2025 NASCAR championship race will be a true heavyweight battle

In a year where the NASCAR Cup Series saw arguably the strongest Round of 8 field in NASCAR playoffs history, the 2025 Championship 4 followed suit. 

2025 will likely be the final year in the foreseeable future that NASCAR uses a one-race, winner-take-all finale to determine its champion, and what could be the final Championship 4 in history is made up of two legendary organizations and four great drivers. 

Leading the charge is 44-year-old Denny Hamlin, a grizzled veteran who has ridden a six-win season to his first Championship 4 appearance since 2021. Hamlin's career has bore much fruit, but he's without a championship with his 21st full-time season nearing. A title in Year 20 would put to bed any notion that his name can't be spoken in the same room as the legends he'll one day share the NASCAR Hall of Fame with. 

Joining Hamlin from the Joe Gibbs Racing stable is Chase Briscoe, who has had his breakout season in his fifth year of Cup Series competition. Briscoe has three wins and leads the Cup Series with 15 top-five finishes this season.

Hendrick Motorsports — the winningest team in NASCAR history — makes up the other half of the Championship 4 field with drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson. 

Larson, the 2021 champion, has three wins this season but hasn't won since May. He did, however, endure a relatively long "slump" before turning on the jets in postseason to get back to the Championship 4. 

2025 NASCAR championship race should be a thriller

Byron snagged a third-consecutive Championship 4 berth with a clutch performance at Martinsville on Sunday, leading 304 of 500 laps. The two-time Daytona 500 winner also has three wins this season and is looking for his first title. 

Between them, the 2025 Cup Series Championship 4 have 15 wins out of 35 Cup Series races. The stage is set for a thrilling finale in what is possibly the final "championship race" in NASCAR history.