Chase Briscoe made an emphatic championship statement for a second consecutive Chase event in recent weeks after he edged teammate Christopher Bell in a thrilling finish to win the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 11.
The two-time Southern 500 champion from Mitchell, Indiana, led twice for 62 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row based on a qualifying metric formula and battled upfront before settling in second place at the conclusion of the first stage period. For the second stage period, Briscoe commenced the period by extending his momentum and battling towards the front before he dropped to within the top-10 mark during a caution period just past the Lap 115 mark. Despite losing ground on the lead, Briscoe settled in seventh place at the second stage’s conclusion.
Briscoe restarted in third place when the final stage period commenced with 95 laps remaining and was racing in second place with 63 laps remaining when a single-car spin drew a caution and generated an opportunity for Briscoe to strike. During the ensuing pit stops, Briscoe’s pit crew delivered as they got the driver off of pit road first ahead of Bell and Kyle Larson. After motoring ahead of the field for the event’s final restart with 57 laps remaining, Briscoe maintained the top spot over Bell as the laps dwindled before Bell reeled in the latter on the final lap. Then, as Bell tried to make a move beneath Briscoe, contact ensued as Bell slid up the track and hit Briscoe to stall the momentum through the frontstretch. Amid the contact, Briscoe managed to retain the top spot when he crossed the finish line and took home the race victory by 0.029 seconds and remained within striking distance of his championship hopes for the 2026 Cup Series season.
Inclement weather canceled on-track qualifying scheduled for Saturday, October 10, so the event’s starting lineup was determined by a qualifying metric formula. As a result, Kyle Larson, the Chase’s points leader entering the event, earned pole position and shared the front row with Chase Briscoe, who won last weekend’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe fiercely dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes for half a lap. Amid Briscoe’s attempt to assume the lead from Larson from the outside lane, Larson used the inside lane to motor his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead through Turns 3 and 4. This enabled Larson to cycle ahead on the inside lane and back to the frontstretch, where he led the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Larson stretched his early lead up to seven-tenths of a second over Tyler Reddick as the latter overtook Briscoe through Turns 3 and 4 for the runner-up spot. Behind, Chase contenders Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott trailed in the top 10, respectively, while the remaining Chasers that include Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez were mired in 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th, respectively. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece was the lowest-running Chaser in 25th place, and Shane van Gisbergen was the highest-running non-Chaser in 11th place as Larson continued to extend his lead by more than a second at the Lap 10 mark.
Through the Lap 15 mark, Larson stabilized his early advantage by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Reddick while third-place Briscoe and fourth-place Blaney both trailed by two seconds. By then, the top-12 spots were occupied the Chase contenders as Bell outdueled van Gisbergen for 12th place. Within the top-12 mark, Blaney, Cindric, Byron, Wallace, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott and Ty Gibbs occupied spots fourth through 11th, respectively. Behind, Hocevar, Buescher, Suarez and Preece continued to trail in 15th, 16th, 17th and 25th, respectively, as Larson maintained his advantage that stood above a second by Laps 20 and 25.
When a scheduled competition caution flew on Lap 35, Larson, who lapped Gray Gaulding, BJ McLeod, and John Hunter Nemechek, barely retained the lead over a hard-charging Cindric, the latter of whom slid in front of teammate Blaney on the backstretch and ran into the side of Reddick entering the frontstretch earlier to carve his way into the runner-up spot. Trailing behind Larson and Cindric on the leaderboard were Chasers Reddick, Byron, Briscoe, Hamlin, Wallace, Blaney, Logano, Ty Gibbs, Bell and Elliott, respectively, while Hocevar, Buescher, Suarez and Preece were mired in 15th, 16th, 17th and 27th, respectively.
During the competition caution, the field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead by exiting pit road over Cindric, Byron and Briscoe while Reddick dropped two spots to fifth place. Teammate Wallace, Blaney, Gibbs, Bell and Logano followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized and sent to the tail end of the field for a safety violation due to a. Wheel rolling into Connor Zilisch’s pit box. Blaney was also penalized for speeding on pit road while Elliott pitted for a second time to address a loose lug nut.
