Home, sweet home! All three NASCAR national series are slated to compete at nearby Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend as The Chase presented by Mobil 1 continues. To celebrate, many race teams are holding fan days leading into the race weekend, which starts with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday, followed by the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday and capped with the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday.
See which teams are welcoming visitors for autograph sessions, live radio shows, sponsor activations and more. If you are coming to the Charlotte area, save this page for your race-weekend planning!
NOTE: Bookmark the websites below for the latest team news, highlights, interviews, features from NASCAR.com writers and more exclusive content.
RFK Racing: Blue Buffalo Day
When: Oct. 7 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET Where: 4202 Roush Place, Concord, N.C., 28027 Participating: Ryan Preece (and his dog) More information:Click here.
Legacy Motor Club
When: Oct. 8 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET
Where: 310 W. Aviation Dr., Statesville, N.C., 28677
Participating: Erik Jones, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Richard Petty (plus other appearances)
More information: Click here.
Niece Motorsports When: Oct. 8 from noon to 4 p.m. ET
Where: 3310 S. Main St., Salisbury, N.C., 28147
Participating: Ross Chastain, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Landen Lewis, Ron Hornaday, Andrés Pérez, Tyler Reif, Parker Eatmon, Connor Jones, Connor Hall, Donovan Strauss, Ben Maier, Matt Mills
More information: Click here.
Richard Childress Racing
When: Oct. 9 from 8 a.m. ET to 3 p.m. ET Where: 236 Industrial Dr., Lexington, N.C., 27295 Participating: TBD More information:Click here.
Joe Gibbs Racing
When: Oct. 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET
Where: 13415 Reese Blvd. W., Huntersville, N.C., 28078
Participating: Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series drivers
More information: Click here.
Hendrick Motorsports
When: Oct. 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Where: 4400 Papa Joe Hendrick Blvd., Charlotte, N.C., 28262
Participating: Kyle Larson, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Corey Day (plus other appearances)
More information:Click here.
Spire Motorsports When: Oct. 9 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET (team store opens at 8:30 a.m. ET)
Where: 351 Mazeppa Rd., Mooresville, N.C., 28115 Participating: Daniel Suárez, Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell More information: Click here.
Team Penske: Open House
When: Oct. 9 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET
Where: 200 Penske Way, Mooresville, N.C., 28115
Participating: TBD
More information: Click here.
JR Motorsports When: Oct. 9 starting at 10 a.m. ET
Where: 349 Cayuga Drive, Mooresville, N.C., 28117
Participating: Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Rajah Caruth, Jake Finch
After a week off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday for the third race in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 (5 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The event is the 21st points-paying race of the 2026 campaign.
Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs will look to bounce back after a disappointing 19th-place finish at Kansas Speedway and hunt down championship leader Kaden Honeycutt, who leads the No. 34 Ford driver by 37 points entering Charlotte.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Brent Crews will get behind the wheel of the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota. After a runner-up finish a couple of races ago at Bristol, Bayley Currey returns to the No. 5 Tricon Toyota.
Full-time O’Reilly Series driver Rajah Caruth is set to drive the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, while Regan Smith gets a second race in the No. 25 Kaulig Racing Ram after driving for the team at Bristol.
Thirty-six trucks are entered into Friday’s Queen City contest.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action on Saturday to battle at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Blue Cross NC 300 will be the fifth of nine races that make up The Chase presented by Mobil 1, with the 300-mile showdown also serving as the 29th points-paying event overall.
Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed continues to lead The Chase standings, holding a 19-point advantage over JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil entering the Queen City.
Carson Brown is set to make his second career O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start in the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet after finishing 15th at Iowa Speedway earlier this year in his debut. Austin Green will make his return to the O’Reilly Series for the first time since Sonoma Raceway in late June, driving the No. 87 Peterson Racing Chevrolet.
Thirty-eight cars are entered into this weekend’s Charlotte event.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads home to North Carolina for its third consecutive race on an intermediate track at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Bank of America 400 will be the sixth of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 and the 32nd points-paying event overall in 2026. This will be the first fall race on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval since October 2017, after using the Roval configuration from 2018 through 2025.
After Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson gutted out a runner-up finish at Las Vegas, he extended his championship lead at the halfway mark of The Chase to 40 points over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin entering Charlotte.
Three non-chartered entries will compete in the Charlotte fall race — Corey Heim in the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, Gray Gaulding in the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford and NY Racing Team’s No. 44 Chevrolet.
Thirty-nine cars are entered into this weekend’s Chase race.
LAS VEGAS — If there’s one thing the NASCAR Cup Series garage unequivocally agreed on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it’s that Kyle Larson is the standard right now.
Through five races of The Chase presented by Mobil 1, Larson has yet to finish outside the top five, with a mind-melting 2.2 average finish and 54.6 points per race.
Sunday was Larson’s grittiest performance yet for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team. With crew chief Cliff Daniels leading the rally, Larson charged back from a 26-second pit stop, falling off the lead lap and wading through abysmal early handling to contend for the win before finishing second.
Just when it seemed like Larson was due for his first day of postseason trouble, he, Daniels and Co. found a way back toward the top of the mountain all over again — spelling further trouble for his fellow Chase contenders behind him.
“We’vedoneitbefore,soit’snotlikeasurprise,” Larson said of his rally. “Becauseofthat,Iwasconfidentthatwecoulddigourselvesoutofitandpotentiallygetawinoutoftheday,andwealmostdidthat. Soyeah.Iwishourbalancehadbeenclosertofireoff justbecauseweleftsomanystagepointsoutthere.We’replus-40,anditcouldeasilybeplus-50.Soalittlebitofamissedopportunity,butdefinitelyagreatrebound,soyeah,happywiththefight.”
Another man satisfied with Larson’s resilience was Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman, legendary four-time Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer.
“Justsoproudofyouguys,man,” Gordon told Larson on pit road. “Thatwasahellofabattle.Iknowthatwasn’t funatthebeginning, but …”
“Itwasnot,” Larson said, “butitwas fun at the end.”
“That’schampionship-caliber effort right there, man,” Gordon said.
Gordon knows exactly what that looks like.
The NASCAR Hall of Famer exuded it for a decade before his own protégé, Jimmie Johnson, joined Hendrick Motorsports with crew chief Chad Knaus in 2002 and began rewriting NASCAR history. During Johnson’s unprecedented stretch of five consecutive Cup Series championships from 2006 through 2010, his best five-race start in The Chase was a 3.2 average finish in 2009. But something about how Johnson’s No. 48 team operated always stood out: even in the throes of adversity, Johnson and Knaus could overcome anything.
A prime example came during the 2008 edition of The Chase. On a day when Johnson was penalized and lapped early, Carl Edwards led 98 laps and stormed to the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway (now EchoPark Speedway), putting his elation on display in Victory Lane as he looked to chip into Johnson’s point lead. But mid-interview, Edwards learned Johnson had rallied all the way back to second place — and the dejection that crossed Edwards’ face summed up the No. 48 team’s peak.
The same sentiment was shared nearly 18 years later by Sunday’s race winner, Chase Briscoe. Briscoe swept both stages en route to the win, collecting 75 points and slicing 39 points from his deficit to Larson. He leaves Las Vegas 84 points behind the championship leader. But there in his shadow was the No. 5 car anyway — a team that has direct roots to the old No. 48 team, on which Daniels served as a race engineer from 2015 through 2018.
“Icouldseelikeaglimmeroflikeneonyellow (in the rearview mirror),andIcouldn’ttellifitwasBlaneyorLarson,” Briscoe recalled. “Ikeptthinking, ‘man,ifthat’sLarson,he’sgottobereally,reallygoodtobeabletogofromtheback,driveallthewaybacktothefield.’ Andyeah,obviouslyIsawkindofapeekofhimatlike10togo.I’mlike, ‘yep,that’sthe5.’ Andyeah,Imeanthey’reachampionship-caliberteam.Imean,theywonthechampionshiplastyear.They’ve wonthem inthepast,andthat’swhatultimatelychampionshipteamsdo.Theycanrallyfromstufflikethat.”
