HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For 18 straight years, NASCAR’s season ended under the South Florida sun. From 2002 through 2019, every Cup Series champion was crowned at Homestead-Miami Speedway, on a 1.5-mile oval where the fastest line runs inches from the wall and the palm trees sway over the backstretch. Then the finale moved away. This year, it comes home.

NASCAR Championship Weekend runs Nov. 6–8, 2026, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and for the first time since 2019 all three national series will settle their championships on the same South Florida weekend. The sport made it official back in May 2025, announcing that Homestead would host the finale as part of a new rotating model — championship weekend will move among tracks year to year, with Homestead first up and Phoenix Raceway, the finale’s home since 2020, staying in the rotation.

“It’s the place to be,” Homestead-Miami Speedway president Guillermo Santa Cruz said when the return was announced. “South Florida is the best place in America to host events — we have the weather, the people, the culture and the excitement.”

A weekend built in threes

The weekend stacks one championship per day. It opens Friday night, Nov. 6, when the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series runs its title race at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 — 134 laps, 201 miles. Trucks get the weekend started early, with practice on Thursday evening and qualifying Friday afternoon.

Saturday, Nov. 7, belongs to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series — the circuit formerly known as the Xfinity Series, renamed for 2026. Its championship race goes off at 5 p.m. ET on The CW, 200 laps and 300 miles, with qualifying earlier in the day. When the checkered flag falls, the track keeps the party going with a post-race concert by Orlando Mendez from 8 to 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 8, is the main event: the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, 267 laps and 400.5 miles, live on NBC at 3 p.m. ET. Before the green flag, a pre-race concert takes over the frontstretch at 1 p.m. — the speedway has announced Miami’s own Jason Derulo will headline it — and when the race ends, fans can reach the frontstretch through the crossover gates for the championship celebration.

The Chase changes everything

This is not the championship format Homestead fans remember. Gone is the elimination playoff that produced a winner-take-all Championship 4. In its place, NASCAR brought back The Chase for 2026 — in all three series.

Here is how it works in the Cup Series: the top 16 drivers in points after the 26-race regular season make the Chase. There is no more “win and you’re in” — a victory no longer locks anyone into the postseason. The 16 are seeded by their regular-season points, with the regular-season champion starting at 2,100 points, and they run 10 races with no eliminations, no rounds and no resets. A race win is worth 55 points, stage points still count, and when the last lap ends at Homestead on Nov. 8, the driver with the most points is the champion. Simple as that.

The other two series run the same playbook on a smaller scale: 12 drivers over nine races in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and 10 drivers over seven races in the Truck Series. All three titles come down to who has been best, most consistently, over the full stretch run — and all three will be decided at Homestead.

With two races left — Martinsville on Nov. 1, then Homestead — Kyle Larson leads the Cup Series Chase after winning at Talladega on Oct. 25, and the field behind him is fighting to keep his run from turning into a coronation. Larson knows this track as well as anyone in the field: he won the Cup races at Homestead in 2022 and again in March 2025. Nothing is decided yet. Under The Chase, every position at Martinsville and every lap at Homestead carries championship weight — there is no scenario where Nov. 8 is a formality.

A track that demands everything

Homestead-Miami Speedway opened in 1995, part of South Florida’s rebuild after Hurricane Andrew, and it has been making champions uncomfortable ever since. The 1.5-mile asphalt oval carries variable banking — 18 to 20 degrees through the turns — that lets drivers search for grip from the apron to the wall. The signature Homestead move is running the top lane, throttle down, with the right side of the car kissing the barrier. It is how Tyler Reddick won here in 2024, and it is how titles were won here for nearly two decades: Jimmie Johnson sealed his record-tying seventh championship at Homestead in 2016, and Kyle Busch (2015, 2019), Brad Keselowski (2012) and Joey Logano (2018) all lifted the Cup at this track.

The grandstands hold 55,000, the Fan Zone opens every race day and stays open until the checkered flag, and the campgrounds fill up early — camper load-in starts Thursday alongside the first practice session. The weekend also has a hometown artistic stamp: Miami pop artist Romero Britto, announced as the weekend’s honorary creative director, designed a special trophy for the winner’s Victory Lane celebration and painted a mural on the speedway tower.

The practical details: tickets, hospitality packages and camping are on sale now through homesteadmiamispeedway.com or by calling 866-409-7223. If you are watching from home, it is FS1 on Friday night, The CW on Saturday, and NBC for the Cup finale on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

Seven years ago, Homestead-Miami Speedway stopped being where NASCAR seasons end. On Nov. 8, with three champions crowned in three days and a Chase that rewards the best driver over the long haul, it becomes that place again.

More from We Speak Media

Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias Brings His Classic VW Buses to LA Auto Show Industry DaySouth Carolina-Made GT Radial Tires Win Second Straight Formula DRIFT Tire Cup ChampionshipThe Offspring, Jimmy Eat World and 311 Headline SEMA Fest in Las Vegas on November 6SEMA Show Brings Drifting, Ride-Alongs and a Burnout Competition to Las Vegas, November 3-6Breeders’ Cup 2026 Preview: Fields Set for Two Championship Days at KeenelandTickets On Sale Today for Hilary Hahn Gala Concert with The Florida OrchestraBrewers Rout Rays 10-1 in Game 3 to Move Within One Win of First World Series TitleCowboys Run Past Eagles 38-21 on Monday Night Football Behind Prescott, Williams