Chase Briscoe wins at Chicagoland: Joe Gibbs Racing locks out the podium, Toyota dominates NASCAR Cup Series return race
Chase Briscoe claimed his first victory of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season after winning the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, on July 05, 2026. According to NASCAR's official report, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver held off pressure from teammate Christopher Bell in the closing stages and crossed the finish line with a 0.276-second advantage. Third place went to Denny Hamlin, also from Joe Gibbs Racing, so the team completely marked the return of the NASCAR Cup Series to the 1.5-mile tri-oval after seven years off the calendar. For Briscoe, it was his first win of the season, his first at Chicagoland Speedway and the sixth of his career in NASCAR's top tier. The result also confirmed a strong evening for Toyota, because according to NASCAR's report, seven cars from that manufacturer finished among the top ten, which was described as Toyota's highest performance in a single Cup Series race.
Finish decided by pit strategy
The race was controlled for a long time by William Byron, who according to NASCAR's official data won both opening stages and led the most laps, but the finish belonged to Briscoe after a key strategy change during the final cycle of pit stops. NASCAR Wire Service states that Byron was leading when Briscoe entered the pits on lap 215 of a total of 267, while Byron reacted one lap later. That difference proved decisive: Briscoe took the lead in the exchange and then held it for the final 46 laps, although Bell gradually reduced the gap in the closing laps. Byron eventually finished fourth, behind the Joe Gibbs Racing trio, while Alex Bowman recorded fifth place and his first top-five finish since the race in Texas in May.
According to NASCAR's report, the final stage passed without new caution flags after the restart on lap 172, which left the leading crews with very little room for adjustments. In those circumstances, Briscoe had to manage the tires, lapped traffic and Bell's pressure, and in the very closing stages he was helped by cars that were one lap behind the leaders. After the race, Briscoe said he had been lucky with the lapped cars, but also stressed that he expected a clean fight because he had a teammate on the other side. Bell ran out of sufficient grip in the dirty air behind the leading car on the final lap, so he was unable to launch an attack that would have brought him his first win of the season. NASCAR's official results table shows that Briscoe led 51 laps, Hamlin 30, and Bubba Wallace 35 laps, confirming that the race did not come down to the dominance of one driver but to a tactical turnaround in the closing stages.
Joe Gibbs Racing earns major team result
Joe Gibbs Racing achieved a 1-2-3 finish with Briscoe, Bell and Hamlin, and NASCAR Wire Service reported that it was the eighth such result in the organization's history. It is especially important that such an achievement happened in a race that had broader significance because of Chicagoland Speedway's return to the Cup calendar. Hamlin began the weekend by winning pole position, and Jayski relayed the official qualifying data according to which a lap of 30.296 seconds and an average speed of 178.241 miles per hour gave Hamlin his fourth pole position of the season and the 52nd of his career. In the race, however, he had to fight his way through after a slower stop in the first stage, but in the closing stages he again reached the battle for the podium. Briscoe's victory in the No. 19 car further strengthened the impression that Joe Gibbs Racing, in the middle of the regular part of the season, had found depth of results across all its main cars.
Toyota extracted an almost maximum result from the race. In addition to the three Joe Gibbs Racing cars on the podium, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst finished among the top ten, giving the Japanese manufacturer and its partner teams a very strong argument on a track that traditionally rewards aerodynamic efficiency, stability in traffic and good pace over long runs of laps. According to the official report, seven Toyota cars in the top 10 were a record achievement for the manufacturer in a single Cup Series race. Such a result is particularly valuable because Chicagoland is a 1.5-mile intermediate oval, a type of track that often serves as an indicator of form for a larger part of the calendar. For Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, the victory was not only an individual success but confirmation that, strategically and technically, they were one step ahead of the competition in the decisive part of the race.
Byron left without victory after winning two stages
William Byron was the central figure of the first part of the race. According to NASCAR, he won the first stage, which lasted 80 laps, then also won the second stage and entered the closing phase as the driver with the best control of the race. His No. 24 Chevrolet showed speed in clean air, and the official results record that he finished fourth with a large number of laps led. Still, the decisive green-flag cycle changed the balance of power, because Briscoe gained the key track position by entering the pits earlier. After the race, according to NASCAR Wire Service, Byron said the victory had been close and that the team had been seeking it for some time, but that in the final run of laps he did not have the pace to respond to Briscoe and the cars with fresher tires.
