Chase Briscoe is making a habit of being heard, and halfway through NASCAR’s Chase, the rest of the championship contenders might want to invest in some earplugs.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver delivered a convincing performance Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, holding off teammate Christopher Bell by a microscopic .029 of a second to win a race that went from comfortable to downright uncomfortable in the closing laps. It was the closest finish of the 2026 season and the second-closest finish in Cup Series history at Charlotte.
For a while, it looked as though Briscoe had the afternoon well in hand. Then Bell arrived with the sort of late-race enthusiasm that can turn a perfectly pleasant Sunday into a coronary event.
Briscoe had built a lead of more than two seconds during the final run, but lapped traffic began getting in his way, allowing Bell to close the gap. Running on tires that had seen better days, Bell got loose several times as he chased down his teammate.
Briscoe, meanwhile, was having his own problems with the handling of his Toyota.
“When I got that final pack of kind of lap cars with five or six to go, I mean, I just felt like I was going to knock the wall down at any point,” Briscoe said. “It just quit turning.”
On the final lap, Bell was close enough to make his move. Diving underneath Briscoe entering Turn 3, Bell made his intentions perfectly clear. The two Toyotas made contact coming out of Turn 4, but neither driver was prepared to surrender the real estate.
They charged toward the checkered flag with Briscoe just managing to keep his nose ahead of Bell’s.
“And, yeah, what an amazing run we’ve been on,” Briscoe said. “Should be three in a row and just glad we were able to redeem our to this team.”
And that, as they say, was that. Well, except for the matter of a championship battle that is beginning to look considerably more interesting.
While Briscoe delivered the goods behind the wheel, his pit crew deserves a generous share of the credit. The No. 19 crew has been the fastest among the Chase contenders so far, and Sunday was another demonstration of why a quick pit stop can be worth its weight in expensive racing fuel.
On lap 206, the crew delivered a lightning-fast stop that put Briscoe out ahead of Bell. Briscoe then did what drivers are supposed to do when their crew hands them the lead: He kept it. For the final 57 laps, he led the way, withstanding Bell’s late charge to take the victory.
For Briscoe, the crew’s performance has become a significant advantage.
“Oh, they’ve been an absolute key to it,” he said. “When you can come down pit road and know you’re going to gain spots every time or if you’re in the lead, not lose the lead, it just makes your job so much easier as a race car driver. You don’t have to go out and do anything extra. They just have your back every time.”
Behind the JGR teammates, Ryan Blaney produced one of the day’s more impressive recovery drives. At one point, the Team Penske driver had fallen as far back as 36th, but he worked his way through the field to finish third. Josh Berry came home fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin in fifth.
Kyle Larson, meanwhile, spent much of the afternoon looking like the man to beat before settling for sixth. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led a race-high 97 laps and won Stage 1, but he still managed to leave Charlotte with a little something extra: a larger championship lead.
“I was not in a position of power,” Larson said. “I was hanging on. Yeah, honestly I thought I was going to manage that run well. The top two pushed really hard, and I could see Denny kind of settled in, so I was settling in just to try to make my tires live.”
Larson now holds a 49-point advantage over Hamlin, up from 40 entering the race. With the Chase at its halfway point, that is hardly an insurmountable margin, particularly when drivers such as Briscoe and Bell are demonstrating that winning races is still a perfectly reasonable way to make a championship statement.
Larson started the afternoon by leading the opening 45 laps, including the competition caution NASCAR called on lap 35.
The pit stops under that caution produced the sort of administrative excitement NASCAR officials generally prefer to avoid. Hamlin was penalized for a safety violation, Blaney was caught speeding on pit road, and Chase Elliott had to return to his pit stall after his crew suspected a loose lug nut.
Then came the restart, and things got considerably less tidy.
Tyler Reddick checked up entering Turn 1 and moved toward the outside wall. Ty Gibbs, running behind him, made contact with Reddick, and Joey Logano then hit Gibbs.
Gibbs managed to keep his Toyota moving until the exit of Turn 4, where a broken rear toe link finally gave up the ghost. The resulting loss of control sent him into the outside wall before his car slid back down the track in front of Brad Keselowski.
Gibbs’ Toyota sustained heavy damage. Under the ensuing caution, Logano brought his Ford to pit road to have its front end inspected, presumably hoping the damage was limited to the sort that can be fixed with a few tools rather than a lengthy conversation with the parts department.
Once racing resumed, the battle at the front began to heat up.
On lap 46, Larson, Bubba Wallace and Briscoe went three-wide in a fight for the lead. Wallace emerged on top and held the position for the next 11 laps before Larson reclaimed it on lap 59.
Larson continued to control the race and appeared poised to collect the stage win. But with three laps remaining in Stage 1, the afternoon took a nasty turn for Wallace, Alex Bowman and William Byron.
