Chase Briscoe Wins in NASCAR’s Chicagoland Return

Chase Briscoe won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, becoming the first winner at the track since Alex Bowman in 2019. The win was Briscoe’s first in the 2026 season and sixth overall.

In a race that mostly rewarded long-run speed, Briscoe held off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell throughout a tight battle in the final ten laps. Bell cleared William Byron late and immediately began gaining on Briscoe, but was unable to clear the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE in time to nab his first win of the year.

Byron swept both stage wins for 20 total bonus points. The top five was rounded out by Byron in third, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin in fourth, and defending Chicagoland winner Alex Bowman in fifth.

Troubles Early

Building off his first career top-ten finish at Sonoma Raceway last week, Connor Zilisch reverted to the recurring bad luck that’s plagued him throughout the season. His No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet was destroyed after hitting the inside wall on Lap 1 in an attempt to avoid the spinning car of Ryan Preece. Zilisch remains 34th in the 2026 Cup Series standings.

Tempers flared on Lap 31 when Zane Smith appeared to drive up the track into Carson Hocevar. Both hit the wall, but it was Smith whose car spun to bring out the race’s second caution.

The next incident came on Lap 47 when Austin Hill was sent hard into the outside wall by Shane van Gisbergen. Radio communications from Richard Childress Racing appeared to suggest van Gisbergen was looking for revenge over the incident at Naval Base Coronado two weeks ago where Hill locked up a corner and eliminated the dominant No. 97 car.

Just one week after relinquishing the points lead for the first time in the season, Tyler Reddick lost more ground from a punctured radiator. Though the No. 45 23XI Racing team was able to get back on track, Reddick finished 36th at 30 laps behind the pace.

Kyle Larson appeared to have one of the best short-run cars in the field, but his race was thrown into disarray after a solo spin on Lap 94. While battling William Byron for second, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet lost traction exiting Turn 4 and became stuck in the damp infield grass. He finished two laps down in 34th.

Points Outlook

Just one week after taking over the points lead from Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin now has a 44-point cushion with seven races remaining in the regular season. Ryan Blaney maintains third place at 113 points out, with Ty Gibbs and Chase Elliott each gaining a spot to fourth and fifth.

Kyle Larson dropped two spots to sixth after his disappointing Chicagoland return. Still, at just one point behind teammate Chase Elliott, Larson has a clear path to rebounding next week in Atlanta.

After a Lap 1 spin and 32nd-place finish, Ryan Preece fell from 16th to 17th to lose the final spot in the 2026 Chase. That place went to Shane van Gisbergen, who finished 25th but built on a win at Sonoma last week to vault upward to 14th. Erik Jones finished 15th on Sunday but still dropped two positions to 16th in the standings, and now holds the final Chase spot by just four points over Preece.

Race Results