Denny Hamlin, finished in fourth place |
The 2019 season was the fifth of the current 10-year television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports and the fourth of a five-year race sanctioning agreement with all tracks. It was the first season in which Ford fielded the Mustang GT, replacing the Fusion. This was the final season of title sponsor Monster Energy, as NASCAR rejected the energy drink company's extension offer in favor of a new tiered sponsorship model. This was also the final season for Darrell Waltrip covering races in the booth as during the season he announced that the June 23 Toyota/Save Mart 350 would be his last race as a broadcaster.
Following the 2019 Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing clinched his second consecutive Regular Season Championship.
Busch then went on to win the championship after winning at the season finale at Homestead. It was his second championship and the first he won after competing in all 36 races during the season, after his injury in 2015 sidelined him for the first 11 races of that season. Busch had won four of the first 14 races of the season, before enduring a 21-race winless streak. His early-season success did give him plenty of playoff points and carried him through the Round of 8 at the expense of 2018 champion Logano on points.