The event’s next restart on Lap 40 featured Larson motoring ahead from the field that fanned out through the first two turns. Within the stacked field, Reddick, who restarted within the top-five mark, slowly slid up the track and scrubbed the outside wall as he was hit in the rear by Ty Gibbs, which got Gibbs also scraping the wall and loose through the turns, but the latter managed to keep his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry pointed straight entering the backstretch. Seconds later, however, Gibbs dropped off the pace and slipped sideways through Turns 3 and 4 due to a broken rear toe link. With Gibbs getting sideways, Brad Keselowski also got sideways and ran into the left side of Gibbs’ spinning entry before he spun, which drew a caution. At the time of caution, Larson retained the lead over Wallace, Briscoe, Cindric and Byron while Logano, who ran into the rear of Gibbs during the latter’s first incident, plummeted to 22nd place. Logano would pit to have his damaged front splitter addressed along with Gibbs and Keselowski.
For the next restart on Lap 46, Briscoe tried to mount ahead of Larson from the outside lane through the first two turns. It was then where Bubba Wallace ignited a three-wide move beneath both Larson and Briscoe as the trio dueled through the backstretch. With Briscoe backing out through Turns 3 and 4, Larson and Wallace dueled for the lead for the following lap until Wallace used the inside lane through the first two turns to motor his No. 23 Hardee’s Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead with the lead. Larson tried to execute a crossover move, but Wallace maintained his strong momentum and led the next lap.
As Wallace proceeded to lead at the Lap 50 mark, Briscoe and Suarez battled for third place in front of Alex Bowman, Bell, Cindric, Byron, Reddick and Austin Dillon while Hamlin and Blaney were mired in 24th and 26th, respectively. In addition, Logano was mired in 31st and Gibbs was pinned multiple laps down at the tail end of the field (39th) while Wallace maintained his lead by half a second over Larson on Lap 55. By the latter mark, Hamlin and Blaney battled for 21st place while Suarez dropped to sixth place behind Briscoe, Bowman and Bell, respectively. Hamlin proceeded to drop to 24th place on the leaderboard as Blaney and Logano overtook him while Larson reassumed the lead from Wallace through the backstretch on Lap 58.
Just past the Lap 60 mark, Larson led by seven-tenths of a second over Briscoe while Wallace dropped to third place. Behind, fourth-place Bell started to reel in on Wallace for third place while Bowman continued to race as the highest-running non-Chase contender in fifth place ahead of Chasers Cindric, Suarez, Byron, Reddick and Hocevar, respectively. Meanwhile, Corey Heim navigated his way up to 11th place and reeled in on Hocevar for 10th place as Austin Dillon, Buescher, Ross Chastain and Michael McDowell trailed in the top-15 mark, respectively. With Elliott and Blaney mired in 16th and 17th, Hamlin occupied 20th place in front of Erik Jones and Logano while Preece and Gibbs were mired in 32nd and 39th, respectively.
At the Lap 70 mark, Larson stabilized his lead by a second over Briscoe while Bell outdueled Wallace for third place. Behind, Bowman and Cindric reeled in Wallace for fourth place while the latter two also battled amongst themselves for fifth place. Cindric would outduel Bowman for fifth place before he overtook Wallace for fourth place by Lap 73. Behind, Byron reeled in teammate Bowman for sixth place as Larson had his lead slightly decrease down to seven-tenths on Lap 76.
Then on Lap 77, the caution flew for a heavy multi-car wreck that ignited through the first two turns when Bowman, who was battling Wallace towards the front, got loose from the inside lane, veered sharply right up the track and collided into Wallace. The contact sent both competitors’ entries hard against the outside wall, with Bowman’s wrecked entry getting hit by teammate Byron. As Byron nursed his damaged entry to the garage, Wallace and Bowman slid their wrecked entries below through the backstretch’s infield, where they exited under their own power.
The multi-car wreck concluded the first stage period under caution as Larson was awarded his ninth Cup stage victory of 2026 season. Briscoe, Bell, Cindric, Reddick, Suarez, Heim, Hocevar, Buescher and Blaney were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, Chasers Elliott, Hamlin, Logano and Preece were in 13th, 15th, 18th and 28th, respectivley, and Gibbs was mired being seven laps down in 39th while Wallace and Byron were knocked out of contention. During the event’s first stage break period, the field led by Larson pitted and Larson retained the lead by exiting pit road first. Briscoe, Bell, Cindric, Reddick, Heim, Suarez, Hocevar, Austin Dillon and Blaney followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
The second stage period started on Lap 86 as Larson and Briscoe occupied the front row. At the start, Larson maintained the lead for a full cycle over Briscoe, Bell, Cindric, Hocevar and the field. Larson retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Briscoe by Lap 90 before the advantage slightly grew up to eight-tenths of a second on Lap 95. Two laps later, Bell overtook teammate Briscoe for the runner-up spot as Larson continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second at the Lap 100 mark.
