The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a pyrrhic victory as “a victory that comes at a great cost, perhaps making the ordeal to win not worth it.” The namesake of the term comes from Pyrrhus, the Greek king of Epirus who defeated the Romans in battle but lost most of his soldiers in the process.
Joe Gibbs Racing experienced a similar feeling in Sunday’s (Oct. 4) South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While Chase Briscoe and his No. 19 team won the race, the other three JGR squads struggled mightily to subpar finishes. We will cover JGR’s problems and more on this week’s edition of Stat Sheet.
175 – Laps Led by Chase Briscoe
First, let’s get to our race winner. After being so close yet so far away from victory at Kansas Speedway, Briscoe finished the job in Sin City by holding off the likes of Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick.
Briscoe led 175 of the 267 laps, amounting to 65.5% of the race. For Briscoe, it is the second-most laps he has led in a single race in his Cup career behind only last year’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway when he paced the field for 301 of the 367 laps on the way to victory.
Briscoe has led more than 100 laps six times in his Cup career. Four of those races have happened since joining JGR at the beginning of the 2025 season.
With the win at Las Vegas, he cut his Chase deficit from 123 to 84 points, moving up two positions from eighth to sixth in the standings.
1 – Combined Stage Points for Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin
While Briscoe won both stages one and two, the top two Chase drivers entering Las Vegas were noticeably absent for most of the early going.
Denny Hamlin started from the pole and paced the field for the opening 34 laps, but then he got shuffled back when a caution came out in the middle of the first green-flag pit cycle. Hamlin was then all set to rally to at least a fourth-place finish in stage one when he spun out from the top lane in turns 3 and 4 on lap 78.
As for Larson, he plummeted outside the top 10 on the opening run and fell a lap down after a slow 26-second pit stop under green. As a result, Larson and Hamlin combined for just one stage point on the day, courtesy of Larson’s 10th-place showing in stage two.
Some Chase drivers have banked n considerable stage points, whereas others have been unable to fully capitalize on them. With The Chase now at its halfway point, it seems like as good a time as any to look at the stage points accumulated by the 16 Chase contenders.
Looking at the data above, there is a strong correlation between the Chase drivers who have gained the most stage points and those drivers who are still in contention for the championship. The top five stage point earners since The Chase started are also the current top five in the standings, albeit not in the same order.
2.5 & 14.25 – Average Start and Average Finish for JGR at Las Vegas
On Saturday, it was shaping up to be a dream weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing. All four of its drivers were among the top 11 in practice times, and they then backed that up in the best possible way by sweeping the first two rows in qualifying, led by Hamlin on the pole.
However, as the race progressed on Sunday, things slowly unraveled for Toyota’s flagship organization. We already touched on Hamlin’s early tribulations, which were made worse by a mid-race fuel pump issue that cost the No. 11 even more track position. Hamlin was relegated to a 16th-place finish. Ty Gibbs sped on pit road during his first green-flag stop and never fully recovered, winding up right behind Hamlin in 17th. Christopher Bell battled power steering issues and muscled the No. 20 Toyota home to a disappointing 23rd.
All of this added up to an average finish of 14.25 for JGR after an average starting position of 2.5, the best possible for a four-car team. Furthermore, Hamlin, Bell and Gibbs all lost ground in the points to Larson despite Briscoe’s win. This is what we mean by a pyrrhic victory.
While Hamlin and Gibbs lost double-digit points in The Chase battle, Bell limited his damage, thanks in large part to his haul of 17 stage points.
6.5 – Average Finish for Hendrick Motorsports
While JGR floundered on Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports shined in the hot Nevada sun.
Led by Larson’s rally to the runner-up spot, HMS got all four of its drivers in the top 11 by the checkered flag. William Byron and Chase Elliott took the checkered in tandem at sixth and seventh, respectively. Though not in The Chase, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 team have put forth some respectable runs lately, continuing that trend with an 11th-place finish in Vegas.
All of that adds up to an average finish of 6.5 for HMS, nearly eight full positions better than JGR.
136 – Laps Led by Corey Day in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Speaking of HMS, it also had a great weekend in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race as Corey Day continued his development as a driver and a NOAPS Chase contender.
Similar to Briscoe, Day dominated the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas on Saturday night. Day piloted the No. 17 HMS Chevrolet to 136 of 201 laps led for his third win of the season, closing to within 41 points of Sheldon Creed. It was the most laps led in Day’s NOAPS career and the second time he has paced the field for more than 100 laps.
If Day continues to put on performances like this in NOAPS, a team will certainly be willing to open up a ride for him in the Cup Series.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 and is currently an editor and a weekly writer of Stat Sheet. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
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