This time, the comeback began with a Stage 1 setback. Larson qualified sixth but quickly dropped to 14th in the first 33 laps. Daniels, in his ever-diligent, never-panic demeanor, crafted a plan for significant adjustments under green-flag conditions that ultimately led to a 26-second pit stop as the team adjusted the front ride heights and crossweight of the vehicle.
Larson admitted he didn’t think the stop or fix would take that long and worried the team had found something broken during the stop. Instead, while he did lose a lap in the process, he was able to take the wave around when the caution flag waved at Lap 45 for a crash by Zane Smith. Larson got back onto the lead lap, stayed there through another pit stop and eventually had a car capable of competing for the win.
“It took so long that, yeah, we came out behind the leaders, and I was like, ‘Damn, this is not good,’ ” Larson said. “But that caution coming out with minimal laps on our tires to do the wave really kind of saved our day.”
And in the process, Larson and Co. delivered dejection to the rest of his competitors.
Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season, has battled plenty of issues with his 23XI Racing team through the second half of the season. That continued Sunday at Las Vegas as the No. 45 Toyota dealt with voltage gremlins and the team had to swap out its battery during the Stage 1 break. This time, though, Reddick was able to storm back to a third-place finish — even after Larson bounced off the wall and contact between the two sent Reddick spinning coming to the checkered flag.
Christopher Bell ran the final half of the race without power steering. Crew chief Adam Stevens speculated that the power-steering cooler was cracked, allowing water into the system and boiling the power-steering fluid out of the car.
“Neverfunrunningwithoutpowersteering,” Bell said. “ButIdon’tknow,IgotintoaprettygoodrhythmwhereIcouldjustkindofrollaround,andmycarwashandlinggoodenoughthatIcouldjustrollaroundanddoOK.Justdisappointingtohaveagreatopportunityinfrontofusandnotcome awaywithit.”
Sitting third in points, Bell is still very much in contention for the championship, trailing Larson by 55 points. But a 19th-place finish at Gateway and a 23rd-place finish Sunday hinder those title hopes.
Briscoe has climbed to sixth and whittled his margin to 84 points, but he sees time running out.
Larson, meanwhile, has no intention of letting off the gas, seeking to continue his historic start to The Chase. He has gained 95 points on Hamlin through five races, transforming a 55-point deficit as the No. 7 seed into a 40-point championship lead.
Patrick Emerling, a Modified Tour winner at Thompson, enters the finale with a comfortable, 30-point advantage on Austin Beers in the race for the title. He’ll look to put the finishing touches on his first championship with a strong performance.
Saturday night’s event will mark the 161st Modified Tour race held at historic speedway dating back to 1985. Mike Stefanik leads all drivers with 15 Modified Tour wins at the track, with Justin Bonsignore right on his heels with 14 victories. Other notable winners include Ted Christopher, Jeff Fuller, Tony Hirschman, Doug Coby, Rick Fuller and the most recent Tour winner at the track, Matt Hirschman, among others.
Tickets to Saturday’s World Series 150 are available trackside. Below is everything you need to know about the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season finale.
No track has hosted more NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races than Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. (Photo: Jaiden Tripi/NASCAR)
World Series 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
In his ninth full season of Modified Tour racing, Patrick Emerling is on the verge of his first championship.
Emerling, a five-time winner this season in NASCAR’s oldest division, enters the finale at Thompson with a 30-point margin in the battle for the championship. A finish of 25th or better will clinch the championship for Emerling no matter what second-place Austin Beers does.
A win at Thompson would simply be icing on the cake for Emerling, but there’s a stout field of competitors who will look to deny Emerling that satisfaction.
Chief among them is Matt Hirschman, the most recent Thompson winner in Modified Tour competition. Hirschman also leads the FloRacing Connecticut Challenge, which concludes at Thompson. The four-race miniseries featuring the four Modified Tour events in the state of Connecticut will pay $7,500 to the champion.
Beers, who has gone winless thus far in 2026 with KLM Motorsports, will look to close the season with his first win at Thompson. While the championship seems unlikely, Beers can still end the season in Victory Lane if things go according to plan Saturday.