On Lap 107, Bell reeled in and overtook Larson for the lead. As Cindric, Reddick and Blaney occupied the remaining top-five spots over Briscoe and Hamlin, Bell had his lead grow up by nearly six-tenths of a second by Lap 110 before he extended it up to a second. By then, eight of 16 Chase contenders (Bell, Larson, Cindric, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin, Briscoe and Hocevar) were racing in the top-10 mark on the track while the remaining Chasers on the track that included Elliott, Logano, Suarez, Buescher, Preece and Gibbs were in 11th, 12th, 13th, 21st, 27th and 36th, respectively.
Then on Lap 116, the caution flew when John Hunter Nemechek got loose and made slight contact with the frontsretch’s outside wall before he spun through the frontstretch’s infield grass and tore the right-front fender from his entry while trying to nurse it back to his pit stall. During this caution period, the field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bell maintained the lead by exiting pit road ahead of Larson, Blaney, Hamlin, Reddick, Cindric, Briscoe, Hocevar, Elliott and Logano, respectively.
During the next restart on Lap 122, Bell motored ahead with the lead while Hamlin made contact with Larson, which got Larson sideways from the outside lane and dropped Larson down to seventh place for the next lap. Amid the contact, Hamlin settled in third place behind Blaney, and Bell maintained the lead by Lap 125 as Reddick, Hocevar, and Cindric trailed in the top-six mark, respectively. Larson proceeded to overtake Cindric for sixth place, but he trailed the lead by three seconds as Bell led by more than a second over Blaney and Hamlin while Reddick and Hocevar continued to race in the top five on Lap 130.
At the event’s halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, 33 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap, minus Gibbs as the latter was pinned seven laps down in 36th place. At the front, Bell continued to lead by more than a second over Chasers Blaney, Hamlin, Reddick, Hocevar, Larson and Cindric while non-Chasers Berry and Ross Chastain were in eighth and ninth, respectively. Behind, Chasers Briscoe and Elliott occupied 10th and 11th in front of van Gisbergen, Suarez, Heim and Logano while Buescher and Preece were mired in 20th and 23rd, respectively.
Through the Lap 145 mark, Bell extended his lead by two seconds over Blaney while third-place Hamlin trailed by three-and-a-half seconds. Behind, Larson was mired in fifth in between Reddick and Cindric while Berry was the lone non-Chase contender in the top-10 mark (seventh place). Berry raced ahead of Briscoe, Hocevar and Elliott while Logano was in 15th place behind Suarez. Buescher and Preece trailed in 18th and 22nd, respectively, as Bell retained the lead by more than two seconds on Lap 150.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Bell captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Blaney followed suit in the runner-up spot by more than two seconds while Hamlin, Larson, Reddick, Cindric, Briscoe, Berry, Elliott and Hocevar were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, nine of 16 Chasers (Bell, Blaney, Hamlin, Larson, Reddick, Cindric, Briscoe, Elliott and Hocevar) were racing in the top-10 mark on the track while the remaining Chasers on the track, including Suarez, Logano, Buescher, Preece and Gibbs, were in 14th, 15th, 17th, 22nd and 36th, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, the field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Blaney exited pit road ahead of Larson and Bell while Briscoe, Hamlin, Cindric, Reddick, Elliott, Berry and Hocevar followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Elliott was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney briefly motored ahead from the inside lane before Larson muscled back alongside Blaney entering the backstretch. Through the backstretch, Bell went beneath both Blaney and Larson and overtook both to assume the lead for the next lap. As Bell led, Briscoe navigated his way into the runner-up over Blaney and Larson while Hamlin was in fifth place ahead of a tight battle for sixth place that involved Cindric, Hocevar and Reddick. Berry and Logano would reel in the latter three as Bell maintained the lead over teammate Briscoe by four-tenths of a second with 90 laps remaining.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Bell was leading by nearly two seconds over Briscoe while Blaney, Larson and Hamlin trailed in the top five ahead of Reddick, Cindric, Berry, Logan and van Gisbergen, respectively. By then, Larson trailed the lead in fourth place by more than four seconds, and Blaney trailed in third place by more than two seconds while Buescher and Hocevar were mired in the top-15 mark. Behind, Preece, Suarez and Elliott occupied spots 20th, 25th and 27th, respectively, as Bell continued to lead by more than a second over Briscoe with 70 laps remaining.