Exiting Turn 2 on lap 77, Bowman was running low while Wallace occupied the higher line as the two battled for fifth. Bowman’s Chevrolet got loose, and after what appeared to be an attempted correction, it shot up the track and into Wallace. Byron, meanwhile, became an innocent victim swept up in the melee and left with enough damage to end his day.
Both drivers took hard hits, leaving behind a pair of badly mangled race cars. Fortunately, both were able to climb out under their own power.
The incident ended the stage early and ended the day for both drivers. Larson, who had led the most laps to that point, was awarded the Stage 1 victory.
Stage 2 began on lap 86, with Larson once again establishing himself at the front. But while the points leader continued to do his thing, Hamlin was quietly turning his afternoon around.
After the earlier pit-road penalty, Hamlin worked his way into the top 10 and continued climbing. When he took sixth place, he delivered a message over the team radio that left little doubt about his intentions.
“You let these motherf’rs know I am on my way.”
Subtlety, apparently, was not on the menu.
Hamlin was not the only driver making progress. Bell, who restarted third, quickly worked his way toward the front and was running second by lap 100. Eight laps later, he had wrested the lead away from Larson.
The planned round of green-flag pit stops never materialized. On lap 118, John Hunter Nemechek suffered a flat tire and spun along the frontstretch, bringing out a caution that sent the leaders to pit road.
Bell led the field off pit road, followed by Larson. When the green flag waved again on lap 122, Hamlin was firmly back in the picture and lined up just behind Larson.
Charging into Turn 1, Hamlin tried to dive underneath Larson. The two made contact, sending Larson’s Chevrolet loose. Larson managed to save the car, but the encounter cost him valuable track position as Hamlin charged forward.
Larson fell back to seventh. Hamlin moved into third.
Bell held on to win Stage 2, with Blaney finishing second, Hamlin third and Larson fourth.
The pit stops following Stage 2 briefly shuffled the order, with Blaney and Larson beating Bell off pit road. But Bell was having none of that.
When racing resumed on lap 171, Blaney and Larson found themselves battling side by side for the lead. Bell spotted an opportunity, went three-wide and dove underneath both drivers to take the top spot.
It was an assertive move, the sort that makes a driver look either wonderfully opportunistic or completely unhinged, depending on whether it works. In Bell’s case, it worked beautifully.
Briscoe, who had restarted fourth, soon worked his way into second and began keeping Bell within striking distance.
The final round of green-flag stops was eliminated on lap 205 when Reddick got loose and sent Gray Gaulding, who had been quietly minding his own business toward the back of the field, into the outside wall and spinning.
The caution gave the leaders an opportunity to pit without losing valuable track position under green.
And this is where Briscoe’s crew made its presence felt once again.
The No. 19 team delivered another blistering stop, sending Briscoe back onto the track ahead of Bell. When the green flag waved with 57 laps remaining, Briscoe had the lead and the opportunity to decide the race on his own terms.
For the next 57 laps, he did precisely that.
Bell remained close enough to apply pressure, but Briscoe gradually built a lead of more than two seconds. The race appeared to be his for the taking until lapped traffic began interfering with his progress in the closing laps.
Bell took advantage, reeling in his teammate as the leaders approached the finish. On worn tires, he had to fight to keep his Toyota pointed in the right direction, getting loose more than once as he closed the gap.
Then came the final lap, the dive into Turn 3 and the contact coming out of Turn 4.
Bell had found his opportunity. Briscoe had found his nerve.
The two teammates raced toward the finish line with barely enough room between them to slide a credit card, and Briscoe prevailed by .029 of a second.
For Bell, the near miss was a frustrating end to a race in which he had shown he had the speed to win.
“I got a lot closer than I thought I was going to,” Bell said.
Asked whether he and his team would have more opportunities to contend for the championship as the Chase continues toward Phoenix, Bell remained optimistic.
“I mean, we should be really good at the next couple of races,” he said. “Yeah, hopefully we can keep bringing these fast race cars and see what happens.”
It was a victory built on speed, a superb pit crew and the ability to withstand a teammate who had every intention of stealing the whole afternoon away at the last possible moment.
Halfway through the Chase, Briscoe has made his presence known. Bell has shown he has the speed to win, too, while Hamlin continues to lurk and Larson remains in control of the points.
The championship picture is far from settled. But after Sunday’s finish at Charlotte, one thing is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: Chase Briscoe is no longer content to be part of the conversation.
He wants to be the one everyone is talking about.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
- Chase Briscoe tells the Chase field to shut up and listen - October 11, 2026
- Alex Bowman’s overcorrection comes with with two very expensive passengers at Charlotte - October 11, 2026
- Kyle Busch’s legacy gets a smoky exclamation point in Charlotte - October 10, 2026