Justin Bonsignore and the Ken Massa Motorsports should also be among the contenders. Bonsignore enters the event with 14 Thompson victories, one shy of the record held by NASCAR Hall of Famer Mike Stefanik. A win Saturday would put Bonsignore in rarified air.
Another notable entry is that of Eric Goodale, who will make his 250th Modified Tour start Saturday. His most recent series victory came at Thompson in 2022, something he’d like to replicate this weekend.
Other notable entries include Stephen Kopcik, Teddy Hodgdon, Doug Coby, Jon McKennedy, Tyler Rypkema, Mike Christopher Jr., Chase Dowling and Paulie Hartwig III, among others.
Austin Beers (64) leads Matt Hirschman (60) during the Thompson 150 earlier this season at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. (Photo: Jaiden Tripi/NASCAR)
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Oct. 10: Practice at 5 p.m. … American Racer Pole Award qualifying at 6:30 p.m. … Start of the World Series 150 (150 Laps / 93.75 Miles) at 8 p.m. ET.
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. (EIRI) Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the World Series 150 presented by FloSports.com is limited to 30 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eleven (11) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by NASCAR Officials, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. The same four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. The remaining tire allotment may be used for change tires. Maximum of three (3) tires of the allotment may be used as change tires. The tire change rule is two (2) tires per stop. This includes “swapping” tires front to back.
The list of problems for drivers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was long, but that wasn’t the case for Chase Briscoe, who swept the stages en route to winning the South Point 400 and scoring 75 points on the day. It was Briscoe’s second win of the 2026 season, with both coming on 1.5-mile tracks, and with one more 1.5-mile track left in this all-important three-race stretch.
Here’s where we stand in The Chase after the NASCAR Cup Series left Las Vegas last night and before Sunday’s Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Even on what started out as a bad day, Kyle Larson had a good day, and that’s bad news for the rest of The Chase competitors. Larson rebounded from a 26-second pit stop in Stage 1 at Las Vegas and overcame an ill-handling car at times to finish second despite tangling with Tyler Reddick on the final lap and needing his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to be towed away from the race track. In other words, the door seemed to be open for someone to close the gap in the standings, but Larson just wouldn’t let it happen.
Now the field is left hoping just to hold serve against Larson at Charlotte, the final 1.5-mile track in this three-race stretch, before better opportunities to gain ground at Phoenix, Talladega and Martinsville come along. What his Las Vegas performance showed was that Larson can be a legitimate threat to win a race even when his equipment and setup might not be optimal. And that’s just the sign of a great driver, which we all knew Larson was, but sometimes need a reminder of from time to time to know just how great.
When Chase Briscoe’s crew chief James Small was asked after the Las Vegas win what his driver needs to do to catch Larson, he said it was simple, win more races. Except as Small and everyone else in NASCAR knows, it’s not that simple. And that’s especially true when you’re chasing someone as versatile, as resilient, and as seemingly unshakable as Larson.
The Chase Board
Denny Hamlin just keeps losing ground to Larson, and those who witnessed Hamlin’s dominance throughout the season are wondering when he’s finally going to take a stand. After a 16th-place finish at Las Vegas, Hamlin lost another 14 points to Larson and the gap is now 40 points heading to Charlotte. That margin is getting dangerously close to being unreachable in one race, so the time is now for Denny to do something. Hamlin has one win in 35 races at Charlotte, but it came in the Next Gen car in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600. He also had top-five finishes at Charlotte in 2024 and earlier this season. The last time the Bank of America 400 was on the oval track (2017), Hamlin finished fourth.
Christopher Bell was headed for a good day at Las Vegas until power-steering issues relegated him to a 23rd-place finish. Before that, Bell was running up front, finishing second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2. It was those 17 stage points that kept him afloat on a 31-point day at Las Vegas, but he still dropped five points to Larson in the standings and is 55 points behind heading to Charlotte. On the bright side, Bell has been great in the Next Gen car at Charlotte, with a win and three other top 10s in five appearances. So he might not be done yet.
