Kyle Larson Nascar Cup 2026 Championship

Most drivers find out they’re champion in a haze of burnouts and confetti. Kyle Larson found out with more than 180 laps still to run at Homestead-Miami Speedway. When his team told him the title was locked, he replied with the calm of a man confirming a pizza order: “OK. That’s cool. Good job, guys.” He later called it “anticlimactic,” but the record books don’t care about vibes. Larson is the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series champion. It’s his third title (after 2021 and 2025), and he’s the first back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson in 2010. That makes him only the 11th driver with three or more Cup titles, and it gives Hendrick Motorsports its 16th championship. Ryan Blaney won the race itself, while Larson finished 12th, but he only needed nine points.

The road there was anything but anticlimactic. Larson went winless through the entire regular season, extending a drought of 51 straight Cup races, which for a driver of his talent is like a PSA 10 candidate coming back a 6 because of a fingerprint. He started the 10-race Chase seventh, 55 points behind Denny Hamlin, and then flipped a switch. He won at Gateway, demolished Kansas by leading 235 laps, and survived a tire failure at Phoenix that shrank his lead from 49 points to 5. Then he bounced back with his first career superspeedway win at Talladega. By Homestead he was 67 points clear of Christopher Bell, and the rest was a formality.

For collectors, Larson is more than a stock car star. He’s won the Rolex 24, three Chili Bowls and four Knoxville Nationals, and he’s raced the Indy 500 twice, so his fans come from every corner of motorsport. The cards to watch start with his early Press Pass issues, the closest thing racing has to classic rookie cards. Next come Panini Prizm Racing parallels from his title years, especially low-numbered Golds, Blacks and 1/1s in high grades. Then there are National Treasures autographs and relics, plus 2026 Select and Donruss numbered parallels from the championship season.