Kyle Larson Can Clinch the Cup Title at Martinsville With a 77-Point Lead

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Kyle Larson can clinch the Cup title at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday if he leaves with a lead of at least 77 points over every other driver, a week before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

A driver can score at most 76 points in a race, so a 77-point lead with one race left cannot be overcome. RACER put the magic number at 77.

What Larson needs

Larson leaves Talladega with 2,441 points after winning there Sunday. The drivers still within reach of him are:

• Denny Hamlin, 73 back
• Christopher Bell, 74 back
• Chase Briscoe, 79 back
• Joey Logano, 100 back
• Ryan Blaney, 107 back
• Tyler Reddick, 126 back

To clinch, Larson has to outscore Hamlin by at least four points and Bell by at least three at Martinsville. Briscoe is already more than 77 back, so he has to outscore Larson by at least three points to take the title fight to Homestead. Logano, Blaney and Reddick need much bigger swings, and a win would help each of them.

Larson: ‘I’m not getting ahead of myself’

Larson said Sunday night that the title is not decided.

“I’m not getting ahead of myself at all,” he said. “I’m not going to let you guys get me ahead of myself either. There are still two races.”

He pointed to how quickly things can change at a short track, warning that “there could be a stack up in Turn 3 on the first lap.”

Martinsville history

Larson has one Cup win at Martinsville, in the spring of 2023, but he has finished in the top 10 in each of the last five races there.

Hamlin is the driver Larson most needs to watch. He has six Cup wins at Martinsville, most recently in March 2025, and he won the pole and led 292 laps there in March before finishing second. Bell won the fall Martinsville race in 2022, and Blaney won it in 2023 and 2024.

How to watch

The Xfinity 500 is Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC from Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. If the title is still open, it will be decided November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. Larson is chasing his third Cup championship.