Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson came out of nowhere to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, a championship many believe rightfully should have gone to Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin.
However, some fans have taken solace in the fact that Larson actually would have won the 2025 championship had NASCAR simply added up points throughout all 36 races, rather than utilized playoffs and playoff round points resets like they actually did (and have done for years).
It's not exactly a surprise that Larson ended up on top of the overall point standings as well. However, it is a bit surprising that, even though the top point scorer of the year ended up being crowned champion, the reaction has been as negative as it has been, given the level of importance the anti-playoff crowd have long placed on full-season points.
The irony of it all is that Larson won the 2025 championship because of William Byron's late flat tire.
And that's also literally why he ended up on top of the full-season point standings as well, which goes to show that, regardless of the format used, being at the right place at the right time still has its benefits, and sometimes those benefits outweigh the concept of "being at your best when the lights shine brightest".
Here's a look at how the point standings would have looked without the playoffs.
2025 NASCAR Cup Series standings without playoffs
1 - Kyle Larson - 1195 (0)
2 - William Byron - 1181 (-14)
3 - Christopher Bell - 1166 (-29)
4 - Ryan Blaney - 1155 (-40)
5 - Denny Hamlin - 1105 (-90)
6 - Chase Elliott - 1098 (-97)
7 - Chase Briscoe - 1088 (-107)
8 - Tyler Reddick - 1039 (-156)
9 - Joey Logano - 969 (-226)
10 - Ross Chastain - 900 (-295)
11 - Bubba Wallace - 892 (-303)
12 - Chris Buescher - 889 (-306)
13 - Alex Bowman - 878 (-317)
14 - Ryan Preece - 861 (-334)
15 - Ty Gibbs - 783 (-412)
16 - Brad Keselowski - 762 (-433)
17 - Kyle Busch - 737 (-458)
18 - Michael McDowell - 734 (-461)
19 - Carson Hocevar - 702 (-493)
20 - Austin Cindric - 697 (-498)
21 - Shane van Gisbergen - 674 (-521)
22 - Erik Jones - 665 (-530)
23 - John Hunter Nemechek - 664 (-531)
24 - A.J. Allmendinger - 649 (-546)
25 - Josh Berry - 648 (-547)
26 - Austin Dillon - 620 (-575)
27 - Todd Gilliland - 616 (-579)
28 - Zane Smith - 615 (-580)
29 - Daniel Suarez - 611 (-584)
30 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - 562 (-633)
31 - Justin Haley - 559 (-636)
32 - Cole Custer - 486 (-709)
33 - Ty Dillon - 477 (-718)
34 - Noah Gragson - 440 (-755)
35 - Riley Herbst - 399 (-796)
36 - Cody Ware - 233 (-962)
No driver had won the championship and led the series in full-season points in the same year since Larson won the 2021 championship. His 2025 title is only the ninth in 22 years of the playoffs which would have been won by the same driver had points simply been added up over all 36 races.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, for which the playoff format (if there is one) hasn't yet been confirmed, is scheduled to begin on Sunday, February 15 with the 68th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Live coverage is set to be provided by Fox.