NASCAR's 2026 season defined by two Kyles: Larson's playoff surge and Busch's shocking death

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR’s championship weekend started with another Kyle Busch remembrance and ended with another Kyle Larson celebration.

The Cup Series drivers will be linked forever.

Larson’s incredible playoff run and Busch’s shocking death will go down as the highest and lowest points of the 2026 season.

Larson closed out a dominant Chase for the championship with his second consecutive Cup Series title and third in six years. He clinched the Bill France Cup at the end of the opening stage of the season finale and went on to finish 12th at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday.

Despite becoming the 11th driver in history to win a third Cup title, Larson wasn’t quite ready to compare himself to any NASCAR legends or the motorsports greats who, like himself, have found success in varying racing disciplines.

“I just feel like when you’re in it and you’re competing, it’s just so hard to reflect in the moment,” Larson said. “I recognize the success that we’ve had, but it’s just tough to reflect because there’s still more than I think we want to accomplish and are capable of accomplishing.

“I just feel like I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me, so I don’t want to stop to kind of look in the rearview mirror right now. I want to keep looking out the windshield and just trying to do the best job I can. And wherever the results end up, you will see.”

Larson’s latest championship with Hendrick Motorsports will be celebrated at NASCAR’s annual awards banquet Tuesday. Busch will be a big part of the show, too, likely to be named the series’ most popular driver. He died in May after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis.

“It’s tough to not talk about Kyle when you’re back in Miami,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said. “An extraordinary competitor, two-time champion in our sport and won the championship here, and I think he’s left a forever mark on our sport. …

“We all miss Kyle. It’s not the same without him in terms of celebrating a championship, especially how he embraced this place, but he’s going to be with us for years and years to come.”

Dodge will make its return to the Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway in February. Kaulig Racing will anchor Dodge’s effort and field cars for veteran drivers AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon. Kaulig said it would like to add a third car for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Dodge initially planned to return in 2028 — 16 years after leaving the series — but NASCAR offered an enticing path that included using ECR Engines built by Richard Childress Racing.

“Through the engine cooperation, I think we’ve opened some possibilities for others to take a look at NASCAR who otherwise may not have done that,” O’Donnell said. “Our existing partners, Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford, have been fantastic in terms of sharing information about how the sport works, being open to dialogue about where we can go.”

No one expects Dodge to be strong out of the gate. It took Toyota more than a year — and the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing — to make it to victory lane.

And not only did Dodge struggle in its return to the Truck Series with five Kaulig entries this year, the team is counting on two Cup drivers who have a combined three victories in 835 starts.

Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, is the biggest free agent in the Cup garage and insisted at the season finale that he has “too many options, and I have to do a little soul searching.”

Keselowski and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing parted ways in late September because the driver wanted to remain behind the wheel for 2027 and potentially beyond while other parts of the ownership group wanted him to transition into a full-time role as a competition leader.

Keselowski will remain a “passive investor” at RFK. He said he will decide his next move soon.

“There’s opportunities for me to compete with great teams or to be an owner with other teams or to do things in the TV booth,” Keselowski said. “There’s a lot of great opportunities. The driving ones right now are certainly very interesting to me."

Jesse Love, who spent the last three years driving for Richard Childress Racing in the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, is moving to the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing in Cup. He is replacing Josh Berry, who is shifting to the No. 42 Toyota for Legacy Motor Club.

Legacy dumped John Hunter Nemechek, who landed a ride in the O’Reilly series.

The No. 60 car remains open after Ryan Preece swapped to the No. 6 Ford vacated by Keselowski’s departure.

At least two drivers will have new crew chiefs in 2027.

Blake Harris is leaving Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 48 Chevy driven by Alex Bowman and will work with Shane van Gisbergen in the No. 97 Chevy at Trackhouse Racing.

It’s unclear who will step in at Hendrick to work with Bowman in his final year — and potentially with Connor Zilisch in 2028.

Will Denny Hamlin, the best driver to never win a championship, retire from full-time racing at the end of next year? Will Carson Hocevar, who was parked by Spire Motorsports for the season finale, change his reckless ways in his fourth full Cup season? What will Toyota do to improve its championship fortunes after coming up short every year since 2019 despite having 78 wins in that span?

