19 #WillyB pic.twitter.com/cEJfshA0Fd
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 27, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race Entry List
NASCAR Cup Series officials released the entry list for Sunday’s Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway:
Entry, Driver, Car No.
- 1, Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
- 2, Austin Cindric No. 2 Ford
- 3, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
- 4, Noah Gragson, No. 4 Ford
- 5, Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
- 6, Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
- 7, Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
- 8, Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
- 9, Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
- 10, Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
- 11, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
- 12, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
- 13, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
- 14, Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
- 15, Chase Briscoe, No. 19, Toyota
- 16, Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
- 17, Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
- 18, Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
- 19, Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
- 20, William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
- 21, Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
- 22, Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
- 23, Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
- 24, Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
- 25, John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
- 26, Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
- 27, JJ Yeley, No. 44 Chevrolet
- 28, Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
- 29, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Ford
- 30, Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet
- 31, Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
- 32, Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
- 33, Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
- 34, Casey Mears, No. 66 Ford
- 35, Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
- 36, Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
- 37, Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
- 38, Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
Good luck to our friends over at the @Suns this season!#SunsUp pic.twitter.com/lvZlFVtlyr
— Phoenix Raceway (@phoenixraceway) October 22, 2025
