NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Ross Chastain is the defending winner of the event, when he became the first non-eligible championship driver to win the final race of the season since Denny Hamlin won the 2013 Ford EcoBoost 400.

It is one of five NASCAR races run with a length measured in kilometers; the Shriners Children's 500 (the other Cup Series race at Phoenix which is held in the spring) and three of the Cup Series' road course events (the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Go Bowling at The Glen and Bank of America Roval 400) are the others.

History


After previously being the second-to-last race of the NASCAR Cup Series season for several years, the event became the last race of the season for the Cup Series starting in 2020, replacing the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the fall race at Martinsville replaced this race as the second-to-last race of the season. In 2020, the race did not have a title sponsor and was named the Season Finale 500. NASCAR has not used the name from 2021 onwards and is instead called the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. However, the Season Finale 500 logo still appears on the race winner's trophy (not to be confused with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship trophy).

In its three of the last four years as the last race of the Cup Series season, the driver who won the championship also won the race: Chase Elliott in 2020, Kyle Larson in 2021 and Joey Logano in 2022. Ross Chastain is the defending winner of the event.