The 2025 NASCAR Cup season was a standout year for many drivers and a forgettable campaign for many others.

The guy with the most wins, Denny Hamlin (six wins), appeared headed for his first-ever Cup championship, only to fall two places short on the last lap of the season finale at Phoenix. And then the defending Cup champ Joey Logano – who earned two of the three previous crowns and three of the last eight titles – had a disappointing season that was very un-Logano-like.

Let’s take a look at five of this past season’s biggest surprises, followed by the five biggest disappointments:

5 BIGGEST SURPRISES

1. Kyle Larson Comes From Virtually Nowhere to Win the Championship: Even though Kyle Larson qualified for the Championship Four final round in the season finale at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin, for many fans and observers, appeared to be the odds-on favorite to win the championship after an outstanding season, including a milestone 60 win of his Cup career.

   But Larson got a great jump on Hamlin in the final restart of the race (in overtime) and held on in the final lap to claim his second career Cup championship. But Larson did have one major disappointment, though: he crashed and failed to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year. It potentially may be the last time Larson tries “The Double” for a long time, if ever again.

1. Bubba Wallace Wins The Brickyard 400: There’s an adage in NASCAR that any driver can win any race on any given day. But, realistically, how many fans, media, or opposing drivers could have anticipated that Bubba Wallace’s third career NASCAR Cup victory would come in one of the sport’s crown jewel events – and on the most iconic racetrack in the world, Indianapolis Motor Speedway?Not only was it the biggest win of Wallace’s eight full-time Cup seasons, but it also qualified him for the playoffs, where he’d finish 11. It was also the only win of the season for any of 23XI Racing’s three drivers: Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Riley Herbst. Wallace proved that if he can win at Indy, he can win anywhere. Could the Daytona 500 be next for him, perhaps as early as the 2026 season opener?
2. Shane Van Gisbergen Dominates On Road Courses: In one of the best feel-good stories of the season, New Zealand native Shane Van Gisbergen won five of the six road course races on the Cup schedule: Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and the Charlotte Roval. In fact, he didn’t just win those races; he dominated most of them.The only road course race he fell short at was Austin (finished sixth). SVG also made the playoffs. While he didn’t advance past the first round, he still finished a very respectable 12 in the final standings. He also earned his first top 10 finish on an oval (fall playoff race at Kansas).
3. New Address Brings Chase Briscoe a Career Season: If there were an award for being in the right place at the right time, Chase Briscoe would have won it hands down. Briscoe found himself without a ride for 2025 when Stewart-Haas Racing shut down operations after the 2024 season.But conveniently, Martin Truex Jr. decided to retire from Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of ’24 as well. That created an opening Briscoe filled with great aplomb, with single-season career highs for wins (three), top five (15) and top 10 (19) finishes, laps led (884), and reached the Championship Four for the first time in his career, ending 2025 with his best season finish ever (third place). To say Briscoe delivered a great return on investment to JGR is an understatement. We can’t wait to see what he does for an encore next season.
4. Ryan Blaney Turned First Half Misfortune Into Second Half Success: Ryan Blaney had a terrible first half of the season, recording five DNFs in the first 13 races. But from that point on, Blaney would turn lemons into sweet lemonade. He’d go on to earn all four of his season wins – including the season-ending race in Phoenix – even while accumulating three additional DNFs, made the playoffs, and ultimately finished sixth in the final standings.It’s rare that a driver can fail to finish nearly one-quarter of the 36 races on the Cup schedule and yet still end up so strongly. The key for Blaney was a simple one-word answer: consistency. In addition to his four wins, he also had 15 top-five and 19 top-ten showings.

And now, for the other half of the story …

5 BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS

1. Denny Hamlin’s Failure to Win Championship: There was no bigger story of outstanding performance turned bitter misfortune this season than Denny Hamlin, who led all drivers with six wins, yet ultimately failed to win the Cup championship. Yet it was by no fault of his. Hamlin was cruising along and in command, three laps away from winning his first Cup championship. William Byron’s tire blew, and he wrecked, bringing out the caution.And then on the restart, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, got the jump on Hamlin, and the rest is history: Larson won his second career Cup crown, while Hamlin is still seeking his first. What makes things even more heartbreaking is given that Hamlin turned 45 on November 18, what if this past season was his best – and last – chance at that elusive title?

