Chase Briscoe breezed by every challenge in the closing laps of Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to win the fifth race of the 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
LAS VEGAS -- Chase Briscoe breezed by every challenge in the closing laps of Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to win the fifth race of the 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Briscoe led three times for 175 of 267 laps, including the final 40, to earn his second win of the 2026 season. In reverse of how the previous race ended, at Kansas Speedway, Briscoe held off Kyle Larson who hit the wall and wrecked with Tyler Reddick on the final lap.
Larson and Reddick's teammate, Bubba Wallace, were among Briscoe's challengers in the final laps.
"The 23 [Wallace] was about an inch away from getting me there. I didn't really know who I was racing. First it was the 23, then it was the 5 [Larson], then it was the 45 [Reddick] but it all worked out," Briscoe said.
Briscoe's win and sweeping the stages earned him 75 points. He's now sixth in the points standings, 84 behind Larson. The near-perfect day left Briscoe more optimistic leaving Las Vegas than leaving Kansas despite being frustrated over losing "70 points" in the Chase.
"We're definitely still in it. You saw how Larson started 55 back and got 26-point lead after four races, we're 84 back so we're definitely still in the mix," Briscoe said.
Larson retained the points lead despite falling one lap down in the first stage of the race.
Larson battled an "edgy" racecar that tossed him from sixth to 14th before his first pit stop on lap 33. That stop was twice as long as usual due to an adjustment crew chief Cliff Daniels called for. They took the wavearound during the lap 45 caution to get the lap back.
Larson leads by 40 over Denny Hamlin, 55 over Christopher Bell and 71 over Joey Logano.
TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 267): Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen, Joey Logano.
The Chase drivers finishing outside of the top-10 were as follows: Carson Hocevar (12th), Chris Buescher (13th), Daniel Suarez (14th), Hamlin (16th), Ty Gibbs (17th), Christopher Bell (23rd, one lap down), Ryan Preece (28th, two laps down).
Denny Hamlin led 39 of the first 46 laps and controlled the race until the first caution. While trying to get back to the front, Hamlin spun with three laps to go in the first stage and didn't get a caution.
That spin caused underbody issues that plagued him in traffic before the field spread out and allowed him to get in clean air, where he performed better.
Ultimately, a fuel pressure issue during the second stage break was the kiss of death for his hopes of a comeback. Hamlin dropped from 11th to 24th and could only come back for 16th at the finish.
Ty Gibbs had a speeding penalty while Christopher Bell had power steering issues.
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 80): Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell.
STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 165): Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson.
Next for the NASCAR Cup Series Chase is the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (267 laps, Stages ending on laps 80/165/267; 3 p.m. ET on USA, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90, PRN affiliates).
In the most recent race on the Charlotte oval -- the Coca-Cola 600 in May -- Daniel Suarez won over Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs, who led double-digit laps in the rain-shortened race.
The last time the Cup Series ran on the Charlotte oval in the fall was in 2017 with the Gen6 car. Martin Truex Jr., in Furniture Row Racing's No. 78 Toyota, won that race.
Of the 40 drivers who started that race in 2017, only 13 of them are still racing full-time in the Cup Series: Chase Elliott (finished second in 2017), Denny Hamlin (fourth), Daniel Suarez (sixth), Ryan Blaney (eighth), Kyle Larson (10th), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (13th), Brad Keselowski (15th), Austin Dillon (16th), Erik Jones (17th), Chris Buescher (18th), AJ Allmendinger (20th), Joey Logano (26th), Michael McDowell (35th)
