Chase Briscoe capped off a patriotic return to NASCAR competition at Chicagoland Speedway by fending off teammate Christopher Bell and scoring his first elusive victory of the 2026 campaign in the eero 400 on Sunday, July 5.
The two-time Southern 500 champion from Mitchell, Indiana, led three times for 51 of 267-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in seventh place and notched a trio of top-five results during the event’s first two stage periods. By then, Briscoe along with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Bell, Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs, flexed their on-track strengths and raced competitively towards the front as the event progressed into nighttime racing and the track conditions cooled down.
During the third and final stage period, a key moment for Briscoe occurred during a late cycle of green flag pit stops with 53 laps remaining when he pitted from the runner-up spot. After the leader William Byron pitted a lap later, Briscoe managed to motor past Byron on the track to assume the top spot for a third and final time. Despite having Bell reeling in and nearly seizing the lead amid lapped traffic, Briscoe managed to power away from Bell to the point where the latter could not make it up for a final time and the former cycled back to add a win column to his 2026 resume.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 4, Denny Hamlin notched his 52nd Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 178.241 mph in 30.296 seconds. Kyle Larson started alongside Hamlin on the front row with the second-fastest lap at 178.235 mph in 30.297 seconds.
Prior to the event, Michael McDowell dropped to the rear of the field due to his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet entry failing the pre-race inspection three times. McDowell was also assessed a drive-through penalty through pit road after taking the green flag and his car chief, Travis Young, was suspended for the remainder of the Chicagoland weekend.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin motored ahead of Kyle Larson and the field from the inside lane. As Hamlin led through the first two turns and the backstretch, the event’s first caution flew when Ryan Preece, who briefly stepped out of the gas to avoid Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hitting the backstretch’s outside wall, was bumped by Erik Jones and spun down the track. In the process, Connor Zilisch veered his No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry to the left to avoid Preece’s spinning No. 60 Mariano’s/Athletic Brewing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry and ended up hitting the inside wall head-on. While Preece managed to continue despite being towed behind the wall and losing four laps in the process, Zilisch was the first competitor knocked out of competition as he sustained his seventh DNF in his rookie Cup season.
As the event restarted on the sixth lap, Hamlin and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Larson used the outside lane to motor ahead through the backstretch. Entering Turn 3, Chris Buescher overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot and the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Larson led the next lap. While Michael McDowell served his pass-through penalty, the field continued to jostle for early spots as Larson proceeded to lead through to the 10th lap mark ahead of Buescher, Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe, respectively.
Through the Lap 20 mark, Hamlin, who motored his No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE entry past Larson for the lead two laps earlier while remaining on the inside lane, was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Larson while Buescher, Bell and Wallace occupied the top-five spots over Reddick, Byron, Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott, respectively. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Riley Herbst, Zane Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trailed in the top-20 mark ahead of Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, Corey Heim and Austin Dillon while Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson and Shane van Gisbergen were mired in the top-30 mark, respectively.
Eleven laps later, the event’s second caution flew due to Zane Smith driving into the rear of Carson Hocevar as both competitors were sent up the track entering the first two turns, with Hocevar making heavy contact with the wall on the right side and Smith getting sideways as he collided into Hocevar’s damaged entry. By then, Hamlin extended his early advantage to more than two seconds over Larson while Bell, Buescher and Wallace were in the top five. During the event’s second caution period, the entire field led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first ahead of Larson while Bell, Byron, Buescher, Briscoe, Wallace, Reddick, Elliott and Blaney followed suit, respectively.
The next restart on Lap 37 featured Hamlin and Larson dueling for the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out. Hamlin and Larson continued to duel for the top spot through the backstretch until Larson, who restarted from the inside lane, motored his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead entering Turns 3 and 4 as he led the next lap over Hamlin. As Larson led through the Lap 40 mark, Byron overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Wallace fiercely battled Bell for fourth place. Byron then started to reel in on teammate Larson for the lead as Reddick overtook Briscoe for sixth place. Amid Byron’s charge, Larson retained the lead by three-tenths of a second through the Lap 45 mark.
On Lap 46, the event’s third caution flew when Austin Hill was bumped by Shane van Gisbergen and spun backwards into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4, which left Hill with a demolished rear end and out from further contention. During this caution period, a majority of the field led by Larson returned to pit road for service, with mixed strategies ensuing, while the rest that included Austin Cindric, Riley Herbst, Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon rand JJ Yeley remained on the track. During the pit stops, Todd Gilliland spun backwards while trying to enter his pit stall after he was bumped by Bell while Bell was trying to exit his pit stall. Meanwhile, Reddick was the first competitor to exit pit road after he only opted for a two-tire pit service.
