NASCAR Charlotte winners, losers as Chase Briscoe continues championship charge

Briscoe held off Christopher Bell in a photo finish to win the Bank of America 400, his second victory in two weekends. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is now within 65 points of points leader Kyle Larson with four races to go.

The only bad news for Briscoe? The next three weeks are at non-1.5-mile tracks before the season finale at Homestead.

Here is a closer look at the winners and losers from the NASCAR Charlotte fall Chase race.

WINNERS

Briscoe's charge

The final 20 laps were eventful for Briscoe and the No. 19 team for a third straight Sunday.

Briscoe was hanging on in the final laps, worried about tire wear late in the longest run of the race. Christopher Bell, himself managing fuel, closed from two seconds to a half-second with a couple laps to go.

At the white flag, Briscoe's advantage was down to car lengths. By the final turn, Bell was alongside Briscoe. Briscoe and Bell made contact as Bell washed up off the corner, but Briscoe kept his Toyota relatively straight. The margin of victory was 0.029 seconds, and Briscoe got the much-needed 20 points earned by the winner over second place.

Bell was upset during his post-race interview about the circumstances and the outcome, given his place in the Cup Series standings. On Briscoe's radio right after the checkered flag, the vibe was relief.

If Briscoe can manage some solid runs at Phoenix, Talladega and Martinsville, he has to really like his chances at Homestead-Miami.

Larson's consistency

If Larson replicates his day at Charlotte over the next four weekends, the 2026 championship will likely be his to win.

Larson won the first stage and managed a good points day to finish sixth. The No. 5 was never among the very top contenders after the first stage, but he was steady throughout.

Larson's lead is now 49 points ahead of Denny Hamlin. The amount of drivers that can reasonably catch Larson may be down to just Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano could get back into the mix with multiple victories, but everyone else is at least 100 points behind the points leader.

This is a Chase-heavy winners section, but Josh Berry's fourth-place run deserves a mention. He passed Larson and Hamlin in the final laps to move into the top five. It's been a revelatory second half of the season for the Hendersonville native.

LOSERS

Gibbs at Charlotte

Ty Gibbs opened the Chase with a second-place run at Darlington, but little has gone well since then.

Gibbs has earned a lone top-5 since then, with other finishes in 18th, 17th, 17th and 34th. The latter occurred at Charlotte. Gibbs spun in turn 4, collecting Brad Keselowski early in the race. The No. 54 went several laps down, and his day was competitively over.

Gibbs is now ninth in points, 156 points behind Larson. After his good regular season, that's a disappointing outcome.

Wallace's bad luck

Bubba Wallace was minding his own business late in the first stage inside the top 10 when Alex Bowman's major re-correction found the No. 48 across the side of Wallace's No. 23 Toyota.

Wallace pounded the outside wall coming out of turn 2 and slid to a stop on a backstretch, with William Byron also involved.

The driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing entry came into Charlotte with three straight top-10 finishes and looked primed to add on to the streak early. But it was not to be.