Chase Briscoe's engine failure took him out of the NASCAR season finale after 78 laps, and moments later the caution it caused helped crown a champion.

Briscoe's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota began smoking late in Stage 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and slowed on the track, bringing out a yellow flag that ended the opening stage under caution.

The stage finished with Kyle Larson in fourth, which earned the Hendrick Motorsports driver enough stage points to clinch his third Cup Series championship before the race was even a third of the way through.

Larson needed only a handful of points to put Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell out of reach, and the seven stage points he scored, along with one for starting, did it.

The failure was a painful way to end a race in which Briscoe's car had been among the fastest. He had already been eliminated from championship contention, but he led 33 laps in the early going.

His afternoon had already hit a snag before the engine let go, as he lost the lead after a poor pit stop.

Briscoe said the car's speed was not the issue and that he had noticed a warning sign before the engine gave out.

"No. We were really good there pace-wise," Briscoe said after climbing from the car. "A little bit of a vibration. Super unfortunate. Felt like we were gonna be in the mix."

The mechanical failure also came at a bad time for Joe Gibbs Racing, which still had two drivers mathematically alive for the title. Hamlin and Bell each would have needed to win the race and score a large number of stage points while Larson had a disastrous day, so a Briscoe caution that locked Stage 1 in place effectively ended those hopes.

Larson's crew told him over the radio that it was over. Crew chief Cliff Daniels relayed the news. "They've declared it," Daniels told Larson. "We got it."

"It's done? ... Well that was anticlimactic," Larson replied.

The result made Larson the 11th driver in NASCAR history with at least three Cup Series titles, joining names such as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart. Daniels became just the second crew chief to win three championships in his first seven seasons, matching Ray Evernham, and Hendrick Motorsports celebrated its 16th title.

Larson went on to finish 12th in the race, then did donuts on the track and celebrated with his wife and children as his son stood on top of the No. 5 car.