The next restart on Lap 53 featured Cindric leading teammate Joey Logano and the field for a full circuit before the latter battled and led the following lap. Cindric, though, reassumed the top spot during the next lap and he maintained a steady advantage over Briscoe by the Lap 60 mark while Bell, Byron, Larson, Wallace, Logano, Herbst, Reddick and Buescher trailed in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who restarted in 21st place after opting for a four-tire service during the latest caution period, was up to 13th place.
By Lap 65, Cindric, who despite was on a major tire disadvantage compared to most of the field, maintained the lead by half a second over a hard-charging Byron while Larson, Briscoe, Bell, Wallace, Herbst, Buescher, Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Hamlin pursued, respectively. Meanwhile, Logano dropped to 14th place. Two laps later, Byron used the inside lane to duel and overtake Cindric for the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. As Byron led, Larson reeled in on both the latter and Cindric to make it a three-car battle for the lead, with Larson overtaking Cindric for the runner-up spot on Lap 69.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Byron, who managed to build a reasonable gap between himself and teammate Larson over the previous 11 laps, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Larson trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Wallace, Cindric, Briscoe, Buescher, Herbst, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Reddick were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 34 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the leaders led by Byron pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead after he exited pit road first and he was followed by Wallace, Larson, Buescher, Cindric, Hamlin, Briscoe, Gibbs, Herbst and Reddick, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell made multiple pit stops to have his damaged entry addressed.
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Byron and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Byron received a push from Larson from the inside lane that allowed Byron to clear Wallace with the lead through the first two turns. As Larson tried to challenge Wallace for the runner-up spot, Byron led the next lap and Wallace maintained the runner-up spot while the field behind jostled for spots through every turn and straightaway. Wallace then reeled in and got beneath Byron as they dueled for the lead through the frontstretch on Lap 90 before Wallace motored his No. 23 Upper Deck Space Jam Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead of Byron and had both the lead and both lanes under his possession by the next lap.
On Lap 92, the caution returned when Larson, who was battling Byron for the runner-up spot, snapped sideways through Turns 3 and 4 before he spun through the frontstretch’s grass and got stuck in the wet grass from the heavy precipitation overnight. Larson’s misfortune dropped him out of the lead lap category as he needed to be towed out of the gas and pushed by a wrecker due to flat-spotting his tires, which cost him two laps overall. Meanwhile, Preece, who was four laps behind following his opening lap accident, cycled back on the lead lap.
During a Lap 99 restart, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as both Wallace and Byron dueled for the lead through the backstretch. Wallace, who remained on the inside lane, then managed to clear Byron through Turns 3 and 4, and he led the next lap as Buescher tried to reel in Byron for the runner-up spot. As the field continued to fan out and jostle for spots while Shane van Gisbergen scrubbed the outside wall entering the backstretch, Briscoe occupied fourth place in front of Reddick and Hamlin while Wallace maintained the lead by half a second as the event surpassed its Lap 100 mark.
Through the Lap 115 mark, Wallace stretched his lead to more than a second over Byron while Buescher, Briscoe, Hamlin, Elliott, Reddick, Gibbs, Bowman and Erik Jones occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Cindric, Herbst, Corey Heim, John Hunter Nemechek, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry, respectively. Wallace maintained the lead by the Lap 120 mark despite having his advantage shrink to half a second over Byron as Byron was also being challenged by Briscoe for the runner-up spot. Two laps later, Briscoe outdueled Byron for the runner-up spot and the latter lost third place to Hamlin when he briefly stepped out of the gas due to sliding up entering the backstretch.
On Lap 124, Briscoe and Hamlin pinned Wallace in a tight three-wide battle for the lead, and the two Joe Gibbs Racing competitors outdueled Wallace as Briscoe motored his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE entry to assume the lead during the next lap. While Wallace maintained third place over Byron, Briscoe also maintained the lead over Hamlin before Elliott, Reddick, Buescher, Austin Dillon and Michael McDowell pitted under green by Lap 127. Byron then pitted from fourth place during the next lap along with Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Nemechek, Herbst, Suarez, Allmendinger, Keselowski, Hocevar and Noah Gragson before Briscoe, Wallace and Erik Jones pitted during the following lap.
Hamlin then pitted from the lead under green on Lap 131 along with Chastain and Logano. Reddick also returned to pit road, but his No. 45 Jordan Toyota Camry XSE entry was pushed to the garage due to the oil cooler leaking and both smoke and excessive oil billowed from his entry, starting from the first turn and occurring for a full lap. The caution then flew on Lap 133 due to oil on the track from Reddick’s entry. At the time of caution, Blaney, who was among several who has yet to pit, was leading while Hamlin was scored in 12th. During the extensive caution period to have the oil leakage from Reddick’s entry on pit road cleared, most of the field remained on the track while some including Blaney, Bell, Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pitted.