Byron's result remains important in the context of the battle for the regular season and the In-Season Challenge, but Chicagoland will remain a missed opportunity for his team. Hendrick Motorsports had another car with major potential in Kyle Larson, but Larson's race was compromised on lap 93. NASCAR states that Larson, while running third, spun on the exit of Turn 4 and remained in the grass, which caused him to lose several laps while safety crews returned him to the track. He finished only 34th, which at the same time allowed Byron to advance in the In-Season Challenge in their head-to-head matchup. That outcome showed how much Chicagoland punished even the smallest mistake, especially in phases of the race in which the leaders' pace was high and track positions were difficult to recover.
Restless first two stages and problems for rivals
Although the finish was clean and tactical, the first two stages brought a series of incidents. NASCAR reported that already on the first lap there was a crash in which Ryan Preece ran into trouble after contact and congestion in Turn 2, while rookie Connor Zilisch lost control while avoiding the incident and hit the inside wall. Zilisch was evaluated and released from the infield care center, but finished the race without completing a lap, in 38th place. According to NASCAR, it was his seventh DNF of the season and fifth in the last seven races, although one week earlier at Sonoma Raceway he had achieved his first top-ten finish in the Cup Series. Preece returned to the race after repairs, but finished 32nd, losing important points in the fight around the playoff cutline.
Tyler Reddick suffered the second major blow. NASCAR reported that on lap 131, Reddick's No. 45 car, a Toyota from the 23XI Racing team, ran over a broken piece from another car that damaged the radiator. Because of fluid leaking onto the track, the caution flag came out, and Reddick had to go to the garage for repairs. It was a major blow for a driver who in the 2026 season already had five wins and earlier held a convincing points lead, but after problems in recent races had surrendered the top of the standings to Hamlin. According to NASCAR's official report, Reddick lost a large number of laps after the repair and, after Chicagoland, trailed Hamlin by 44 points in the overall standings.
Chicagoland's return had sporting and market significance
Chicagoland Speedway was not just another stop on the calendar. According to the track's own announcement, the eero 400 was sold out, and the organizer stated that fans from 31 countries and all 50 U.S. states were in the stands. The same announcement states that 59 percent of ticket buyers attended a NASCAR event for the first time, which gives additional weight to the track's return to the calendar. Chicagoland Speedway opened in 2001 and was part of NASCAR's top tier for 18 seasons before disappearing from the schedule after 2019. In the organizer's official description, it is described as a very competitive 1.5-mile tri-oval in Joliet, not far from the Chicago metropolitan area.
The track's return came at a time when intermediate ovals again have an important role in the Cup Series, especially after the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022. Chicagoland Speedway emphasized in its announcement that growing interest in such tracks was one of the reasons for increased demand. The race on July 05, 2026, offered exactly what such tracks often provide: a combination of long green-flag runs, sensitive aerodynamics in traffic, major pit-road significance and heavy consequences for every mistake. For NASCAR, a sold-out race and the international presence of the crowd were additional indicators that the return to Joliet can be viewed as both a sporting and commercial success.
Top 10 and continuation of the In-Season Challenge
The official top-ten order was completed by Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst. Briscoe earned 70 points for the victory according to NASCAR's official results page, while Byron, thanks to the stage wins and a large number of laps led, collected 53 points despite finishing fourth. The race had 28 lead changes among 13 drivers and seven caution periods lasting a total of 43 laps, confirming that the competitive rhythm was changeable before the final stage turned into a long strategic run. The final outcome gave Briscoe crucial momentum in the season, Bell another second place without a win and Hamlin a stable points result after pole position.
NASCAR also listed the pairings that advanced to the quarterfinals of the In-Season Challenge. Advancing were Briscoe over Ty Gibbs, Byron over Larson, Bowman over Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott over Michael McDowell, Hamlin over Erik Jones, Bell over Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland over Carson Hocevar and Blaney over Shane van Gisbergen. The next race of the In-Season Challenge and the regular part of the Cup Series is the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, scheduled for July 12, 2026, according to Eastern Time. After Chicagoland, Briscoe enters that weekend with his first win of the season, Joe Gibbs Racing with proof of team supremacy, and Toyota with its strongest collective performance of the season on one of the tracks that can be very important for the broader championship picture.
Sources:
- NASCAR – official race report for the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, including the winner, finish, stages, incidents and continuation of the In-Season Challenge (link)
- NASCAR – official race results page, order, margin of victory, number of laps led and points (link)
- NASCAR – official NASCAR Cup Series standings after Chicagoland Speedway, the 19th race of the 2026 season (link)
- Chicagoland Speedway – official announcement about the sold-out race, the track's return to the calendar, the international crowd and basic information about the track (link)
- Jayski – eero 400 race page with the schedule, qualifying data and information about the weekend at Chicagoland Speedway (link)