•Chase Briscoe won the Charlotte race, which marked the start of the 2026 NASCAR season, and secured his second consecutive victory. With this result, he narrowed the 19-point gap to championship leader Kyle Larson, but moved up from eighth to sixth place and is now just four points behind Ryan Blaney. Briscoe completed his successful run, which he had to abandon last month after losing to Larson in Kansas, with a victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last week, before taking the lead at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday.
In the second stage, Christopher Bell started as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver with a strong start, won the stage and took the lead, but lost the lead during a 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 this section, which was near the end 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 turns; this battle, which resulted in the two cars touching, continued. Briscoe finished the race with a 0.029-second margin, overtaking Larson.
