Chase Briscoe ended a season-long wait for victory lane on Sunday, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Christopher Bell to win the eero 400 and cap NASCAR's return to Chicagoland Speedway after years away from the 1.5-mile oval.
It was Briscoe's first Cup Series win of 2026 and the sixth of his career, completing a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 with Bell second and Denny Hamlin - who started from pole - third. William Byron led a race-high 94 laps but faded to fourth, with Alex Bowman rounding out the top five.
"What an unbelievable weekend," Briscoe said. "I feel so American winning in the Bass Pro Shops Red, White, and Blue Toyota." The 31-year-old Indiana native has long circled the venue as a favourite. "This has been a place that I've always loved coming to, back when we used to, and I've missed it," he said. "It's always been one of my top-five tracks."
Bell had the pace to challenge in the closing stages but ran out of room. "He blocked me and did really good and took my line away and that was that," Bell said, pointing to the difficulty of following through dirty air. "It's just difficult, you have to keep air on your car."
Hamlin, who controlled the early running from the front row, admitted the race slipped away as the balance shifted to his stablemates. "I thought I was in control early on, even though I wasn't leading," he said. "I felt in control and probably got a little lazy on some restarts and things like that. Briscoe and Bell, they got their cars really good there the second half of the race."
The result underlined how quickly Briscoe's first season at Joe Gibbs Racing has turned. He opened the year with just two top-10s in his first seven starts, but has since strung together six top-five finishes across the last dozen races to climb to eighth in the standings.
Team owner Joe Gibbs framed the signing as a long-term win for the organisation. "He's just a first-class person," Gibbs said. "He's just a really strong, godly, young guy." Gibbs added that landing Briscoe "was a huge deal for our company. And it's great for the future for us going forward."
Briscoe, for his part, refused to get carried away, conceding he is still chasing the consistency of the benchmark Toyotas run by Hamlin (No. 11) and Tyler Reddick (No. 45). "We still have a long way to go. We have not been as consistent as the 11 and the 45," he said, before reflecting on a streak that now spans three straight seasons with a win. "I never thought I would win a single race, let alone win three seasons in a row. It just says that you're at the top of your game for a long time."
The victory keeps Briscoe firmly in the playoff picture as the Cup Series' regular season enters its decisive stretch.
---