What a masterclass by Chase Briscoe out in Nevada. While everyone else seemed to be fighting a long list of problems at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Briscoe simply swept the stages and powered his way to winning the South Point 400, pocketing a massive 75 points on the day. It marks his second win of the 2026 season, and funnily enough, both have come on 1.5-mile tracks with just one left in this crucial three-race stretch.
Even on a day that looked destined to go wrong, Kyle Larson somehow had a good day—and that is an absolute nightmare for the rest of The Chase field. Larson had to claw his way back from a painful 26-second pit stop in Stage 1, fight an ill-handling car, and somehow limp home to a second-place finish after tangling with Tyler Reddick on the very last lap. His No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet even needed to be towed away from the track. When the door was wide open for rivals to slash his lead in the standings, Larson flat-out refused to let it happen. As his crew chief James Small pointed out when asked how to catch him, it comes down to winning more races—easier said than done against someone this resilient.
Down in the standings, Denny Hamlin is bleeding ground and running out of time. A 16th-place finish at Las Vegas cost him another 14 points, leaving him 40 points adrift heading to Charlotte. With just one win in 35 starts at the venue—though it was in the Next Gen car during the 2022 Coca-Cola 600—Denny needs to make something happen right now. Christopher Bell was flying high early, taking second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2, before power-steering trouble dropped him to 23rd. Thanks to those 17 stage points, he salvaged a 31-point day, though he still slipped five points back to sit 55 points behind Larson. Thankfully for Bell, his Next Gen form at Charlotte includes a win and three other top 10s in five appearances.
Team Penske had themselves a banner afternoon. Austin Cindric led the charge with a fourth-place finish following his second-place run at Kansas, while Ryan Blaney took fifth and Joey Logano grabbed 10th. Cindric clawed back 12 points but remains 128 points back and likely out of the fight, whereas Blaney gained 11 to sit 80 points back and Logano dropped four to stand 71 points behind.
Now the circus moves to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the final 1.5-mile test of this stretch. With the fall race returning to the oval layout for the first time since 2017, nobody quite knows what to expect until Saturday's practice and qualifying get underway. Hamlin leads active drivers with 543 laps led, while Tyler Reddick holds the top average finish at 9.5 across eight races. If the contenders want to stop Larson, they will need clean machinery and zero unforced errors.
