With the 2025 season of Best of the Rest in the rearview mirror, its time to take a look at the season in each series as a whole. This will truly bookend the BoTR 2025 season, as we all now look forward to mid-February when the engines roar to life once again in Daytona.
While 2025 saw the Craftsman Truck Series season dominated by Corey Heim and his TRICON Garage #11 Toyota team, other drivers made a splash despite the lack of recognition. 2024 Series Champion Ty Majeski took the biggest shot across Heim’s bow in Phoenix, but that failed to materialize. ThorSport’s Majeski, despite finishing second in points failed to reach victory lane in 2025, with Phoenix being his best shot.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came from deeper in the field during the season. Kaden Honeycutt handedly made the playoff Round of 4, even while running the full season with three different teams. Credit to HALMAR-Friesen Racing for keeping a substitute Honeycutt in the playoff hunt right down to the final laps in Phoenix. Honeycutt’s season began with Niece Motorsports, a one-race deal with Young’s Motorsports, and ended with HALMAR-Friesen Racing.
Capping off a season of change in 2025 is ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton. A series veteran with 592 starts, 15 wins, and three championships, Crafton will officially hang up his full-time competition helmet. This will also mark the end of one of the longest-running driver-sponsor partnerships in NASCAR, with the iconic neon yellow of home improvement chain Menards. For 2026, ThorSport teammate Ty Majeski will take over the Menards-backed #88 Ford.
Crafton’s #88 ThorSport crew pits his Ford during 2025 Talladega. Photo Credit: Jayski and Sean Gardner/Getty Images
While Heim did dominate the season (12 wins), other drivers were able to wrestle away a trophy during 2025. Layne Riggs, Tyler Ankrum, Rajah Caruth, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Giovanni Ruggiero, and Cup Series driver Kyle Busch all were able to hoist a trophy during the season.
In the Xfinity Series, series newcomer Connor Zilisch dominated the season (despite not winning the championship) by winning 10 races in an astounding rookie season with JR Motorsports. Zilisch would lose the 2025 trophy by mere positions in Phoenix to Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, who left with the race and season trophy.
While Zilisch was the best performing newcomer to the series, other graduates to the Xfinity Series in 2025 also showed some muscle. JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil was a serious threat to steal 2025 away as well, while Truck graduate Taylor Gray captured his first major NASCAR win in Martinsville with his Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Brandon Jones also shown bright in 2025, winning twice in his return to Joe Gibbs Racing. Sam Mayer, newcomer Nick Sanchez, Sammy Smith, and Cup veteran Daniel Suarez all also made surprise visits to the winner’s circle as well.
Suarez pilots a backup #9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to the win in Mexico City. Photo Credit: Jayski and James Gilbert/Getty Images
While he did not win, Harrison Burton’s Xfinity return with AM Racing made serious playoff waves before being eliminated prior to the Round of 4. Burton may have another shot at the Xfinity title in 2025, when he joins Sam Hunt Racing to pilot their #24 Toyota in a two-car effort.
The 2025 Cup season was marred with controversy from various places and people, but the concentration at the end of the season on who take home the trophy took center stage in Phoenix. In what could be considered a come from behind third championship for Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (and at the expense of Denny Hamlin), the playoff system seems to need a revamping soon.
Parity did seem to be the name of the game early in the season, following a three-race win streak by Christopher Bell. The following races leading into the summer produced wins from Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano’s lone victory in Texas. Series rookie Shane Van Gisbergen also dominated the road courses on the schedule, winning five road course or street course events.
Berry’s win in Las Vegas. Photo Credit: Wood Brothers Racing
Speaking of SVG, he showed as the season wore on that he was adapting to racing on ovals well, collecting a top ten finish at Kansas along with several other strong runs. Bubba Wallace also made his presence known in 2025, winning the Cup Series’ return to the trinational oval in Indianapolis. Austin Dillon also made some early playoff noise, winning in Richmond.
The biggest surprise however, came from Chase Briscoe in first year at the helm of Joe Gibbs Racing’s #19 Toyota. While the early part of the season did not produce the results hoped for, Briscoe’s season quickly took shape for a playoff run. The playoff run began in Darlington, where Briscoe scored his first win with JGR. This was followed by another late season win in a dramatic Talladega finish. Briscoe also set qualifying on fire, winning a season record seven pole positions. Briscoe would end his season in the Round of 4, and finishing 3rd in the final rundown.
Also making a splash with a first year team was RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece. Debuting RFK’s new #60 Cup team, Preece and crew set the growing pains aside and Preece had a career season in 2025. Making his presence felt throughout the season, Preece ended 2025 with three top fives, fourteen top tens, one pole and wrapped the season up 18th in the standings. This is an impressive accomplishment with a new team, especially considering the minor struggles that plagued RFK Racing as a whole all season.
With many changes coming to all three series in 2026, including a new body for Chevrolet and RAM returning to the Craftsman Truck Series, the landscape of NASCAR will look different yet again. All these coming changes amongst other things, could make 2026 one of the more entertaining seasons in recent memory.