Las Vegas, NV — Chase Briscoe turned the South Point 400 into a statement race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, sweeping stage 1 and 2 before holding off a hard-charging Kyle Larson to win the fifth race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The final lap was a battle between Brisco, Kyle Larson, and 23XI Tyler Reddick. This makes Brisco’s seventh career Cup Series win with his dominant handling in today’s race where he led 175 of 267 laps.
As we are at the halfway point of the 10 race Chase, today’s win gives him a massive playoff boost. Although No 11 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver Denny Hamlin started from the pole after leading an impressive Toyota sweep of the top four starting positions. JGR drivers Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Briscoe completed 2-4, while Larson started sixth as the playoff points leader.
Hamlin was attempting to make history at a track that has been extremely kind to him. He won the Las Vegas race earlier this year and entered Sunday looking for a third consecutive Cup Series victory at the 1.5-mile intermediate.
Once the green flag dropped, Hamlin wasted little time showing why. The leading laps belonged to him as he led 39 laps in Stage 1. With just three laps remaining in Stage 1, his car gets loose entering turns 3 and 4 and spun by himself while avoiding the outside wall, but this has cost him some valuable stage points. He ultimately finished stage 1 28th while Brisco managed to win, with Bell and Ryan Blaney finishing second and third.
As we all know, it can be anyone’s race and the lead can change at any given time even with the smallest mistake. Brisco continued to dominate through Stage 2. Larson stayed out a longer to salvage a point with a 10th place finish in stage 2. Unfortunately Hamlin had another issue – a fuels pump issue that pushed his chances of winning further back. He stated the car just didn’t drive the same.
Larson featured a special throwback paint scheme honoring the late Kyle Busch’s 2007 Bristol win and his “Tiny Kyle” nickname on the name rail. Larson knew his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was nowhere near where it needed to be to win the race. He came to pit road under green for a lengthy adjustment which dropped him down a lap and forcing his team into recovery mode. But with the skills he has he could ultimately be the driver in victory lane.
23XI driver Bubba Wallace has been holding on this year. He started the race in ninth position. At times he and his teammate Reddick were neck and neck in the top 10 spots. Brisco and Wallace appeared to be headed for a fight to the finish when Larson made his way back. With 11 laps to go, Larson passed Wallace and was coming to overcome Brisco.
Larson made one last attempt to get around Briscoe, taking the high line through the final corner. Unfortunately it didn’t respond as he had wished. He made contact with the outside wall in turn 4 and bounced into Reddick. With all of that, Larson still held on for second. Reddick was able to manage to finish in third as he spun across the start/finish line.
Wallace is still holding on and managed to finish in the top 10 during the South Point 400 race in Las Vegas. Here are the Top 10
1. Chase Briscoe
2. Kyle Larson
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Austin Cindric
5. Ryan Blaney
6. William Byron
7. Chase Elliott
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Shane van Gisbergen
10. Joey Logano
Next Up: Charlotte Roval on Sunday, October 11th.