Then with 63 laps remaining, the caution flew when Reddick, who was racing in sixth place, slid up the track and made contact with the lapped competitor of Gray Gaulding entering the backstretch. The contact caused Gaulding to scrape the wall and spin from the top to the bottom of the track, with a broken toe link spotted on Gaulding’s entry. During this caution period, the field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, AJ Allmendinger exited pit road first ahead of Briscoe, Bell, Larson, Hamlin, Cindric and Reddick, while Blaney dropped to eighth place following a brief stumble while having his right-rear wheel changed during his pit stop. Berry and Chastain followed suit before Allmendinger pitted, which handed the lead over to Briscoe.
As the event reached its final 57-lap mark, the event restarted under green as teammates Briscoe and Bell occupied the front row in front of teammate Hamlin, Larson, Reddick and Cindric. At the start, Hamlin shoved teammate Briscoe from the inside lane, which allowed Briscoe to motor ahead through the first two turns before Briscoe then slid up the track to stall any run from Bell. With the field fanned out through the backstretch, Briscoe cycled back to the frontstretch and led the next lap while teammates Hamlin and Bell fiercely battled for the runner-up spot in front of Reddick, Larson, Blaney and Berry. Following his battle with Hamlin, Bell motored ahead to maintain the runner-up spot as Hamlin was then starting to be pressured by Larson for third place. Meanwhile, Bell reeled in Briscoe for the lead, with the former trailing the latter by three-tenths of a second.
With 40 laps remaining, Briscoe maintained his lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while third-place Hamlin tracked the latter two by two seconds. Meanwhile, fourth-place Larson trailed by four seconds while fifth- and sixth-place competitors Reddick and Blaney both trailed by five seconds. As Berry, van Gisbergen and Chastain raced as the highest non-Chasers from seventh through ninth, Logano was up into 10th place in front of Heim as Buescher, Suarez, Riley Herbst, Cindric, Hocevar, McDowell and Elliott followed suit, respectively.
Ten laps later, Briscoe slightly extended his advantage up to eight-tenths of a second over Bell. Behind, Hamlin retained third place while trailing the lead by three seconds, Larson trailed the lead by five seconds in fourth place, Blaney trailed by more than six seconds in fifth place and Reddick, who continued to fight with loose-handling grip for nearly the entire event, maintained sixth place on the track. Seconds later, Reddick would lose sixth place to Berry while Briscoe stretched his lead by more than a second with 25 laps remaining. Bell would then have his deficit grow up by two seconds another lap later as Bell began to fight loose conditions. Meanwhile, Briscoe, who was approaching lapped traffic, continued to lead by nearly two seconds with 20 laps remaining.
Down to the final 15 laps, Briscoe stabilized his lead by more than two seconds over teammate Bell and by four seconds over Hamlin, currently in third place, while Blaney and Larson trailed in the top five by five and seven seconds, respectively. Briscoe maintained a two-second advantage over Bell with 10 laps remaining before the lead slightly decreased to 1.8 seconds with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Briscoe, who had his lead steadily shrink while navigating through lapped traffic, remained in the lead by four-tenths of a second over Bell. Then, after Briscoe maintained a steady advantage over Bell for half a lap, Bell bolted his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE entry to the bottom lane as Briscoe kept his No. 19 Free Bird Toyota Camry XSE entry racing up towards the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4. Bell then briefly got loose and ran into the left rear of Briscoe. The contact got both Joe Gibbs Racing teammates loose as they dueled to the finish line. At the line, Briscoe managed to beat Bell by 0.029 seconds to win.
