A surprising photo finish will be what most remember from Sunday's NASCAR Cup Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as Motorsport.com reports. With just four races left in the 2026 season, Kyle Larson now leads the championship by 49 points. He extended his advantage over Denny Hamlin slightly, but new challengers are rapidly approaching with just one month of racing left to go.
Chase Briscoe took the win over Christopher Bell in the closest finish of the 2026 Cup season and the second-closest finish in the history of Cup racing at Charlotte. After a frustrating loss at Kansas, back-to-back wins have helped Briscoe to go from -123pts back of the championship lead to -65pts. Briscoe has suddenly moved from a fringe title contender to a main threat in the blink of an eye. For Christopher Bell, however, it was a heartbreaking result. The No. 20 began their incredible charge just a little too late, ultimately losing out by just 0.029s.
Meanwhile, Charlotte was actually Kyle Larson's worst finish of the entire Chase in sixth. With that result and a Stage 1 win, he still put more distance between himself and Denny Hamlin. It was a brutal day elsewhere, particularly for all those collected in a violent Lap 77 wreck. Alex Bowman over-corrected up the track and into Bubba Wallace, igniting a vicious crash that also collected William Byron. Wallace took a minute before gingerly climbing from the car, but he and all other drivers involved were thankfully okay.
Shane van Gisbergen continues to get something out of his No. 97 for Trackhouse Racing, placing seventh at Charlotte as the second-highest non-Chase driver. On the other side of the ledger, Denny Hamlin suffered another imperfect race for the No. 11. An early pit road penalty robbed him of Stage 1 points, and over the past three weeks, he has lost 48 points to Larson, 14 points to Bell, and 70 points to Briscoe.
Josh Berry is giving the Wood Brothers one of their best seasons in years, leading the way for non-Chase drivers in fourth for his third top five and tenth top ten of the season. Ty Gibbs saw his title hopes collapse further, dropping down to ninth after getting caught up in an early incident at Charlotte alongside four finishes of 17th or worse. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell also played bumper tag after the checkered flag over 19th place before sharing a fairly cordial conversation on pit road.
Finally, 11-year-old Brexton Busch provided a highlight of the race weekend by driving his father Richard Childress Racing No. 8 at the Kyle Busch Celebration of Life on Friday, performing perfect burnouts in the 750HP Cup car.