Austin Cindric led another banner day for Team Penske with a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas, this following a second-place run at Kansas. Ryan Blaney (fifth place) and Joey Logano (10th) joined Cindric in the top 10 as Team Penske has found something for the 1.5-mile tracks. Cindric gained 12 points on Larson but still sits 128 points back and likely out of contention. Blaney gained 11 points to pull to within 80 points back while Logano lost four points to drop 71 points back. But if Blaney and Logano can gain ground at Charlotte, then they will be in good shape heading to favorable tracks in Phoenix and Talladega for the organization.
Rank
Driver
Points Behind
Gain/Loss to Leader
1
Kyle Larson
--
Gained 14
2
Denny Hamlin
-40
Lost 14
3
Christopher Bell
-55
Lost 5
4
Joey Logano
-71
Lost 4
5
Ryan Blaney
-80
Gained 11
6
Chase Briscoe
-84
Gained 39
7
Tyler Reddick
-106
Gained 5
8
Ty Gibbs
-110
Lost 16
9
Austin Cindric
-128
Gained 12
10
Bubba Wallace
-137
Gained 3
11
Carson Hocevar
-158
Lost 8
12
William Byron
-160
Lost 2
13
Chase Elliott
-163
Lost 2
14
Daniel Suárez
-195
Lost 8
15
Chris Buescher
-196
Lost 10
16
Ryan Preece
-200
Lost 27
Source: Racing Insights
Next Up
Charlotte Motor Speedway ends a stretch of three straight 1.5-mile tracks, and we’ve already talked about how some of the main competitors have done there in the past. This is the first time the oval will be in play for the fall race since 2017, so in a sense, everyone is coming in not knowing completely what to expect. Hopefully, the teams can get practice and qualifying in on Saturday to hone in on their setups for what will be another pivotal race in The Chase.
As one might expect, Hamlin is the top laps leader at Charlotte with 543, but he’s also the one with the most races there (35) by far. William Byron is next with 485 laps led (in just 10 races), followed by Larson with 447, Chase Elliott with 342 and Logano with 340. The mantle of most wins among active drivers belongs to non-Chase driver Brad Keselowski with two. After that, seven Chase drivers have one win at the track, including Elliott, Logano, Larson, Hamlin, Suárez, Blaney and Bell.
In average finish, it’s Tyler Reddick at the top at 9.5 (in eight races), Bell at 11.8 (in eight races), followed by Hamlin (11.8), Logano (13.1) and Byron (13.2). Expect The Chase contenders to be running up front and for all of them to have their eyes on Larson. And like Las Vegas, how teams react to the unexpected could be a big factor, as well as how many unforced errors they can avoid themselves.
LAS VEGAS — The steady progress made behind the scenes at Team Penske is finally translating on intermediate tracks. Its trio of teams reaped the rewards at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, putting all three entries inside the top 10 and keeping the organization’s championship hopes firmly intact.
Despite Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney cracking the top five in last week’s showdown at Kansas Speedway, questions remained about whether Team Penske had truly turned the corner at the 1.5-mile tracks in the heart of The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Was Kansas merely a blip, or could the organization sustain its upward trajectory in Sin City?
The two champion teammates of Blaney and Joey Logano wasted little time climbing up the leaderboard from mid-pack starting spots in Sunday’s South Point 400. Blaney raced to third in the opening stage, with Cindric two positions behind. Logano narrowly missed out on stage points, taking the green-and-checkered flag in 12th place.
While championship hopefuls stumbled throughout the 267-lap affair, all three Penske cars remained steady. The lone misstep came from the No. 2 team, which fumbled its pit stop at the conclusion of Stage 1. A Lap 94 debris caution gave crew chief Brian Wilson an opportunity to get ahead of the strategy, however, calling Cindric to pit road while the bulk of the field stayed out. Cindric then stretched his fuel mileage to the end of the stage, finishing runner-up to Chase Briscoe.
“We didn’t start the race necessarily as close as we needed to and didn’t start practice as close as we needed to, but the guys worked on it all day and gave us some strengths that we didn’t have before,” Cindric said after the race, earning consecutive top-five finishes for the first time in his 182-race career. “It takes a great team.”
