Final NASCAR Power Rankings After Kyle Larson’s Championship Win At Phoenix

Kyle Larson’s 2025 season didn’t exactly go according to plan.

His second attempt at the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double was a disaster. He was involved in a scary, flipping sprint car crash. And he didn’t win a NASCAR Cup Series race the final six months of the season.

But when it was all said and done, Larson is sitting here on November 3, 2025 as your reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion after a dramatic ending to Sunday’s race at Phoenix.

He also earned the No. 1 spot in our final NASCAR Power Rankings in the process, an honor he surely won’t soon forget.

Final 2025 NASCAR Power Rankings

While the most recent editions of our rankings have decreased in size as the NASCAR playoff field went from 16, to 12, to 8, and then the final four, we’re once again expanding back out to 10 for our final rankings of the season.

This allows for some familiar faces to re-enter the fray, and means that the rankings may not be exactly in line with the final point standings.

10) Shane Van Gisbergen

It’s hard to imagine a rookie season that could’ve possibly gone any better for Trackhourse Racing star Shane Van Gisbergen.

He won five races, the second-most of any driver in the series. He made it abundantly clear that he’s miles better than the competition on road courses, and by the end of the season, Van Gisbergen was beginning to improve his performances on ovals, with top-15 finishes at Kansas, Talladega and Martinsville.

Ultimately, Van Gisbergen finished 12th in points, but he put together one of the best rookie seasons in NASCAR History.

9) Bubba Wallace

The best season of Bubba Wallace’s career also came with the biggest victory, a masterclass at the Brickyard 400 to hold off Larson not once, not twice, but three times to bring home the checkered flag.

Wallace’s season eventually ended in the round of 12 of the playoffs, but he was a whisker away from reaching the Championship Four, just missing out on victories at Kansas and Talladega.

The final points may tell a different story, but Wallace outdueled superstar teammate Tyler Reddick for much of the season and earned his spot in our final power rankings.

8) Joey Logano

Perhaps we should’ve known, given that it is 2025, that Logano’s even-year magic would not be enough to carry him through to a championship. But we’ll be damned if he didn’t do his best to scare the crap out of the rest of the playoff field.

An early-season win at Texas put Logano into the playoffs, and then he quietly went about his business to reach the round of eight. Once there, however, Logano and Team Penske in general showed that their lack of overall speed was too much to overcome.

Still, it’s clear that Logano is a serious threat year in and year out, and even with a proposed new points format, I wouldn’t expect that to change.

7) Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott’s season came with plenty of highs.

He won the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray to start the season off, but then lagged behind teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson for much of the rest of the season.

A win at his home track in Atlanta put Elliott into the playoffs, and then a second win at Kansas moved him into the round of eight. But once there, both he and his team ran into familiar struggles that saw their season fizzle out with a solid yet unspectacular eighth-place points finish.

6) Christopher Bell

Bell got off to a red hot start to the season, winning three of the first four races and establishing himself, yet again, as a true title contender.

But he then went several months before winning again at Bristol in the first round of the playoffs.

Ultimately, he finished fifth in points, which is no small feat. But the expectations for Bell and his team at this point are to win a championship, and they’ve yet to do so.

While a chance to reach Phoenix and the Championship Four, Bell and his team came up short in the penultimate race at Martinsville, ultimately handing Larson the final spot, and, in turn, a championship.

5) Chase Briscoe

Talk about an incredible debut season with a new team.

When Briscoe joined Joe Gibbs Racing to replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr., nobody knew what to expect. And the start to his first season with the team was up and down.

But then Briscoe picked up his first win over the year at Phoenix and never looked back. He’d gone on to win twice more, make the championship four, and finish third in points.

In the process, Briscoe established himself as one of the sport’s top drivers and true title threat likely for years to come.

4) Ryan Blaney

Unfortunately for Blaney, he may have peaked just a little bit too early and luck was not on the side of he or his team when he needed it most.

He entered the playoffs red hot, with a win at Daytona to claim second in the regular-season standings. Blaney then advanced to the round of eight with a dominant win at New Hampshire.

But a cut tire at Las Vegas put him behind the eight ball and he was never able to recover, narrowly missing the Championship Four after a runner-up finish at Martinsville.

Still, he rebounded to pick up the victory at Phoenix and show the rest of the field, and Larson especially, that they should be thanking their lucky stars that he was running for a championship.

3) William Byron

Like Bell, Byron dominated early in the season and rode that consistently all the way to a regular-season title. The bonus points earned from that helped carry him through to the round of eight despite several subpar performances.

He then came up clutch, winning at Martinsville in a must-win scenario to make the Championship 4.

For much of Sunday’s race at Phoenix, it appaeared Byron could be in line to win his first career Cup Series championship. But a late tire failure saw his dreams dashed, and he ultimately finished fourth in the points with “just” three wins to his name on the season.

It was all there for him.

Denny Hamlin, at the age of 44, and with personal tragedy surrounding him, was finally going to claim his elusive NASCAR Cup Series championship to put the finishing touches on a Hall of Fame career.

And then Byron blew a tire, bringing out the caution with four laps to go.

Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle decided to pit for four tires, rather than the two that Larson and much of the field put on, and was never able to make up the difference.

He ends the year with a series-high six wins, and a second-place finish in the championship. But more than anything, he ends it with more heartbreak.

1) Kyle Larson

Gritty not pretty, right?

Larson had a good year. He three times. His 15 top-five finishes were tied for the most in the series, and he was remarkably consistent throughout the postseason.

But when it came down to it on Sunday, he had the third-best car, generously speaking, behind Hamlin and Byron. But as has always been, and will always be the case in auto racing, sometimes you need a bit of luck.

Byron’s late misfortune put Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels in a spot to make a bold two-tire call, and the driver made it work. He finished third behind Blaney and Brad Keselowski in the race, but three spots ahead of Hamlin, claiming his second career NASCAR Cup Series championship, and probably not his last.