When the event restarted on Lap 143, Briscoe and Byron, both of whom cycled to the front of the field, dueled for the lead as the latter managed to outduel the former to lead the next lap in front of a pyramid of on-track battles. Byron proceeded to maintain the lead in his No. 24 Anduril Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry by half a second over Briscoe and he extended his advantage to more than a second over both Briscoe and Hamlin by Lap 150. Behind, Gibbs and Elliott were in the top five ahead of Blaney, Bell, Bowman, Wallace and Gilliland while Byron continued to lead despite having his lead shrink to six-tenths of a second by Lap 160.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Byron fended off Briscoe and Hamlin to win his second consecutive Cup stage of the event and his third of the 2026 season. Gibbs, Blaney, Bell, Elliott, Bowman, Cindric and Nemechek followed suit in the top 10, respectively. By then, 34 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while Reddick, who returned to the track after having his radiator replaced from the oil leakage, was strapped 29 laps down in 36th place. During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Byron beat both Briscoe and Hamlin off of pit road first while Gibbs, Blaney, Bell, Bowman, Cindric, Elliott and Wallace followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Byron and Briscoe occupied the front row. At the start, the field stacked up and fanned out to three lanes as Byron cleared the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. Byron led the next lap when he cycled the field back through the frontstretch as Gibbs challenged teammate Briscoe for the runner-up spot. Behind, Bell, Hamlin, Bowman and Blaney battled in front of Wallace while Cindric battled Herbst for ninth place in front of a stacked field. While Briscoe led a Joe Gibbs Racing four-car parade from the runner-up spot, Hamlin fiercely battled Bell for fourth place while Byron continued to lead by six-tenths of a second with 90 laps remaining.
Down to the final 80 laps of the event, Byron slightly increased his lead to eight-tenths of a second over Briscoe while Briscoe’s teammates, Gibbs, Hamlin and Bell, continued to trail in the remaining top-five spots, respectively, over Blaney, Wallace, Bowman, Elliott and Herbst. Byron proceeded to stabilize his advantage to half a second over with 70 laps remaining while Hamlin overtook teammate Bell for third place three laps later. Meanwhile, Gibbs was back in fifth place ahead of Blaney and Wallace maintained seventh place in front of Bowman. In addition, Corey Heim outdueled Austin Cindric for 11th place while Byron extended his lead to more than a second over Briscoe, who scrubbed the outside wall while exiting Turn 2 a few laps earlier, with 60 laps remaining.
With 55 laps remaining, Josh Berry and John Hunter Nemechek pitted under green. Briscoe then pitted from the runner-up spot two laps later along with Ross Chastain before Byron pitted from the lead a lap later. Gibbs, Blaney and Cindric also pitted with Byron as Byron was overtaken by Briscoe through the backstretch. Meanwhile, Bell, Stenhouse, Allmendinger, Austin Dillon and Zane Smith pitted with 50 laps remaining while Bowman, Elliott, Suarez and Erik Jones pitted during the next lap.
Hamlin then pitted from the lead along with Herbst and Buescher with 48 laps remaining before Wallace pitted during the following lap. As more names that included Heim, Gilliland and Custer pitted under green, Briscoe cycled back to the lead with 46 laps remaining. By the next lap, Briscoe’s lead stood at eight-tenths of a second over Byron while Bell, Blaney, Gibbs and Hamlin were in the top six, respectively.
As the event reached its final 35-lap mark, Briscoe was leading by a second over Byron while Bell, Hamlin, Bowman, Blaney, Gibbs, Wallace, Elliott and Heim were up in the top 10 ahead of Cindric, Herbst, Chastain, Suarez and Logano, respectively. Briscoe, who was weaving his way through select lapped traffic, continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Byron with 25 laps remaining while Wallace overtook Blaney for sixth place. Over the next five laps, Byron slowly started to reel in on Briscoe, but the latter rebuilt his advantage back up to more than a second with 20 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Bell, Hamlin and Bowman trailed by three, five and eight seconds, respectively, in the top-five mark.
Down to the final 15 laps, Briscoe retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Bell trailed by more than two seconds. Briscoe, who was reeling in on some more lapped traffic, maintained the top spot by more than a second over teammate Bell as Bell overtook Byron for the runner-up spot. As Hamlin, who scrubbed the outside wall, tried to reel in Byron for third place, Bell proceeded to reel in Briscoe for the lead as Briscoe, who was mired in lapped traffic that included Buescher and Ty Dillon, continued to lead by half a second.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Briscoe, who had his advantage shrink to as little as two-tenths of a second as Bell got very close towards overtaking Briscoe over the previous three laps, remained in the lead by a tenth of a second. Briscoe, who went to the bottom of the frontstretch’s apron to move in front of Bell, managed to motor ahead and set a reasonable gap from Bell through the first two turns and the backstretch. Bell tried to mount a final lap charge through Turns 3 and 4, but it was not enough as Briscoe beat Bell to the checkered flag by two-tenths of a second over Bell.
