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Lucky Dog's NASCAR Awards for 2025

November 16, 2025 | Edition #467

👋 Hey, Motorhead!
There’s more to NASCAR racing than just drivers winning races and championships. It takes an all-round effort to ensure a 10-month racing carnival is run smoothly without any major stoppages. Just a week ago, NASCAR wrapped up its award ceremony, and once again, the star drivers were in the limelight.
However, we have a unique spin on our edition of NASCAR awards. For the past few days, your votes have helped us identify the big winners of the 2025 NASCAR season. In just a few days, we received a ton of votes and comments. So without further ado, let's take a look at our winners.


There has been a lot of debate about who the best driver was this season. The playoffs and the one-race championship crowned Kyle Larson the winner, but not everyone believes he was the best driver for the entirety of the 2025 season. We asked our readers to have their say in this debate, and you delivered.
Hamlin came out on top with the lion's share of the votes in his favor. Meanwhile, Larson had to settle for the runner-up spot. Six race wins throughout the year, and had it not been for that late caution in Phoenix, the veteran JGR driver would’ve had his first championship triumph. But, for some reason, the Bill France Cup still eludes him.
Hamlin reached a career milestone of his 60th Cup win at Vegas, and it was an emotional moment for him. However, the win at Michigan was probably his best display of racing talent and sheer grit. Here, revisit that thrilling race where Hamlin defeated William Byron for the win.

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NASCAR is a team sport, and one of the most important components that runs the unit is the crew chief and driver pairing. We have seen the likes of Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson's partnership dominate on racetracks in the past. A similar pair of Paul Wolfe and Joey Logano has been doing the same in the Next Gen era. But the script flipped in 2025.
We saw Connor Zilisch and Mardy Lindley dominate the Xfinity Series with 10 race wins. The same can be said for Corey Heim and Scott Zipadelli, who bagged 12 wins along with the championship in the Truck Series. Then we had Chris Gayle and Hamlin, who started strongly in their first season together and made it all the way to Phoenix. Yet, the winner isn’t from the options above.
The pairing of Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels came out on top, and this was a tight battle. Only a fraction of votes separated the winning pair from Zilisch and Lindley. One can argue that Larson’s team didn’t dominate as much as others, but when they were put under pressure, the pair delivered the goods. The two-tire call by Daniels and the execution by Larson in Phoenix helped them clinch their second Bill France Trophy together.
Daniels did give the No. 11 team credit for bringing out the best car at Phoenix. But at the same time, he bragged about how his team was switched on to capitalize on the late-race caution.
Continue Reading: Larson Narrowly Avoids Crash During Placerville Return

Apart From Hamlin and Larson, Which Driver Had an Impressive NASCAR Season? |


NASCAR’s soul is the venues and the racetracks where teams compete every weekend. Without them, the sport wouldn’t have scaled and prospered to the level it is today. Yet, it is hard to identify one single track that is the best out of all. It’s worth noting that in the Next Gen era, we have high-banked super speedways, short ovals, 1.5-mile intermediates, 1-mile ovals, and road courses.
So it is a tough choice for fans to pick one track that they think produces the best racing. But we had to decide on one winner, and truth be told, our readers delivered a surprise winner. Atlanta Motor Speedway (Echopark Speedway) emerged as the best racetrack from the 2025 season. Who can forget this 3-wide photo finish from last year’s fall race? But this time around, the summer race delivered again.
For the first time, the Atlanta race was scheduled for Saturday night, and hometown hero Chase Elliott’s win made it more special. Atlanta is a hybrid track, with high banks like drafting tracks, but with the character of a traditional oval. And this combination has time and again delivered memorable moments, just like Elliott’s win from this season. Here is the recap of what could be touted as the best race of 2025.


This was a monumental year for NASCAR broadcasting. After striking a massive $7.7 billion deal, NASCAR brought in streaming giant Amazon Prime into broadcasting alongside traditional partners like NBC and FOX. However, with the changing dynamics within the ownership of NBC, many NASCAR races were shifted to the USA Network.
Ratings haven’t been particularly great in 2025 and have dropped 14% compared to last year. Yet, NASCAR stated that they had anticipated this dip owing to the change in the dynamics of the media partners. Listen for yourself as NASCAR Commissioner, Steve Phelps, explains the reasoning behind the decline in ratings.
While Prime Video’s coverage added a fresh energy, longtime fans still lean on network television and traditional cable.
FOX turned out to be the preferred choice for fans as they emerged victorious with a majority of the vote share. This is indeed huge, as the Coca-Cola 600 race was shifted to Prime Video, and FOX had two big events in the Daytona 500 and the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The first year under the new media rights deal was shaky, but FOX’s appeal among NASCAR’s loyalists remains strong.
Continue Reading: NASCAR Broadcaster Earns Emmy Recognition


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