Hyundai Only Has to Start at Road Atlanta to Clinch IMSA's TCR Drivers' Title
A 200-point lead means the No. 33 Elantra N TCR crew just needs to take the green flag Friday. Hyundai's push for a seventh straight manufacturers' crown is less of a formality.
Mason Filippi and Bryson Morris don't need to win Friday's IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to become TCR champions. According to IMSA's own preview, simply taking the start in their No. 33 Hyundai Elantra N TCR earns enough points to protect a 200-point lead.
The car that wore a Hope on Wheels childhood-cancer livery at Indianapolis is therefore racing mostly for Hyundai's other target: a seventh consecutive TCR manufacturers' championship. There, the brand leads Honda by 140 points.
Indianapolis tightened things slightly. The No. 33 crew arrived at the Brickyard on Sept. 19 with a 260-point cushion and left with 200. Bryan Herta Autosport teammates Preston Brown and Denis Dupont took second in the sister No. 76 car. The standings now read 2,730 to 2,530, a Hyundai one-two with one round left.
Neither Hyundai won at Indy, though. Victor Gonzalez Racing's No. 99 Cupra Leon VZ TCR of Tyler Gonzalez and Steven Clemons has taken the last two TCR races, at VIR and Indianapolis. The same team won at Road Atlanta a year ago. Cupra sits third among manufacturers, 250 points behind Hyundai. Honda sits between them on 2,860 and has four Civic FL5 TCR entries in the 14-car class, matching Hyundai's four Elantras.
Home turf for Herta
The track history favors Hyundai. Filippi and Mark Wilkins have three wins apiece at the 2.54-mile, 12-turn circuit, IMSA says. Bryan Herta Autosport has five victories there with Hyundai, split between the Veloster and the Elantra N TCR. Filippi also holds the TCR lap record at 1:26.917, set in qualifying last October.
The streak on the line is long. Hyundai has won every IMSA TCR manufacturers' title from 2020 through 2025 and every TCR drivers' title since 2019 except 2024. Last year's finale was the exception to comfortable margins. Harry Gottsacker overturned a 10-point deficit to take the drivers' crown after the MMG Honda of LP Montour and Karl Wittmer hit mechanical problems. Gottsacker is back in the No. 18 with Lance Bergstein, alongside the No. 98 of Wilkins and Maddie Aust.
There's a charity scoreboard too. For a third season, Hyundai Hope on Wheels gives $100 for every lap a Hyundai leads. Hyundai puts the 2026 total at $77,800, the equivalent of 778 laps out front. At Road Atlanta, the money goes to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. That fits a broader Georgia push, which recently saw Hyundai extend its Atlanta Braves partnership through 2029.
The two-hour Fox Factory 120 goes green at 11:40 a.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 2. It streams on Peacock in the US and on IMSA's YouTube channel worldwide. It shares the Petit Le Mans weekend with the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale, which will settle, among other things, Laurin Heinrich's long-shot Porsche title bid.