   

2. Who is This Imposter – And What Have They Done With the Real Kyle Busch? It’s rare to see one of the most successful and prolific drivers and winners in the NASCAR Cup Series go from hero to zero so quickly. But alas, that’s what’s happened to Kyle Busch, yes, the same KB who is the winningest active driver in Cup (63 wins), plus two championships. It’s not like the 40-year-old Busch has forgotten how to win, but the stats would make it appear that way: he has not won a Cup race since 2023, a winless streak that has reached a career-worst 93 races.This year, he missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season, and recorded a career-worst of just three top five and ten top 10 finishes, ultimately finishing with another career-worst single season finish of 21 There’s really only been one other driver in recent memory that has suffered such a dramatic high-to-low decline: Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson, who after winning seven championship and 83 races, failed to win even once in his final 130 full-time starts (plus another 14 starts in part-time appearances the last three seasons).
3. If You Find Kyle Busch, Can You Also Find Brad Keselowski? Kyle Busch isn’t the only driver who has gone from being one of the most successful drivers to near-anonymity in recent years. Brad Keselowski finds himself in the same conversation. After winning the first 35 races of his Cup career, the 2012 Cup champion has won just once since becoming a co-owner and driver for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing (RFK Racing) in 2022. He’s also missed the playoffs in two of those last four seasons, including this year, when he finished a disappointing 20, the third-worst season finish of his career.The 41-year-old Keselowski has been the target of critics who believe he’s spreading himself far too thin, basically handling most of the organization’s day-to-day responsibilities behind a desk, and then trying to remain competitive on race weekends behind the wheel. It would not be surprising if 2026 is Keselowski’s final full-time season in the Cup Series, as 83-year-old team founder Jack Roush likely continues to scale back from many of his former duties.
4. He Had All the Ingredients, but Joey Logano Just Couldn’t Cook in 2025: All good things must come to an end, and for three-time NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano, the end came in 2025. The Team Penske stalwart won the 2022 and 2024 Cup championships (along with his first title in 2018). But Team Penske’s domination of the last three Cup championships (teammate Ryan Blaney won in 2023) ended in 2025 with neither Logano nor Blaney making it to the Championship Four final round. It’s hard to believe that the 35-year-old Connecticut native just wrapped up his 17 full-time season in the Cup ranks.As disappointed as he was for not being a factor for the championship again (he won just one race and had only seven top-five showings), Logano may have history on his side heading into 2026: three times when he’s had a fair to mediocre season, he’s bounced back the following season to win the championship.

   Logano was 17 in 2017, only to win his first Cup crown in 2018. In 2021, he finished eighth, only to win his second title in 2022. And after finishing 12 in 2023, he won his third Cup championship in 2024. Will history repeat itself to allow Logano to bounce back for a fourth championship next season?

5. It’s Adios to Trackhouse Racing and Hola to Spire Motorsports for Daniel Suarez: It has been a rough few years for NASCAR’s first Mexican driver, Monterrey native Daniel Suarez, who just endured one of his worst seasons in his nine seasons in the Cup ranks. In 2025, he failed to win a race, managed just two top-five and seven top 10 finishes, failed to reach the Cup playoffs, and finished his final season with Trackhouse Racing with a disappointing 29th-place finish in the final season standings.The two-time Cup winner now heads with a great deal of optimism to Spire Motorsports for a fresh start, but there’s a significant concern about Suarez and his new team: This will be his fifth team in his 10-year Cup career. It’s also just a one-year contract with Spire, essentially a “prove it” deal to see what Suarez can do with the team.  The pressure will be on him. How Suarez handles that pressure could well determine his future – if there is one to be going forward – in NASCAR.