The final laps of Sunday’s race at Kansas will likely replay in Chase Briscoe’s mind for a while.
Not just because the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver missed out on his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2026, but because, looking back on the Chase, it may end up being the final nail in the coffin for his championship hopes.
Briscoe entered Sunday’s 400-mile contest knowing that he likely needed to make ground on the top two in the championship – Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin – if he was going to have a shot at hoisting the Bill France Cup at Homestead in November.
And he was on track to do just that, until seven laps to go, when Kyle Larson, who dominated the first of three consecutive mile-and-a-half racetracks in the Chase, drove back around him in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet.
See, the Mitchell, Indiana-native had come to life in the second half of the Hollywood Casino 400, driving up to second place in the final stage and stalking Larson, staying within one second of the race-leader – which nobody had been able to do all afternoon. Then, on the longer run, when Larson struggled, Briscoe would pounce.
Despite several valiant efforts in the opening laps of Stage 3, it took until after the green-flag pit stop cycle, when Briscoe had the faster car from the time they exited pit road, for the two-time Southern 500 winner to get in front, doing so with 29 laps to go.
But, as soon as he got to the lead, things started to go awry.
“[The car] just went really, really loose,” Briscoe said post-race. “I kind of had that the run before when we did the green-flag pit stop. I got it in the wall so many times that I had a little bit of a leak. Just went really, really free.”
“Ultimately, it was better for me to be in second. Just being behind [Larson], especially with how much he was aero blocking, it would tighten me up and allow me to actually be a little bit better, and then as soon as I would get to the lead, I would just go really, really free again.”
Briscoe, courtesy of an extremely free race car and some late-race wall contact, would slip to fourth at the finish – which, is still an incredible run for the No. 19 team, considering the struggles of the last couple of weeks.
The problem? Kyle Larson, the points leader, won the race, and extended his gap.
Leaving Kansas, Briscoe is eighth in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 123 markers behind Kyle Larson, and while that *technically* doesn’t mathematically eliminate him from championship contention, it’ll take a stellar run over the final six races for that gap to be erased.
“I thought today, I think I was 87 [points] out going into it, and I felt like I had to at least knock 10 from the cut line. I didn’t get points the first stage, which I knew that was going to be hard. Ultimately, I had to win to be able to even stay somewhat around 80 or 90 back.”
“I don’t know, it’s still possible, but you’re going to have to win five or so of the next six races. Yeah, a little Tony Stewart 2011 run or something. Yeah, we’ll see what we can do and yeah, go on to the next one.”
Briscoe will chase that Tony Stewart-esque mark beginning next weekend at Las Vegas.