Blaney scored 15 stage points Sunday afternoon, tied with Cindric for third-most in the race. During a caution-free final segment, Cindric passed his teammate to finish fourth, giving both drivers top-five finishes in consecutive weeks. Logano rounded out the top 10.
With Kyle Larson’s early woes, Blaney gained 11 points on his championship deficit, now 80 markers behind the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Logano surrendered only four points to the championship lead, merely a net positive for the No. 22 team at an intermediate track.
“Our mile-and-a-half stuff has definitely been getting better and better,” Blaney told NASCAR.com. “Props to everybody for that. That’s encouraging. Just try to keep going; try to take little chunks at a time.
“I think we’re definitely on the right path. I do think there’s a little way to go for raw speed, especially early in runs — [Briscoe] was lights out early in runs. He faded but built the gap to where we couldn’t quite make it up. We’re getting there, but definitely not where we want to be, but you’ve got to start somewhere.”
Logano was pleased with the progress from the Las Vegas race in March, when he took the checkered flag in 15th. That makes consecutive strong performances at 1.5-mile tracks for the No. 22 team, though he corded a tire in the waning laps at Kansas and limped to 20th in the final rundown.
“There were moments where we were good on the short run and moments we were good on the long run, but having both, it was hard to have that,” Logano said. “Just an OK day. But OK on a mile-and-a-half is improvement for us.”
Cindric remains ninth on the Chase grid and needs to convert a few Hail Marys to erase a 128-point deficit with five races remaining in the 2026 season. Logano (minus-71) and Blaney (minus-80), meanwhile, still believe they are within striking distance, particularly with the way the back half of the postseason schedule is shaping up.
“We’re close enough to say we can do it,” Logano said. “We’re right on the edge, though. We can race with nothing to lose because we’re right on that edge of being able to win the championship.”
Said Blaney: “Still doable. I would have rather gained 11 today than lose 11.”
The swing of intermediate races concludes on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Penske earned a pair of top 10s (Blaney seventh, Logano eighth) during the Coca-Cola 600 in May.
Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick tangled on the last lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, going for wild rides but ultimately holding their positions at the finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson was running second as he pursued eventual winner Chase Briscoe, and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet clanged against the outside retaining wall as he rode the high groove at the end of Sunday’s South Point 400. He slowed after the contact, and Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota piled in before it veered sharply into the infield grass.
Larson kept his Kyle Busch tribute car rolling with sizable right-side damage and ended up second, 1.376 seconds behind Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at the checkered flag. Reddick ended up third.
“I was just trying to push it through (Turns) 3 and 4 to build some momentum at him and try to get by him down the straightaway,” said Larson, who has now finished first or second in the last four Cup Series races. “I just got really loose and overcorrected it into the wall. Thankfully, I was able to limp it home. It got exciting, for sure. I wish I could have won in this paint scheme while honoring Kyle because that would have been in very Kyle Busch fashion, but again, it was a great fight by this team.”
Larson, who recovered from early handling woes that left him a lap down to eventually contend in the late going, expanded his lead in the Cup Series standings to 40 points over second-place Denny Hamlin in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 postseason. He described Sunday’s showing as “a fight all day long.”
Reddick, who rallied after mechanical trouble early on, gained five points on the leader but sits 106 points out. He equaled his best finish in this year’s Chase, a third-place finish from the pole in the postseason opener last month at Darlington Raceway.
“That pretty much sums up what today was like,” Reddick said of the closing laps. “Just one thing after another for us. Just really proud of everyone’s effort on this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry. We didn’t lose a lap changing the battery there, and we were able to drive back to the front — it just took too long. It put us in a spot where we had to be perfect on that final run, and unfortunately, we had some more mistakes and we came out behind the 5 (Larson) after we got by him in the first part of that run.
“I think ultimately that was the difference. If we could have stayed ahead of him leaving pit road, I think we get to those cars first and maybe don’t burn up as much. I think we could have won today.”
