NASCAR Cup Series Champions

Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson are tied with 7 Cup Series championships each — the 7-time club. Petty won his titles from 1964-1979, Earnhardt from 1980-1994, and Johnson dominated with five consecutive championships from 2006-2010 plus titles in 2013 and 2016. No other driver has won more than 4.

The current NASCAR Cup Series champion is Kyle Larson, who won the 2025 title driving the #5 Chevrolet with 6 wins on the season.

There have been 36 unique drivers to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship across 77 seasons from 1949 through 2025. The rest of the titles are repeats by the sport's biggest names — Petty, Earnhardt, and Johnson each claimed 7 crowns.

Bill Rexford won the 1950 championship at age 23, making him the youngest champion in NASCAR Cup Series history. In the modern era, Jeff Gordon won his first title in 1995 at age 24, and Joey Logano won his first in 2018 at age 28.

NASCAR crowned its first Cup Series (then called Strictly Stock Division) champion in 1949. Red Byron won the inaugural title with 2 wins in the 8-race season, becoming NASCAR's first-ever champion. The series has crowned a champion every year since.

In 2026, NASCAR returned to The Chase format. The top 16 drivers in regular-season points after 26 races qualify. Points are reset based on seeding (Seed 1 = 2,100 pts). All 16 drivers race all 10 Chase races with no eliminations — the driver with the highest cumulative points wins the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.