Chase Briscoe likely hates to see this stretch of 1.5-mile speedways come to an end.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver stayed hot by taking control after the final pit stop of the sixth Chase championship race and winning a photo finish over Christopher Bell on Sunday afternoon, claiming the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.
In the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to the 1.5-mile oval for the first Fall race since 2017, Briscoe’s wide lead was trimmed in the final 10 laps. Bell slipped under him off Turn 4 and made contact, but the Indiana native held on to earn back-to-back Chase wins.
Briscoe notched his eighth career victory. It was his third of 2026, all on 1.5-mile tracks, as he nipped Bell by 0.029 seconds – the second-closest finish in CMS history and closest of 2026.
Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Points leader Kyle Larson was sixth.
The second-year Gibbs driver finished runner-up to Larson at Kansas two weeks ago and felt he should have been 3-for-3 on the configuration.
Still, a second followed by two wins has propelled him to fourth in the Chase standings, 65 points behind Larson.
“What an amazing run we’ve been on – it should be three in a row,” said Briscoe, whose three wins matched his season-best mark from 2025 in his first with JGR. “This time we were able to redeem ourselves. This pit crew has just been unbelievable.”
Briscoe hopes for an historic run similar to fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart, who won his third Cup championship by winning five races in 2011 – all in the Chase.
“My hero is Tony Stewart. He made a pretty unbelievable run. Hopefully, we can do the same thing,” he said.
Bell finished second for the eighth time this season.
“I got a lot closer than I thought I was going to,” said Bell, who was brief with his words. “We should be good at the next couple of races.”
The series moves to Phoenix for next Sunday’s race.
Using his runner-up finish to Briscoe at Las Vegas, Larson started from the pole after Saturday’s qualifying was washed out, but equally hot Briscoe lined up on Row 1 beside the No. 5 Chevrolet. However, Larson hustled away to a 1.5-second lead in a quest for bonus points.
Caution 3 occurred on Lap 77 inside the top 5 just before the segment break after a massive wreck. Alex Bowman overcorrected his loose No. 48 Chevrolet, sending it up the Turn 2 banking and smashing into Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota. Bowman’s
Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron also was involved.
Stage 1 finished with Larson taking the maximum 10 points with Briscoe right behind him in his No. 19 Toyota. Bell, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick followed.
Bell’s No. 20 Toyota showed power by moving to the point, and on Lap 123, Hamlin moved Larson out of the way in Turn 2. That cost the two-time champ a few positions but did not drop him outside of the top 10.
Bell never relented in the remainder of Stage 2 and won the segment by over two seconds in front of Blaney to give Bell 19 of 20 possible bonus points. Hamlin, Larson and Reddick also claimed top-5 points.
With 50 laps left after winning the race off pit road, Briscoe led Bell by 3/10th of a second, while Hamlin, Larson and Reddick were within four seconds or closer to the top two.
–Field Level Media
