Chase Briscoe Holds Off Larson to Win South Point 400

Chase Briscoe held off Kyle Larson through the closing laps of Sunday's South Point 400, reversing their Kansas result with a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Behind him, Larson hit the wall exiting the final corner and collected Tyler Reddick, who slid through the grass toward pit road. Both reached the line without losing a position. Briscoe won by 1.376 seconds, completing a sweep of the stages and race after leading 175 of 267 laps.

Denny Hamlin initially controlled the afternoon from the pole, leading 39 laps across two early stretches. But an aggressive trip across the apron ended in a spin late in the opening stage, damaging his Toyota and interrupting a promising run. Briscoe took over the front on Lap 47 and won the stage ahead of Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney. Larson had problems of his own: a lengthy stop for handling adjustments put him a lap down before a caution for Zane Smith's contact with the wall offered a route back through a wave-around.

A debris caution in the second stage split the field's pit decisions. Austin Cindric gained track position while Briscoe eventually stopped under green for fresh tires. The No. 19 recovered the lost ground, passed Cindric near the stage's end and collected another stage victory. Bell remained prominent through those opening segments, finishing second and third, but a power-steering problem later took him out of contention. The varying fortunes of the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates left Briscoe with the clearest opportunity to finish the job.

The final green-flag pit cycle brought Bubba Wallace into the fight before Larson became Briscoe's closest pursuer. Briscoe managed traffic and defended his line without surrendering the lead. Cindric finished fourth and Blaney fifth, while Wallace slipped to eighth. Hamlin's 16th and Bell's 23rd allowed Larson to increase his championship advantage despite falling short of the win. Briscoe, meanwhile, left with his second victory of the season and a much better ending than the one he endured a week earlier.

Briscoe answered Kansas with a different finish

At Kansas, Briscoe had taken the lead late only to lose it back to Larson with seven laps remaining. The rematch required him to keep the same opponent behind, not simply demonstrate that he had a fast car. This time, the closing run ended with the No. 19 still in command. Briscoe's 175 laps led showed the strength of his afternoon, but the last stretch supplied the answer to the disappointment that had followed him out of Kansas.

Briscoe described a tactical contest in which he tried to anticipate Larson's choice of lane in Turns 1 and 2, then protected the bottom at the other end of the speedway. His positioning made Larson work for an opening rather than providing a clear run alongside. "Just glad I was able to hold on," Briscoe said. For his team, the distinction was substantial: another late challenge became a victory instead of another explanation for a missed opportunity.

Larson and Reddick salvaged results after the collision

The spectacular finish did not erase two difficult recoveries. Larson had worked back from a lap down; Reddick's crew had changed a battery while dealing with electrical trouble. By the final lap, both were close enough to threaten a better result, although neither displaced Briscoe. Larson attacked the high lane in the final corners, lost rear grip and corrected into the wall. Reddick hit the back of his slowing Chevrolet and spun toward the infield.

Larson kept moving along the frontstretch to finish second. Reddick crossed the line via pit road and retained third; NASCAR confirmed there was no penalty for the way the incident carried him there. Reddick pointed to the earlier pit sequence as a missed chance to stay ahead of Larson and reach the leaders sooner. Their damaged cars made the finish look disastrous, but the official order captured something different: second and third remained intact after an afternoon in which either recovery could have unraveled much earlier.

Larson widened the gap without winning

The championship arithmetic favored Larson even as Briscoe took the trophy. Larson's lead over Hamlin grew from 26 to 40 points, and Bell now trails by 55. Neither pursuer changed position in the standings, but both lost ground on a day when their early pace suggested a much stronger challenge. Hamlin's spin and Bell's steering trouble turned front-running speed into damage limitation.

Briscoe climbed from eighth to sixth and reduced his deficit to 84 points. That was a gain of 39 points on Larson, not a reset of the championship contest. Joey Logano remains fourth, 71 back, and Blaney fifth, 80 behind. With five races left, Las Vegas illustrated two different ways to improve a title position: Briscoe maximized a winning car, while Larson recovered enough of a troubled afternoon to make his rivals' problems count.

Briscoe led FantasyJolt scoring with 82.50 base points at $13: 45 for the win, 20 from his stage sweep and 17.50 for laps led. Cindric's 57.30 at $10 and Blaney's 54 at $13 supplied the next-best totals. Larson finished ahead of both but scored 42 at $14 after leading no laps and earning just one stage point.

Wallace's 44.10 points at $11 completed the high-scoring core of the best legal combination. Custer's 14 points at $3 filled its final slot without exceeding the cap. Van Gisbergen offered 33 at $8 and Allmendinger 26 at $5, useful returns individually, but neither improved that complete five-driver combination. This format awards no separate place-differential bonus for climbing from a poor starting position.

The expensive disappointments were Hamlin, with 29.90 at $14, and Bell, with 35.80 at $14. Bell's 17 stage points softened the damage from finishing 23rd, while Hamlin's fastest lap added one point. These are FantasyJolt base scores, separate from NASCAR championship points and the league's custom scoring.

Perfect Lineup

Salary: $50 of $50. Total: 415.41 points. This is a retrospective perfect lineup, not a pre-race recommendation or a member entry. Group scores use per-driver rounding to two decimal places.

The Cup Series heads to the Charlotte oval for the Bank of America 400 on October 11, with the race scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern. The fall event returns to the oval for the first time since 2017. Larson brings the championship lead, but Briscoe's Las Vegas performance gives the pursuing group a recent example of how much ground a complete afternoon can recover.

• Distance: 267 laps, 400.5 miles.
• Briscoe's laps led: 175, or 65.5% of the race.
• Stage winners: Briscoe in both stages.
• Winning margin: 1.376 seconds.
• Lead changes: 12 among seven drivers.
• Lead-lap finishers: 21 of 36.
• Fastest green lap: Hamlin, Lap 3, 29.572 seconds.
• Inspection: Complete; Briscoe confirmed as the winner.