NASCAR to delay official Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series champions confirmation after Phoenix finale

NASCAR officials have released the post-race inspection timeline for Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series finales this weekend. At Phoenix Raceway, the winning cars will undergo an additional engine teardown to complete the process.

A post-race inspection usually includes body measurements and weights. The whole process can take up to 90 minutes, but an engine teardown can extend it by three or four hours.

On the latest podcast episode of Hauler Talk, NASCAR's senior director of racing communications, Amanda Ellis, went over the new addition.

“To add several hours to what is already a pretty long day would be really putting both teams and officials on a time constraint of how long they had been working, and you want people to be fresh in that role," Ellis said, "Because the Cup event essentially kind of ends the weekend, obviously, you want to be able to know who your champion is on Sunday evening for a lot of reasons." “That’s truly the last step, when you think about crowning a champion officially, is the completion of the engine teardown,” she added via Jayski.com

The Truck Series finale takes place at 7:30 PM ET on Friday, October 31. The Xfinity Series finale kicks off the following day at 5:30 PM ET, while the Cup Series championship race is scheduled for 3 PM ET on Sunday.

As a first, Sunday's race will go on without Team Penske in the championship four. The three-car outfit has always nailed the setup for Phoenix, bringing in three consecutive titles so far. This time around, Joe Gibbs Racing's Toyotas and Hendrick Motorsports' Chevrolets will go against each other.

Notably, Truck Series finalist Ty Majeski is the only Ford driver across the three championship finales.

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NASCAR insider extends sympathy for driver pay after charter deal goes public

NASCAR insider and spotter, Brett Griffin, sounded off on the driver pay deals revealed from the ongoing antitrust lawsuit. Fox analyst Bob Pockrass released the expected payout from 2025 to 2031, and the teams are set to receive an average of $141,000 per race. The figure, however, doesn't include the year-end point fund, sponsorship, OEM deals and other licensing contracts.

Nonetheless, the pay parity compared to NASCAR's earnings has attracted widespread criticism.

"I feel bad for all the drivers that have signed crappy (money) deals. Some get zero money from the purse if they don’t finish top-25. And, what they do get is a joke on some of those deals when they actually go out and have a solid day," Griffin said via X.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin has responded to the post with a blunt remark on the current status quo. Notably, the funds are appropriated from the $7.7 billion media rights deal starting from 2025, where 45% goes to tracks, 25% to teams, and 10% to NASCAR itself.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna