What Happened?
Chase Briscoe led 175 laps and swept both stages on his way to his second win of the NASCAR Cup Series season in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 4), finding redemption after coming up just short in Kansas Speedway the weekend prior.
Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick wrecked coming to the line in second and third as they tried desperately in the final laps to find a way around Briscoe, but to no avail.
Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five, while William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen and Joey Logano finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
What Really Happened?
Briscoe’s 75-point day got him back down to an 84-point deficit to Larson with five races to go, but when you look at the top of the standings, there are a couple of drivers who will want this race back.
If you missed the race and just looked at the results, you might think it was a typical Larson performance, as he continued his blazing hot start to The Chase with another runner-up finish.
However, let’s rewind back to the start of the race when Larson’s car plummeted on the first run, forcing him to come to pit road and lose a lap after a lengthy pit stop.
It looked like the No. 5 team was in for a rough day, but Larson was able to get the wave around and eventually work his way back into contention.
Last week, I compared the Larson/Cliff Daniels pairing to the Jimmie Johnson/Chad Knaus pairing, and this race reminded me of a vintage No. 48 team Chase performance.
There would be races where Johnson started slow, but at the end of the race, he would capitalize on other Chase drivers’ mistakes and come out with a good points day, despite dealing with crash damage, slow pit stops, etc.
The two Chase contenders that will be kicking themselves about not only Larson’s comeback but their own mistakes that cost them valuable points are the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell.
Hamlin raced his way into the top five at the end of the opening stage, and was on pace to completely erase Larson’s points lead over him.
Then, right before the green-checkered flag came out to end stage one, Hamlin lost control and spun down the banking towards the entrance of pit road. Surprisingly, the caution did not come out.
Hamlin missed out on stage points, and his car never fully recovered, as the only time he looked like he was going to regain track position, his car lost fuel pressure coming to the start of the final stage.
Hamlin was forced to give up the spots he lost while he was trying to get his car back up to speed, losing valuable track position and spending the rest of the race mired back in traffic before eventually coming home in 16th.
As for Bell, he too looked like he made up his deficit to Larson by collecting 17 stage points on the day, but towards the end of the second stage, his power steering started to go away.
Bell’s pit crew went under the hood to try and fix the issue before the final stage started, but it only got worse.
The No. 20 team tried gambling for a caution that never came on the final green flag pit stop cycle and limped to the finish line in 23rd, one lap down after what seemed like a promising run fell apart due to this mechanical gremlin.
With Hamlin and Bell’s misfortunes, Larson’s points lead grew further to 40 points with the help of his second-place recovery as most of the Chase field is now over a full race behind him in points.
When the confetti falls at Homestead-Miami Speedway next month, I have a feeling we will be looking back at this race as the “what could have been” for contenders like Hamlin and Bell if they cannot chase Larson back down in the next five races.
Who Stood Out?
Hendrick Motorsports saw all four of their cars finish in the top 11 spots despite not leading any laps during the event.
All three Team Penske cars finished inside the top 10, along with both 23XI Racing Toyotas.
Wallace looked like he might be able to find his way around Briscoe and win, but faded late in the run.
On the other hand, Reddick shot up to third and hung on to the position while spinning through the frontstretch grass after contact with Larson off the final turn of the race.
Who Fell Flat?
Ty Gibbs started his race strong like Hamlin and Bell, but a speeding penalty put him behind for the rest of the race, as he finished 17th and failed to collect any stage points.
After getting three 10th-place finishes in the first four Chase races, Ryan Preece had a difficult day, finishing two laps down in 28th.
This moved him back down to 16th in the standings and capped off a hectic week for RFK Racing after the Brad Keselowski news came out on Tuesday Sept. 29.
Paint Scheme of the Race
This beautiful Kyle Busch Kellogg’s throwback paint scheme came so close to victory lane at the late legend’s home track.
Larson gave it all he had and unfortunately damaged the right side of the car, pushing it to its limit to try and get around Briscoe.
What’s Next?
The Cup Series will head home to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the sixth race of The Chase, and this time, it will be raced on the oval instead of the ROVAL for the first time since 2017.
The Bank of America 400 is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 11 at 3 p.m. ET, with TV coverage provided by USA Sports. Daniel Suarez won the last race at the track.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
If the second scene of the comedy the network was filming was five laps shorter Cindric would have finished first.
Larson doesn’t look right in a non-blue car.
Sam Ard Cardinal 500 1978 – he won