Toyota secured owners’ title, Hamlin called for deep dive into Cup drought

NXTbets Pro | Published On: November 7, 2026

Toyota title

Toyota walked away from the NASCAR Cup Series finale with the owners’ title, a reward that stood apart from the manufacturer’s longshot chances in the race for the driver championship. The company came into the finale with 18 victories, but it still had little chance to win the Cup title. Instead, Toyota secured the 2026 owners’ championship. The manufacturer now has 221 Cup wins, but only three Cup titles in 20 years. That contrast framed the mood around the garage, because the speed was there and the results were coming, yet the biggest prize remained out of reach. The season’s final standings did not give the brand the driver crown it wanted. Kyle Larson entered the finale with a 67-point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point edge over Denny Hamlin, and he needed only nine points to clinch his third championship. The owner’s title gave Toyota something tangible from the year, but the bigger story was still what the brand did not get.

Hamlin title

Denny Hamlin used his postrace comments to push Toyota Racing toward a hard look at why its cars keep winning races without turning those wins into enough championships. Hamlin said the organization needs a “deep dive” and should not simply “rinse and repeat” after another year without the Bill France Cup. The message landed with the force of someone who has lived this problem for a long time. Hamlin has 64 Cup victories and no championship, and he made clear that the gap between winning races and finishing the job still bothers him. He said he had “no optimism” about his own long-shot title chances, and he pointed back to last season’s runner-up finish as a painful example. In his view, a late caution and pit strategy cost him the championship to Larson. He said this year’s playoff run felt like a slow bleed, and he did not believe Joe Gibbs Racing performed at a championship level over the last nine races. Hamlin also said he was partly responsible for some of the struggles, including mistakes at Las Vegas. That made his comments sharper, because he was not only calling out the team’s execution, he was also folding himself into the failure. He said 2027 would be his last best shot at a title, which put a hard edge on the rest of his career outlook.

Bell execution

Christopher Bell also pointed to execution when he described why a Toyota driver did not win the championship. Bell said he expected a Toyota driver to take the title and believed the No. 5 team had the cleanest final nine races and put itself in position to win. He still said the team “shot itself in the foot,” and he tied that directly to a lack of execution. That view matched the broader theme around Toyota’s season, where speed and opportunity were both present but the final step never came together. Bell’s comments backed up the picture Hamlin painted from inside Joe Gibbs Racing, where the cars were good enough to contend but not sharp enough when the pressure built. The two drivers approached the same problem from different angles. Hamlin focused on the structural question, the need for a deeper organizational review and a better championship response. Bell focused on the week-to-week details, the cleanest stretches, the missed chances and the moments when a team leaves points on the table. Together, their comments showed a Toyota camp that can measure itself against the best in the sport and still see a clear flaw in the finish. The wins are there. The owners’ title is there. The Cup championship still is not.