With the victory, Briscoe notched his eighth career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his first at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his third of the 2026 season and his second in a row in recent weeks. This season marks the first time ever that Briscoe has achieved back-to-back victories in the Cup Series division, and he became the fifth competitor to achieve victories both on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval and oval circuits.
Prior to Charlotte, Briscoe, who won last weekend’s Chase event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, was mired in sixth place in the standings and he trailed the points lead by 84 points. With his victory at Charlotte, Briscoe jumped two spots in the standings to fourth place and he trails the lead by 65 points with four races remaining, with Briscoe remaining within striking distance of contending for his first Cup Series championship.
“I just felt like I was gonna knock the wall down at any point,” Briscoe said on the frontstretch on USA Sports. “[The car] just quit turning. I don’t know what it is about these finishes. I gotta quit making it so exciting at the end. Just an amazing car. What an amazing run we’ve been on. [It] Should be three [wins] in a row. Just glad we were able to redeem ourselves. Amazing job to this team. This pit crew has just been unbelievable. My hero’s Tony Stewart. He made a pretty unbelievable run [to win the title in 2011] and hopefully, we can do the same thing. I’m having a lot of fun driving these race cars right now. Looking forward to the next one.”
Amid Briscoe’s celebration both on the frontstretch and in Victory Lane, Bell, who led 93 laps and emphasized the importance of winning the remaining Chase events to regain his points deficit, was left dejected on pit road and with his eighth runner-up result of the 2026 season. Bell’s runner-up result kept the Oklahoma native in third place in the standings and he trails the points lead by 51 points while remaining within striking distance of contending for his first title.
“I got a lot closer than I thought I was going to,” Bell said. “We should be really good at the next couple of races. Hopefully, we can keep bringing these fast race cars and see what happens.”
Ryan Blaney rallied from his early speeding penalty to finish third while Josh Berry netted his third top-10 result through the first six Chase events as a non-Chase contender by finishing in fourth place. Denny Hamlin settled in fifth place amid his issues navigating his way around his pit box in front of Connor Zilisch and not having enough speed at the event’s conclusion to contend for the victory, while points leader Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 97 laps, settled in sixth place.
Shane van Gisbergen, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher completed the top 10 in Charlotte’s final running order. With eight of 16 Chase contenders (Briscoe, Bell, Blaney, Hamlin, Larson, Reddick, Logano and Buescher) finishing in the top 10 on the track, the remaining Chasers that include Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and William Byron settled in 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 34th, 37th and 39th, respectively.
The sixth Cup Series Chase event of the 2026 season in Charlotte produced 11 lead changes among five leaders and six cautions over 33 laps. In addition, 27 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Race Results:
- Chase Briscoe, 62 laps led
- Christopher Bell, 93 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Ryan Blaney, four laps led
- Josh Berry
- Denny Hamlin
- Kyle Larson, 97 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Tyler Reddick
- Joey Logano
- Chris Buescher
- Corey Heim
- Chase Elliott
- Daniel Suarez
- Carson Hocevar
- Ryan Preece
- Ross Chastain
- Austin Cindric
- Riley Herbst
- Michael McDowell
- Zane Smith
- Connor Zilisch
- Todd Gilliland
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Erik Jones
- Noah Gragson
- Austin Dillon
- Cole Custer
- AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
- Brad Keselowski, one lap down
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Cody Ware, one lap down
- Austin Hill, two laps down
- BJ McLeod, three laps down
- Ty Gibbs, eight laps down
- John Hunter Nemechek, eight laps down
- Gray Gaulding – OUT
- Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, 11 laps led
- Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident
- William Byron – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
Following the sixth Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson continues to lead the standings by 49 points over Denny Hamlin, 51 over Christopher Bell and 65 over Chase Briscoe. The rest of the 16-car Chase field is displayed below.
Chase Standings:
- Kyle Larson
- Denny Hamlin -49
- Christopher Bell -51
- Chase Briscoe -65
- Ryan Blaney -85
- Joey Logano -92
- Tyler Reddick -114
- Austin Cindric -145
- Ty Gibbs -156
- Carson Hocevar -180
- Chase Elliott -185
- Bubba Wallace -185
- William Byron -208
- Daniel Suarez -215
- Chris Buescher -216
- Ryan Preece -227
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series’ Chase schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the Freeway Insurance 500. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, October 18, and air at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
