Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar Correspondent
Between a canceled qualifying session, a photo finish, and a wreck in Turn 2, the Bank of America 400 showcased the full spectrum of the Chase.
Chase Briscoe won the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte on Sunday with a 0.029-second margin over his teammate Christopher Bell, the tightest finish of the 2026 season, after rain wiped out all practice and qualifying on Saturday and forced the starting lineup to be determined by formula instead. Between a pole position earned without a single lap on track Saturday and the checkered flag Sunday lay a weekend that proved just how little a calculated starting spot tells you about actual race pace.
The computer-generated pole didn't hold up
Kyle Larson went to the green as the points leader from pole position without needing to turn a lap, rain having erased practice and qualifying entirely Saturday, with the starting lineup determined by NASCAR's formula for canceled qualifying sessions. On track, that starting position barely held up: Larson led for 97 laps, more than any other driver, and claimed Stage 1, but fell back to sixth place by the finish, 10.133 seconds behind the winner. For the championship picture, it proved manageable. Larson still leads the driver standings with 2367 points over Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, and even extended his margin over Hamlin from 40 to 49 points, partly because Hamlin went scoreless in Stage 1 after a safety-rule violation on his first pit stop.
Chase Briscoe, starting second alongside Larson, capitalized on a caution at lap 205 to gain ground on pit road and took the lead after the restart at lap 211, which he never relinquished despite teammate Bell closing to within 0.029 seconds in the final five laps as Briscoe got stuck in lapped traffic and, by his own account, had a tire going down; the two Toyotas even made contact in the tri-oval. For Briscoe it was a second straight win after Las Vegas and already his third of the season, a result that moved him up two spots to fourth in the driver standings with 2302 points. Bell, meanwhile, climbed with second place to within two points of Hamlin for second in the overall standings, a gap that could easily shift as the Chase unfolds.
Berry, Heim, and Bell: who gained the most from the grid
No driver improved from the formula grid to the checkered flag more dramatically than Corey Heim. The 23XI driver started 37th and finished 11th, a 26-position jump that made him the most eye-catching performer of the day. Josh Berry was nearly as impressive, advancing from 27th to fourth and becoming the best finisher outside the Chase, just 0.860 seconds behind Blaney in third.
Christopher Bell also ranked among the day's big gainers with a jump from 17th on the grid to second at the finish, as did Connor Zilisch, who moved from 36th to 21st, and Zane Smith, improving from 34th to 20th. In the middle of the pack, Spire Motorsports held solid ground with Daniel Suárez in 13th and Carson Hocevar in 14th, along with RFK Racing's Chris Buescher in 10th and Ryan Preece in 15th, while Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen ran significantly stronger in seventh than Ross Chastain in 16th.
At the other end of the spectrum, Austin Cindric lost 12 positions from fifth on the grid to 17th and now sits eighth in the driver standings with 2222 points, behind Tyler Reddick. Ty Gibbs fared even worse: he crashed at lap 41 from a 14th-place start and spent seven laps on repairs, ultimately finishing 34th, eight laps down, a setback for a driver currently ninth in the standings with 2211 points.
Byron and Wallace: the Chase setback in Turn 2
The race was marred by a lap-77 accident when Alex Bowman lost control exiting Turn 2 and collided with William Byron and Bubba Wallace. For Byron and Wallace, the day ended after 76 laps, with Wallace hitting the outside wall hard alongside Bowman; both were credited with retirements 191 laps down, Byron in 39th and Wallace in 37th. For two Chase contenders, that weighs heavily on the standings: Byron now sits 13th with 2159 points, Wallace 11th with 2182 points.
Further back in the field, the return of Gray Gaulding provided its own footnote: his first Cup start in 124 races ended with a spin after light contact with Tyler Reddick; the ensuing caution at lap 205 ultimately decided the race. For Hendrick Motorsports, the afternoon proved mixed: Larson logged the most laps led in the field while Byron and Bowman as teammates both exited early. Joe Gibbs Racing, by contrast, underscored its current strength with the one-two finish from Briscoe and Bell, sending Hamlin, Bell, and Briscoe, three drivers in the top four of the standings, into the coming races. How durable that advantage proves may only become clear when the Chase tightens and points become critical for drivers like Byron, Wallace, or Cindric to keep from falling behind.
