NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

The NASCAR Cup Series Championship race moves to Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2026, ending a seven-year run at Phoenix and restoring the 1.5-mile South Florida oval to its former role as the sport's finale. Homestead's variable-banking progressive-design turns — 18 to 20 degrees — create a multi-groove racing surface where cars can run the top, bottom, or anywhere in between, making it one of the most strategically rich tracks on the schedule. From 2002 through 2019, Homestead was the championship venue, and that era produced some of the most memorable title moments in NASCAR history: Kurt Busch's 2004 clinching run, Tony Stewart's 2011 walk-off over Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson's three consecutive Homestead championships, and Kyle Busch's dramatic 2019 winner-take-all victory. Under the 2026 Chase format, the finale crowns the driver with the most cumulative points across the 10 Chase races rather than the winner of a single elimination race — but winning at Homestead still matters. A race win pays 55 points, potentially swinging the championship in one afternoon. The 267-lap finale concludes the season in the place where so many careers were defined, and the return to Homestead is one of the most anticipated scheduling changes of the 2026 calendar.