By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
CONCORD, N.C.—In a race that had a profound effect on the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1, Chase Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell banged fenders within sight of the finish line.
Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota got there first to win Sunday’s Bank of America 400, just 0.029 seconds ahead of Bell in the second closest finish in Charlotte Motor Speedway history and the closest in the series this season.
Race Results: Bank of America 400 at Charlotte
With his second straight victory in the Chase, Briscoe vaulted two spots into fourth place in the postseason standings, 65 points behind leader Kyle Larson, who finished sixth on Sunday, ending his string of five straight top fives in 2026 Chase races.
“I don’t know what it is about these finishes,” said Briscoe, who has run second, first and first by close margins in the last three races. “I’ve got to quit making it so exciting at the end. Just an amazing car. So cool to get (sponsor) Free Bird into Victory Lane…
“And, yeah, what an amazing run we’ve been on. Should be three in a row. Amazing job to this team. This pit crew has just been unbelievable. My hero is Tony Stewart. He made a pretty unbelievable run (to the 2011 Cup championship), and hopefully we can do the same thing.”
The 0.029-second margin of victory spelled the difference between Bell climbing to second in the standings, within 35 points of Larson, and remaining third with a 51-point deficit to the leader.
Bell was crestfallen at the narrow loss.
“I got a lot closer than I thought I was going to,” said Bell, who gained just four points on Larson with his runner-up finish. “I’m surprised that he (Briscoe) fell off as bad as he did at the end. It was a great day, but it’s a great day that didn’t get us much.”
Bell took the lead in a dramatic three-wide pass after a restart on Lap 173, but caution for Gray Gaulding’s spin slowed the field on Lap 205, and Briscoe’s crew got the No. 19 Camry out of the pits first for a restart on Lap 211.
“They’ve been an absolute key to it,” Briscoe said of his pit crew, which has excelled during the Chase. “When you can come down pit road and know you’re going to gain spots every time—or if you’re in the lead, not lose the lead—it just makes your job so much easier as a race car driver.”
Briscoe stayed out front the rest of the way, logging 61 of his 62 laps led on the final run. Bell, however, closed dramatically over the final five laps as Briscoe encountered lapped traffic and felt he had a tire losing air. After the late contact in the tri-oval, Briscoe prevailed—by the slimmest of margins.
“When I got that final pack of lapped cars with five or six to go, I mean, I just felt like I was going to knock the wall down at any point,” Briscoe said. “It just quit turning.”
Larson, who won the first stage and finished fourth in the second, increased his advantage over second-place Denny Hamlin from 40 to 49 points. Hamlin finished fifth on Sunday but failed to score points in the first stage after incurring a safety violation on his first pit stop of the race under a competition caution.
“I was not in a position of power,” Larson said of the final run, during which he fell from fourth to sixth in the running order. “I was hanging on. Yeah, honestly, I thought I was going to manage that run well. The top two (Briscoe and Bell) pushed really hard, and I could see Denny kind of settled in, so I was settling in just to try to make my tires live.
“Yeah, just got really, really loose on that run. Just not sure if maybe me not pushing enough kind of made the balance shifted rearward, using the rears too much, and I was just hanging on the last 15, 18 laps. Happy to still come in with a sixth and extend the points lead, but there was a couple other guys that kind of closed that gap a little bit.”
Ryan Blaney finished third and leaves Charlotte fifth in the Chase standings, 85 points behind Larson. Non-Chase driver Josh Berry trailed Blaney in fourth at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.
Larson took the lead from the pole and led five times for 97 laps, including the first 45. Bell led three times for 93 laps and won the second stage handily over Blaney.
The race was a disaster for two Chase drivers, through no fault of their own. On Lap 77, the No. 48 Chevrolet of non-Chase driver Alex Bowman broke loose underneath the Toyota of Bubba Wallace near the Turn 2 exit, sending both cars hurtling hard into the outside wall.
The No. 24 Chevy of William Byron also sustained terminal damage in the wreck.
The No. 54 Toyota of Chase driver Ty Gibbs suffered a broken right rear toe link after an accident on Lap 41. Gibbs lost seven laps under repairs on pit road and finished 34th.
Joey Logano ran ninth but scored no stage points and fell two positions to sixth in the standings, 92 points behind Larson.
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