With the victory, Briscoe, who won for the first time since Talladega Superspeedway in October 2025 and was mired as low as 37th in the standings when the 2026 season commenced, notched his sixth NASCAR Cup Series career win in his 199th series start and he became the 14th competitor to win a Cup event at Chicagoland Speedway in the track’s return. In addition to becoming the 10th winner of the 2026 season, Briscoe notched the sixth victory of this season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 12th for Toyota.
Briscoe, who was coming off a runner-up result this past weekend at Sonoma Raceway and had racked up six top-five results prior to the Chicagoland victory, is currently ranked in eighth place in the 2026 driver’s standings as he continues his pursuit towards building on his momentum prior to the Chase.
“How about that race?! Was that a good race?! It felt awesome!” Briscoe said on the frontstretch on TNT Sports. “What an unbelievable weekend. I feel so American winning in the Bass Pro Shops red, white and blue car. Fourth of July weekend, 250 years. Man, what an unbelievable race car. [Crew chief] James [Small] did a great job. The [No. 19] team did a great job. Honestly, [I] did not see coming. I felt like I was struggling in practice and qualifying,…man, just so cool to get this [patriotic] paint scheme back in Victory Lane. What a cool weekend to win a NASCAR race.”
During his victory celebrations, Briscoe dedicated the victory to his crew chief, James Small, who also celebrated a birthday on race day and played an instrumental role along with Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team that enabled the Indiana native to score the victory.
“[James Small] told me that if I win today, I can get some chocolate, so I’m pretty fired up about that,” Briscoe added. “I got lucky how the lapped cars worked out. I was struggling pretty bad. Christopher was certainly coming. Out of all the people to race against, I knew Christopher was gonna be clean with me. So excited to be back at Chicagoland. Hopefully, we can be back.”
Bell, who continues to recover from fractured wrist from Michigan International Speedway, settled in second place for a fourth time this season.
“I was really struggling with the handling of my car early on in the race, and I still had a lot of pace,” Bell said. “I keyed up on the radio and I said, ‘Hey, if we get this [No. 20 Toyota] driving good, we’re gonna have a shot at it. They made a great adjustment and got the car driving great the last run, but I was a straightaway-plus behind, it seemed like. I was soft on my green flag entry, for sure, which gave up a little bit of time. [I] Just need to go back and study that green flag cycle on how I lost so much time to the first couple of cars. It was a great day. We almost went to Victory Lane.”
Denny Hamlin managed to overtake William Byron to finish in third place and cap off a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing. Byron, who led a race-high 94 laps, settled in a strong fourth place ahead of teammate Alex Bowman while Bubba Wallace, who set the event’s fastest lap, claimed a strong sixth-place result. Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Kyle Larson ended up two laps behind in 34th place following his early spin. In addition, Tyler Reddick settled in 36th place and was 30 laps behind the leaders following his punctured radiator issue.
This event generated 28 lead changes for 13 different leaders, and seven cautions for 43 laps. In addition, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 19th event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Deny Hamlin leads the standings by 44 points over Tyler Reddick, 113 over Ryan Blaney, 137 over Ryan Blaney, 180 over Chase Elliott and 181 over Kyle Larson.
Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Ryan Blaney are the eight competitors who transfer through to the third In-Season Challenge round for next Sunday night’s event at EchoPark Speedway.
Results:
- Chase Briscoe, 51 laps led
- Christopher Bell, one lap led
- Denny Hamlin, 30 laps led
- William Byron, 94 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
- Alex Bowman
- Bubba Wallace, 35 laps led
- Ryan Blaney, eight laps led
- Ty Gibbs
- Corey Heim, one lap led
- Riley Herbst
- Chase Elliott
- Joey Logano, one lap led
- Austin Cindric, 18 laps led
- Daniel Suarez
- Erik Jones
- Todd Gilliland, one lap led
- AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
- Ross Chastain, one lap down
- Chris Buescher, one lap down
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Brad Keselowski, one lap down
- Carson Hocevar, one lap down
- John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
- Austin Dillon, one lap down
- Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
- Noah Gragson, one lap down
- Zane Smith, one lap down
- Michael McDowell, one lap down
- Cody Ware, one lap down
- Cole Custer, one lap down, two laps led
- Ryan Preece, one lap down
- Josh Berry, two laps down
- Kyle Larson, two laps down, 23 laps led
- JJ Yeley, 11 laps down, two laps led
- Tyler Reddick, 30 laps down
- Austin Hill – OUT, Accident
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 12, and air at 7 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
