A week after surrendering a late lead to points leader Kyle Larson in Kansas, Chase Briscoe got the job done Sunday in Las Vegas.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver grabbed the lead with 39 laps left and fended off Larson on the final lap to win the South Point 400 at the halfway mark of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Briscoe’s No. 19 took the point when teammate Christopher Bell, who had lost power steering, had to pit. Briscoe fought off a hard charge from Larson, who hit the wall off Turn 4, to earn his second 2026 victory by 1.376 seconds in the four-caution race.
The Indiana native led a race-high 175 laps in his first Vegas win, as Toyota won its third straight at the 1.5-mile track.
“I don’t know if I’d have been able to get on the plane,” Briscoe, 31, said when asked if he was worried about beating Larson, who pushed too hard on the last lap and made contact with Tyler Reddick. Both continued to finish second and third, respectively. “From my point in the seat, I don’t know what more (the fans) could want from a cat-and-mouse standpoint.”
Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney completed the top five on a day when several Chase contenders had issues.
“It was a fight,” Larson said of the race’s problems for him. “I was surprised how off we were on that first run. Was just doing all I could to hang on and get to the pit stop. … My car got better, but track position was so difficult. I just chipped away at it all race long.
“I could tell I was gaining on (Briscoe) pretty quickly, but my tires were getting kind of burnt off by the time I got there (to him).”
Briscoe moved up two positions in the Chase championship standings to sixth, 84 points behind Larson.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver lost a lap early but rebounded with the runner-up finish and extended his Chase standings lead to 40 over Denny Hamlin, who ended up 16th.
Bell (-55), Joey Logano (-71) and Blaney (-80) round out the top five title chasers.
On the hottest race day of the season — with temperatures in the upper 90s in the stands and 130 degrees inside the cars — polesitter Hamlin led a Toyota breakaway in the first 35 laps. But Larson pitted on Lap 34, had a 26-second pit stop for an adjustment at the right front and fell one lap down to 32nd.
JGR’s Ty Gibbs was penalized for speeding on pit road, while Hamlin’s car reassumed the lead by nearly six seconds over Briscoe. The first caution flew when Zane Smith looped his No. 38 Ford.
Briscoe stayed out for the lead, and Larson was able to get back on the lead lap as Hamlin pitted for two tires. The No. 11 driver then charged back to fourth but spun by himself with two laps remaining in Stage 1, wasting stage points and damaging his splitter.
Briscoe earned the maximum points with the segment win in his Camry, and Bell, Blaney, Reddick and Cindric filled the top five. However, Reddick and Bubba Wallace received penalties for their pit road service and went to the rear.
The field split again on a debris caution on Lap 94, leaving Briscoe and Bell up front, Hamlin struggling in the low teens and Larson outside the top 20 after pitting for fresh tires and fuel.
Fast last week at Kansas, Cindric led the latter part of Stage 2 but could not hold off Briscoe on his No. 2 Ford’s older tires. Bell, battling power-steering issues, finished the stage third, followed by Blaney and Wallace.
–Field Level Media
