Chase Briscoe wins again, climbs to fourth in Cup standings

NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 16, 2026

Briscoe surge

Chase Briscoe turned the NASCAR Cup Series title race on its head with back-to-back wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the run pushed him to fourth in the standings. He finished second at Kansas before those victories, then cut 58 points off Kyle Larson over the last two races to tighten the chase at the front. Briscoe sat 65 points behind Larson with four races left, and he was trying to win a third consecutive race as the pressure built on everyone near the top of the standings. The streak also changed the flow of the championship fight in another way, because Briscoe’s wins kept Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin out of Victory Lane and left Larson in control of the points lead. Briscoe’s title profile still trailed the top three, but the climb had been fast. NASCAR.com’s forecast model gave him a 4.6% chance to win the championship before this stretch. The model said Briscoe’s championship odds would rise to nearly 20% with three straight wins and 55% with four, a climb that would put real pressure on the drivers ahead of him.

Larson lead

Larson still entered Phoenix Raceway as the Cup Series Chase leader, and the model gave him the strongest title chance at 72.5%. Bell sat next at 10.6%, Hamlin followed at 8.9% and Briscoe remained the long shot at 4.6%, but the gap had shrunk enough to make every race count. The model also made clear how quickly the balance could have shifted if the recent results had gone the other way. If Bell or Hamlin had won both of the last two races, either driver would have moved ahead of Larson as the title favorite. Larson’s hold on the top spot was backed by strong Phoenix numbers. Among the top six in points, he had the best average start at 6.8 and the best average finish at 10.0 at the track, and he had one win in 24 starts there. That record gave him a solid baseline for the next stop in the playoffs, even as Briscoe’s surge added another challenger to a chase that already featured Bell and Hamlin at the front of the discussion. Joey Logano brought the most Phoenix wins in the field with four, and Hamlin, Bell and Ryan Blaney each had two.

Phoenix outlook

Briscoe headed to Phoenix Raceway for the Freeway Insurance 500 with momentum, belief and a track that already sat in his history. Phoenix was the site of his first Cup Series victory in 2022, and he said he felt confident about what lay ahead there, at Talladega Superspeedway and at Homestead. Martinsville, he said, was the biggest question mark for his team, and Talladega was the place where he expected the championship fight to come down to. That made Phoenix an important test, but not the only one that would shape his run over the final four races. Briscoe had already shown he could climb quickly when the opportunity opened up, and the last two wins gave him a clear lane into the title picture. Larson still held the edge on paper and on the points sheet, but Briscoe’s recent pace had forced the conversation to widen.