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

FILE - Driver Carson Hocevar sits in his car during qualifying for a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - Driver Brad Keselowski gives a thumbs up at the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Pocono Raceway, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Long Pond, Pa. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File)

FILE - Brad Keselowski's Dodge stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Aug. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson celebrates with his family and team after winning the NASCAR Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026 in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House aims to use this week's talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials in part to persuade Moscow to agree to broader negotiations that would include key European officials on how to end nearly five years of war, U.S. officials said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are slated to meet in the United Arab Emirates with officials from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, NATO and the European Union. They'll discuss potential security guarantees and the long-term security architecture between Russia and Europe before the U.S. negotiators' scheduled talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday and Wednesday, the officials said.

Russia has resisted European participation in negotiations and insisted the talks should proceed strictly as a trilateral format involving Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. The three last held talks in February.

But one of the U.S. officials, who briefed reporters before the talks and spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the Republican administration believes “very strongly that at this point, in order to end the war, you really need to have Europe at the table.”

If talks go well this week in Abu Dhabi, Witkoff and Kushner could soon travel to Moscow and Kyiv to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the official told reporters.

The Abu Dhabi talks come as Russia continued to batter Ukraine’s power grid again on Monday and as Ukrainian forces hit another of Russia’s biggest oil refineries.

The two countries remain locked in battle with no sign that either side is ready to budge from their demands. The war has already killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and humanitarian organizations say.

Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday that Moscow and Kyiv are “very close” to a deal, despite “tremendous hatred” between Putin and Zelenskyy.

He said Ukraine would have “a little bit different shape” under the settlement, but he didn’t elaborate. The tempo and substance of Witkoff and Kushner's engagement with Russian and Ukrainian officials has also picked up over the last couple of months, according to the U.S. official.

Trump has previously made statements about developments in the war that haven't materialized.

And Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned Monday that the process still has a “ways to go" as the U.S. looks to get Europeans to the table with the Russians.

“It’s been difficult to get anything productive out of that,” Rubio told reporters. “But we’ll keep trying. And that’s what we’ve been trying to do the whole time, is try to be creative and find ways that we can help bring that conflict in that war to an end.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Trump’s team has placed “collective security,” covering not just Russia and Ukraine but also a wider area, at the top of the agenda.

The last three-way talks, in Geneva nine months ago, also took place as attacks continued. The negotiations delivered no significant progress in ending the war, but some circumstances have changed.

Trump, whose stance on the war has varied, has to reckon with Democrats taking over the U.S. Congress in January following the U.S. midterm elections. Democrats could demand more support for Ukraine.

Russian state finances are under heavy strain because of the war, and Ukraine’s economy is being choked by the relentless attacks.

In Abu Dhabi, the talks will look at what security guarantees would satisfy Russia, which sees NATO as a threat, and Ukraine, which wants to prevent future Russian invasions.

Putin has sought to sideline European countries and negotiate Ukraine’s future directly with Trump. However, European leaders and Ukraine have insisted that they be included.

Moscow says European representatives won’t be directly involved in the Abu Dhabi discussions, but European officials said representatives will be in the country.

Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said European officials will hold a “separate coordination” with the delegation from Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the meeting would focus on trilateral negotiations, with the United States mediating between Russia and Ukraine.

“You are aware that the Americans have their own channels of communication with the Europeans, as do the Ukrainians, and it appears they are already establishing their own methods of coordination,” Peskov said. “But, to reiterate, this is a matter of trilateral negotiations.”

Russian forces targeted four electrical substations in Ukraine’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Vinnytsia regions, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday. The attacks are part of Russia’s campaign to deny Ukrainian civilians heating, light and running water during the approaching winter.

Zelenskyy said Monday that the European Union had agreed to activate a special emergency mechanism that speeds up funding for power grid repairs.

Russia launched 317 drones of various types including 105 jet-powered drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian aerial attacks have pummeled Ukraine throughout the war, with gruesome consequences. A Russian glide bomb attack last week near the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 55 people at an aid distribution center.

On Monday, Russian forces hit a warehouse in Odesa in southwestern Ukraine containing food supplies for kindergartens and schools, killing three people, local officials said.

Meanwhile, an attack by long-range drones developed by Ukraine during the war started a fire at the KINEF oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, close to St. Petersburg and more than 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Leningrad Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said Monday.

Ukraine said in early October that its long-range strikes had neutralized more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces.

Ukrainian forces also struck a plant near St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, that produces solid rocket propellant for Russia’s Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

Blann reported from Kyiv. Farnoush Amiri in New York and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Police officers carry a man with a disability to a vehicle during an evacuation of civilians from Komyshuvakha, in the Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A family member cries beside the coffins of Viktor Fomenko, Natalia Karapetian and Andrii Anikin, killed in a Russian airstrike that destroyed an underground school in Komyshuvakha, during a farewell ceremony in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)