by The Nascar Cup Series season 2025 is official here.
The Daytona 500 starts a piece of races of 36 cups of series in 38 weeks. Throw the All-Star Race in May and there is only one short weekend throughout the season. That will be Easter weekend on April 20. From there, Nascar’s top series racet 28 times in 28 weeks.
This is what you need to know for the season, together with our choice of championship and playoff opportunities. If you also have to overtake all driver’s movements for the season, we have covered you.
Joey Logano in an odd numbered year
Logano became a triple Cup series Champion in November when he won his fourth race of the season to conquer the winner-take-all final in 2024. Logano won titles in 2018, 2022 and 2024, so we can preventive him from the title race this year, right?
It would be foolish to actually do that, but it is worth mentioning that Logano never qualified for the winner-take-all race outside a year. Since 2014, Logano’s points have ended in even-numbered years in the fourth, second, first, third, first and first. Logano has become sixth, 17, fifth, eighth and 12th in odd years.
Go ahead and pencil Logano for the title race 2026.
Can someone join him as a repeated champion?
Logano occupies rare territory. He is the only active driver with more than two cup series titles, while Kyle Busch is the only other active driver with several championships.
With the pension of Martin Truex Jr. From full-time racing there are only four other active drivers with cup serial titles; Brad Keselowski (2012), Chase Elliott (2020), Kyle Larson (2021) and Ryan Blaney (2023).
All four have decent recordings to get a second Cup series title. They were in the play -offs a season ago and three of the four ended in the top seven in the points classification. Blaney finished second in Logano in Phoenix in November, while Larson led a series-high 1700 laps in 2024.
Who is the best bet to become a champion for the first time?
There are three obvious choices under Christopher Bell, William Byron and Tyler Reddick. Byron and Reddick each made the final a season ago, while Bell was in position to make his third consecutive title race for Nascar’s statement in the midst of the carnival that the Martinsville Fall Race was.
Denny Hamlin is also constantly included in this category. The triple Daytona 500 champion has passed Mark Martin as the most successful driver who never wins a Cup series title. But he has not qualified for the title race since the 2021 season. Hamlin, 44, enters the 2025 season with a new crew commission in Chris Gayle and, for the first time since he has been to Joe Gibbs Racing, some sponsorship vacancies on his car. With the departure of the FedEx sponsor from Nascar for a long time, advertising on Hamlin’s car seems to be together. Will that have any effect on performance?
Nascar’s new TV deal
Fox and NBC are no longer the only two companies with Cup Series broadcasts. Amazon will broadcast cup races for the first time in 2025, while TNT is in the temporary employment again.
Here is how it will work. Fox has the first 12 point events of the year before Amazon broadcasts five. TNT then has five races before NBC picks up the last 14 races of the year. Outside the run -up to the Daytona 500, Prime will practice and qualify for the next 16 races before TNT broadcasts the rest of the season. The CW will have the entire XFINITY SERIES Season and Fox’s Networks will again broadcast the truck series.
If you are someone who does not subscribe to many television channels and/or Amazon Prime, you will not be able to see many Nascar races through your antenna. Only eight of 36 points are races on the most important channels of Fox or NBC and there is no race over the air in May, June or July.
Plan changes
The only new race on the schedule is a trip to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. The June race will be the first time that the Cup series has raced on the circuit, although the Xfinity series has previously participated in the track that organizes an annual F1 race.
Watkins Glen is back to the date of Augustus and Homestead has also been moved from the Play -offs. In their places there are races in New Hampshire and Gateway, while Talladega is now a play-off race on the third round. Homestead was the perfect play -off track – and should still be the host of the title race – but it is now organizing the sixth race of the season on March 23.
Who makes the play -offs?
Logano, Bell, Blaney, Byron, Elliott, Hamlin, Larson and Reddick can easily be added in the play -offs. Chase Brisco should also be there in his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing. Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher must also be strong Playoff chances.
That leaves five places in the field with 16 drivers. We think that Josh Berry can come in for the Wood Brothers. He is their best driver since Blaney was with the team. Also throw Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman. That is 15.
We will give Busch the last place, although it is more on his talent than on Richard Childrendress Racing. The team was terrible in 2024 and lost the play -off benefits of Austin Dillon’s victory at Richmond because of the way he bowed by drivers for the victory.
The champion
We take a last four from Bell, Blaney, Elliott and Larson. Larson is the favorite of the preseason to win the tile and we fully understand why. But we are going with Bell to win his first Cup Series title and the first championship for a Toyota driver since 2019.
