•Chase Briscoe, who won the Charlotte race, which was the scene of the closest end of the 2026 NASCAR season, scored his second consecutive victory. With this result, he narrowed the 19-point gap ahead of championship leader Kyle Larson, but moved up from eighth to sixth place and is now just 4 points behind Ryan Blaney. Chase Briscoe, NASCAR
Briscoe completed his successful journey, which he had to leave halfway last month after losing to Kyle Larson in Kansas, by winning the race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last week. On Sunday, he took the lead at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
All track activity in Charlotte was canceled due to Hurricane Isaias on the previous Saturday, and NASCAR used a performance-based formula to determine the field. This week, the system put Briscoe’s recent success in the spotlight, placing him alongside Larson in the front row.
Larson started the race under pressure and won the first stage, but then struggled, falling behind playoff driver Josh Berry and into sixth place. Two playoff contenders were knocked out of the race when Alex Bowman lost control and overreacted, sending both of them off the track. Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron and Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing were also out of the race.
In the second stage, Christopher Bell started as the strong Joe Gibbs Racing driver, won the stage and took the lead, but lost the lead during the restart when he passed between Blaney and Larson during the pit stop. In the third stage, the drivers maintained a balanced pace with the longest tire use in the final stages of the race. Bell approached Briscoe in the last two laps of the finish and made a move to take the lead in the final corners; this battle, which resulted in the two cars touching, continued. Briscoe finished the race with a 0.029-second margin, overtaking Larson.
