Chase Briscoe holds off late charge from Bell to win Cup Series race at Chicagoland

Chase Briscoe fended off a late-race charge from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell to win Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Briscoe earned his first win of the 2026 campaign and fourth since moving to JGR at the beginning of last season. He held off Bell by 0.276 seconds. Denny Hamlin, another JGR teammate, finished third, followed by Hendrick Motorsports pilots William Byron and Alex Bowman. Bubba Wallace placed sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst to wrap the top 10 -- which was dominated by seven Toyota finishers. RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland Pit stops began with 52 laps to go, with Briscoe darting to pit road from second. Then-leader Byron came one lap later but blended behind the No. 19 Toyota. Once the pit cycle was completed, Briscoe cycled to the lead with 46 circuits remaining. A three-time victor last season, Briscoe maintained a second lead over Byron, but Bell and Hamlin -- who both pitted later in the cycle -- cut nine-second deficits down to under three. Bell passed Byron with 11 laps to go to take over second. Meanwhile, Hamlin scrubbed the Turn 3 wall with seven laps to go, causing him to lose nearly three seconds on the leaders. SHOP: Winner gear Bell closed to Briscoe's bumper with three laps to go, but a series of attempts to pass the No. 19 Toyota went to no avail. On the final lap, Bell sucked behind Briscoe in Turn 1's second groove, but couldn't make it stick. He lost time down the backstretch and wasn't close enough for one last attempt entering the final set of corners. The final stage went caution-free.

Stage 2 recap

William Byron won Stage 2 of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, making it a sweep of the first two frames. Chase Briscoe finished second, Denny Hamlin third, Ty Gibbs fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek completed the top 10 and points earners. MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Byron sweep the stages On Lap 93, just moments into the second frame after a brief repair for a pothole, Kyle Larson went for a single-car spin exiting Turn 4 while running third. He got stuck in the infield grass, and safety crews needed to pull him out, ultimately resulting in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver falling multiple laps down. The race returned to green-flag conditions on Lap 99 and headed into the longest run of the night, as teams began peeling toward pit road for service. But on Lap 131, Tyler Reddick reportedly ran over a splitter stay from another car in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, which destroyed his radiator. Fluid began spewing out of his car, forcing a caution as he went behind the wall for repairs. Reddick fell several laps down, and it marked a significant issue for the fourth time in the last five races for the five-time 2026 winner. He led the series by as many as 129 points after Watkins Glen, but with a power steering issue last weekend at Sonoma, Hamlin took the points lead for the first time all year. Hamlin had pitted just before the yellow, along with the likes of William Byron, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace. Other contenders like Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell needed to pit as track crews cleaned the racing surface. Stage 2 ended with a 22-lap green-flag run.

Stage 1 recap

William Byron won Stage 1 of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in an 80-lap segment that featured a pair of renewed rivalries. Kyle Larson finished second, followed by Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe. Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10. MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Byron capture Stage 1 dub On the opening lap, Ryan Preece went spinning off Turn 2 after contact from Erik Jones following a stackup. Preece slid in front of rookie Connor Zilisch, who veered left down the backstretch to avoid the crash, but lost control and nosed into the inside wall. The crash marked Zilisch's seventh DNF of the season and his fifth over the last seven races. He earned a top 10 last weekend at Sonoma Raceway -- the 19-year-old's first in Cup competition. He was evaluated and released from the infield care center. Meanwhile, Preece fell multiple laps down for repairs, losing crucial points as the No. 60 RFK Racing driver entered Sunday 15th in the standings, 13 markers above the provisional Chase cutline. On Lap 32, Zane Smith bumped Carson Hocevar in Turns 1 and 2, resulting in both drivers contacting the outside wall and causing the second yellow of the evening. Both drivers made their 100th Cup starts on Sunday and faced off in Round 1 of the In-Season Challenge last weekend. They have history, too, dating back to an incident at Iowa Speedway last summer. For the third caution of the race, Austin Hill crashed in between Turns 3 and 4 after contact from Shane van Gisbergen on Lap 48 -- an incident Hill believed was intentional. At both Pocono Raceway on June 14 and Naval Base Coronado on June 21, the drivers were involved in crashes together, with the latter coming during a battle for the lead. During the caution, Hamlin had a slow pit stop and dropped outside the top 20, but clawed back for stage points. Of note, Cindric stayed out during that yellow and held on with older tires to earn seven key points in his postseason quest. Note: Inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Briscoe as the Chicagoland winner. The Nos. 11 and 48 will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown inspection.  This story will be updated.