Vittorio Ghirelli became the first back-to-back three-time EuroNASCAR champion after he survived a V8GP finale that was won by Paul Jouffreau.
Vittorio Ghirelli makes history in the 2026 NASCAR Euro Series Finals. The Italian became the first driver to win three successive NASCAR Euro Series titles following his 10th place finish in the V8GP finale race at Circuit Zolder.
Ghirelli had to battle the combined efforts of Gianmarco Ercoli and Nelson Piquet Jr., who did not give the champion an easy time in the last race of the season.
While Ghirelli and the two Alumitec Racing drivers were busy squabbling, Paul Jouffreau had to fend off a fast charging Vinnie Meskelis in the latter parts of the race to secure the Frenchman’s 2026 Finals sweep.
After Race 1’s result, Ghirelli entered Sunday’s event with the knowledge of the following championship permutations: If Piquet Jr. gets the bonus positions for most positions gained, then he needed to finish seventh to clinch the title. Otherwise, the 32-year old only needs an 11th place finish.
With Ghirelli starting second and Piquet Jr. 11th, it looked as if Ghirelli’s three-peat would be a foregone conclusion.
However, Ghirelli opted to play it safe on the opening lap and let four of his rivals go through. Crucially, this included Gianmarco Ercoli and with Piquet Jr. moving up to seventh, the PK Carsport driver was left running inside an Alumitec Racing sandwich.
At first, Ercoli left Ghirelli alone and focused on battling Sebastiaan Bleekemolen while Piquet Jr. tried to work his way past the Italian.
However, with Piquet Jr. still stuck behind Ghirelli by lap 7, Ercoli backed away from Bleekemolen and started to assist Piquet Jr. in ways that caught the attention of race control.
On lap 8, Piquet Jr. was able to get past Ghirelli with some help of Ercoli’s purposeful impeding. Ercoli also nearly took out his great rival when he forced Ghirelli onto the grass in the braking area at the Jacky Ickx chicane.
Despite successfully allowing Piquet Jr. to get past, Ercoli continued to block Ghirelli as the laps ticked by, hoping to send the No. 24 driver even lower down the running order.
While Thomas Krasonis, Marc Goossens, Jordan O’Brien, Logan Bearden and Jack Davidson were all able to get past Ghirelli, Piquet Jr. was too far back from Jouffreau to make a challenge for the win.
In the end, Alumitec can only watch as Ghirelli crosses the finish line in 11th to clinch his three-peat. This later became 10th after Ercoli was handed a combined 35-second time penalty for his misdemeanors.
“It’s amazing to get a third!” said Ghirelli after the race. “This year was very tough and our rivals made it hard for us, but the team and I were always right there to deliver strong results”
“It’s not good for the championship when competitors don’t show sportsmanship, but we took the title, and that’s what counts!”
At the front, the battle for the win was fought between Jouffreau, Lowe and Meskelis. Jouffreau had managed to once again dive bomb Lowe for the lead in the start and the two were running 1-2 for most of the race before Lowe had to drop out of contention due to a faulty throttle.
Lowe’s issues promoted Meskelis up to second. Running 3 seconds back when Lowe had his issues, the American-Brazilian was able to erase that deficit after Jouffreau had an suboptimal encounter with Andre Lortie, but he ultimately had no response to the Frenchman’s commanding pace at the front.
“I’m really happy because, as I told you yesterday, this season has been really tough,” said Jouffreau in Victory Lane. “Every time we were at the front, something broke, so I’m really happy we could show that we can take a double victory.”
Piquet Jr. grabbed third in the end, but it was not without its controversies. The Brazilian secured his podium after he made contact with Bleekemolen at the final chicane, but race control declared that their collision was a racing incident.
The aforementioned Krasonis, Goossens, O’Brien, Bearden, Davidson finished in the following order for fifth to ninth places.
Ercoli’s penalty dropped him down to 14th, which promoted Davit Kajaia, Vladimiros Tziortzis and Ulysse Delsaux up to 11th, 12th and 13th respectively.
V8GP Race 2 Results
EuroNASCAR V8GP Final Championship Standings
Vittorio Ghirelli is still the reigning king of the NASCAR Euro Series. While the Italian “only” took three wins and five podiums, top-10 finishes in all but one race allowed the PK Carsport driver to secure his three-peat with a final tally of 495 points.
Paul Jouffreau’s Finals sweep allowed the Frenchman to leapfrog Nelson Piquet Jr. in the standings. Jouffreau and Piquet Jr. were tied with 480 points, but with four wins for Jouffreau to Piquet Jr’s two, the RDV Competition driver was declared as the runner-up of the 2026 season.
Another tie also happened for fourth, with Jordan O’Brien and Thomas Krasonis both finishing with 453 points. O’Brien’s sole victory in Czechia would hand fourth place to the American, but Krasonis did improve his career best V8GP championship finish after he came sixth in 2025.
Garrett Lowe’s heartbreak dropped the BS+BREMOTION driver down to sixth, just ahead of Ercoli who was classified seventh. Martin Doubek, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Vinnie Meskelis completed the overall top-10.
Jouffreau was crowned as the Junior Trophy champion once again with his runner-up finish, while Davit Kajaia took back-to-back Challenger Trophy titles with a 15th place finish in the overall standings.
As the history-making three-peat champion, Ghirelli will be honored alongside other NASCAR International champions at this year’s NASCAR Awards, which is scheduled to take place on 20 November 2026 at Charlotte’s Crown Ballroom Convention Center.
EuroNASCAR V8GP Final Championship Standings
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.