LAS VEGAS – This was supposed to be the week Denny Hamlin quelled all concerns and fought back into definitive championship contention. Instead, his title hopes may have dimmed … again.
Starting from the Busch Light pole position, Hamlin had ample speed in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But by the end of the opening stage, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was coming from behind.
Hamlin spun from fourth place while chasing Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney with three laps remaining in Stage 1, costing himself crucial stage points. Cutting across the apron damaged the splitter on the No. 11, and his car was never the same afterward.
“Just trying to make up track position that we lost and trying to push to get it back,” Hamlin told a group of reporters after taking the checkered flag in 16th position. “Evidently, there was marbles or something up there – it was quite odd. I went up there to try to get a run and just spun out and obviously damaged the car.
“They are telling me every point matters, and I was trying to get the spots back that we lost.”
The damage to Hamlin’s track position was done well before the Lap 77 spin. When Zane Smith spun on Lap 43, Chris Gayle, crew chief of the No. 11, called Hamlin to pit road for two fresh Goodyear tires. It proved to be a double whammy: Kyle Larson’s No. 5 team had taken a major gamble during the opening stage and lost a lap after a 26-second pit stop for mass adjustments, but the caution allowed him to take the wave-around. Eight cars stayed on the track, putting Hamlin ninth for the restart.
Hamlin worked his way back to fourth with relative ease, but closing the gap to the two cars ahead proved far more difficult. In hindsight, Gayle admitted he would like a mulligan on the decision, opting instead to keep Hamlin on the track rather than send him to pit road and drop the No. 11 back through the field.
“I worry more about the part of it that I can control and the part of it I can control is, I probably should not have pitted there,” a fiery Gayle said post-race. “That’s what took us from the lead — the 19 and 20 stayed behind us and a few guys after the green-flag cycle that stayed there. That’s where we pit, I knew five or six guys would stay out — we had a couple more better cars with the 19 and 20 staying out.”
After dropping into the low 20s, Hamlin rallied to 14th by the end of Stage 2. His race took another major hit on Lap 170 when the No. 11 lost fuel pressure while preparing for a restart, costing him another 12 positions. Hamlin clawed back a handful of spots over the final 96-lap run to finish 16th, second among the Joe Gibbs Racing entries after the organization had its cars running first through fourth in the opening laps, seemingly setting the stage for a Toyota runaway.
Instead, Larson holds the championship lead by 40 points over Hamlin with five races remaining in the 2026 campaign.
“You just have to play the ball where it lies,” Hamlin said, “and where it lies is we have a little gap we’ve got to make up so we’ve got to perform at our best.”
Gayle was even more frustrated to have surrendered 14 points on a day when the No. 11 team appeared poised to gain momentum.
“It sucked. It don’t matter, what did we finish 16th? I didn’t even look at it, I was so mad,” a blunt Gayle stated. “Great that we’re only 40 out, so we gave up 14. Great that we didn’t give up more than that because we probably deserved to.”
Through the first five events in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, Hamlin has an average finish of 10.8, scoring a best of third last week at Kansas Speedway. Compare that to Larson’s heater of a 2.2 average finish in those same races — all top fives — and the No. 5 team has gained 95 points on the No. 11 bunch in that timeframe.
Hamlin and the JGR brass know that, despite the speed bumps that have dotted the first half of the postseason, there is still plenty of racing left before the championship is settled.
“We haven’t had any [catastrophic] days but certainly had our fair share of not performing,” a subdued Hamlin said. “Today, leaving a bazillion points on the table considering where we were before the wreck.”
But team owner Joe Gibbs has seen this story before and isn’t willing to give up hope yet.
“I think it’s pretty miraculous considering everything that’s happened in these first five races,” Gibbs acknowledged. “Everybody can see, you win a race and have a day like Chase [Briscoe] did today, you get 70-something points – I think that’s where we are with the 11. We need a win, and I think we will be right on top of it. We’ve got five races. I only go off of the first five and it’s been wild. I think the next five will be the same way.”
In his ninth full season of Modified Tour racing, Patrick Emerling is on the verge of his first championship.
