One week after failing to hold off Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway, Chase Briscoe rebounded in a major way. He dominated at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and put himself back into championship contention.
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The final laps of Sunday's race played out similarly to the Kansas Speedway race. Briscoe had the lead with Larson trying to chase him down. But unlike last week, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver closed out the race.
MORE: Las Vegas Results
He controlled the air to keep Larson behind him, and he used several lanes while trying to block. The advantage over Larson dipped to a mere 0.211 seconds on the final lap, but he remained out front all the way to the checkered flag.
Briscoe also received some assistance as Larson made a mistake. He slammed into the outside wall after getting loose and over-correcting. Larson then slammed into Tyler Reddick before crossing the finish line in second place.
Chase Briscoe sweeps the stages and wins in Las Vegas 🏁
(via @NASCAR)pic.twitter.com/p4lGVUMTa5
— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) October 5, 2026
Reddick slid through the grass and ended up on pit road, but he still crossed the finish line in third place. Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen, and Joey Logano crossed the finish line inside the top 10.
"Honestly more of the windshield, except for when Larson would get really, really close," Briscoe said about his focus on the final laps. "The aero is such a big deal. On (Turns) 1 and 2, I felt like if I could somewhat cover where he was at. It was a huge guessing game.
"At 3 and 4 I knew if I hit the bottom properly and slowed down, which I'm normally not very good at, he was going to have a hard time getting by me. Just glad I was able to hold on.
"Last week was not a very fun mental place to be after kind of throwing one away. Yeah, really cool, like I said, to get in victory lane."
Briscoe is now sixth in the standings and 84 points behind Larson, the championship leader. This is not the smallest hurdle to overcome, but it is much better than last week when he left Kansas Speedway ninth in the standings.
The bonus points from the win certainly helped Briscoe advance three spots on Sunday, but he also gained ground by dominating earlier in the race.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver started the race on the second row next to teammate Christopher Bell, but he took the lead as the opening stage progressed. He led 82 laps early while winning stage 1 to lock up 10 points. He then won stage 2 to score 10 more stage points.
Briscoe spent the majority of the race at the front of the pack, to the point that he led a race-high 175 laps. For comparison, teammate Denny Hamlin was second with 39 laps led.
