Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar-Korrespondent
At the South Point 400, Chase Briscoe led 175 of 267 laps and claimed his second win of the season, while Kyle Larson managed to keep his car off the wall in the closing corners.
Chase Briscoe won the South Point 400 on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning his second victory of the season and seventh Cup Series triumph of his career. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver controlled the fifth of ten playoff races from the front, while pole-sitter Denny Hamlin stumbled early and championship leader Kyle Larson had to battle back from a setback before finding himself tangled up with the outside wall on the final lap.
Dominant Display Over 175 Laps
Briscoe left no doubt from the start about who set the pace that Sunday. He won both Stage 1 and Stage 2, ultimately leading 175 of the 267 laps contested, more than half the race distance of just over 400 miles. Things tightened up only in the closing laps when Larson and Tyler Reddick (23XI Racing) closed in on his bumper.
In the end, Briscoe still crossed the line with a commanding 1.376-second advantage over Larson. It marked his second win of the season after narrowly missing out to Larson in Kansas the previous week. After the race, he spoke about redemption for his team as he moved up two spots in the playoff standings.
Hamlin's Spin Spoils the Pole Position
Denny Hamlin had secured the top starting spot with a qualifying time of 28.910 seconds and initially controlled the race from the front. Just before Stage 1 ended, however, he spun without contact, managed to avoid a caution, but damaged his front splitter in the process. His Toyota's handling suffered noticeably from that point forward.
To make matters worse, fuel pressure issues cropped up early in the final stage, pushing him further back. The pole-sitter wound up 16th, 22.076 seconds behind Briscoe. For the playoffs, it's a setback that meaningfully hurts Hamlin's chances of advancing, though in such a tight field he hasn't been eliminated just yet.
Drama in Turn 4: Larson's Wall Hit and Reddick's Spin
Kyle Larson's race day started anything but smoothly. A 26-second pit stop dropped him a lap down at one point. A caution, reportedly triggered by a tire failure on Zane Smith's car, brought him back onto the lead lap. From there, Larson clawed his way forward steadily and applied heavy pressure on Briscoe in the closing stages.
On the final lap, Larson made his move exiting Turn 4 on the outside line, lost control, and struck the wall. Tyler Reddick, running right behind, couldn't avoid the contact, tagged Larson's rear, and spun across the infield toward pit road. Both somehow made it to the finish, Larson in second, Reddick in third, just 3.292 seconds behind the winner.
For the championship, the outcome means one thing above all: Larson holds the playoff standings lead despite the hard wall contact, with roughly a 40-point cushion. With Briscoe, who also benefited from stage wins and a full 75 points for the victory, and a battered Hamlin, the next playoff stop should reveal just how tightly bunched the field really is in this decisive stretch.
