Toyota's latest failure to win Cup Series drivers' title 'needs to be looked at'

A championship that seemed almost certain is all but out of reach before the green flag in the season finale.

Toyota will see another NASCAR Cup Series driver title slip away Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a disappointing wrap on a postseason that began with many in its camp predicting the Bill France Cup would be decided amongst themselves. But it will take a near miracle for the last two Toyota drivers in contention, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, to overtake Kyle Larson.

“I think that it needs to be looked at personally, internally, with Toyota and JGR and Legacy and 23XI,” Denny Hamlin. “I think we have to figure out [why] the win-to-championship ratio has just not been as good as it needs to be. So, I think that needs to be a deep dive, and honestly, figure out what needs to be changed.

“I don’t think we should just rinse and repeat and let’s just do this all again next year. I think we really should think about what it’s going to take to win the big prize because the cars are too fast for there to be three championships in 20 years. We got to fix that.”

Toyota has won the most Cup Series races this year: 18. It is one of their most dominant seasons since entering the series in 2007, and it did result in claiming the manufacturer’s championship. This is the fourth time they have won it.

But the driver’s title has been elusive since 2019. Toyota has only won it three times (2015, 2017, and ’19).

“I was very confident that it was going to be a Toyota driver that won the championship, and ultimately, I think when we got into the Chase, the [No.] 5 car had a pickup in performance,” Bell said. “But I still think by the numbers, there have been guys in Toyota cars specifically that have been faster than them. But we all shot ourselves in the foot one way or the other.

“So, all of us- myself, Chase [Briscoe], and Denny - have had unique circumstances that got us to where we’re at today, and the [No.] 5 team just had the cleanest nine races, and they put themselves in the right spot.”

Over the last six years, Toyota drivers have had multiple chances to win the championship. Toyota was represented by at least one driver in the Championship 4 under the previous format between 2020 and 2025, and the most heartbreaking loss was a year ago with Hamlin. A dominating day in the winner-take-all finale ended with a caution with three laps to go, and the race was decided by tire strategy.

“I felt like last year was a sudden death, and this one was like a slow bleed, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “That really is how it was. I was in shock for that, I don’t know, 10-minute period from three to go to the checkered and I’m behind the [No.] 5 somehow. I hadn’t seen him all day. That was a shock moment for me.

“Then this year, through each playoff race, I’m on the way home just thinking, ‘Gosh. It’s all right though, we’ll just have to make up for it next week.’ We’ve just been trickling along and staying somehow mathematically possible by being solid, but this one was definitely a cut to the wrist and watch it bleed”

In the seven years since Toyota won its last driver championship, they have won 78 races. In the same time span, Chevrolet has won 105 races with three championships (the fourth will be claimed Sunday), and Ford has won 68 races with three championships.

“It’s a lot [of Toyota wins], yeah,” said Hamlin. “There is a disconnect there. It could be all different things. Is it engine failures one year? I would love to see how it all gets broken down into how it didn’t end up happening year after year.”