NASCAR
Chase Briscoe Holds Off Late Surge From Christopher Bell for Chicagoland Checkers
JOLIET, Ill. – In shades of 2018 and 2019’s thrilling finishes, the 2026 NASCAR return to Chicagoland Speedway saw late fireworks. Chase Briscoe inherited the lead after pitting a lap later than William Byron, and kept a hard charging Christopher Bell at bay down the stretch. Despite Bell having a faster car over the closing laps, the 20 could not muster by the 19.
The opening stages saw a few hair-raising incidents, including Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar tangling in turn two. A few laps later, Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill traded blows with the No. 33 suffering major race-ending damage.
These two have history. pic.twitter.com/v67sRrJRxy
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 5, 2026
.@_AustinHill after being wrecked out:
“If I need to explain it, you need glasses…”
“I’ll leave it in NASCAR’s judgment…”
“I don’t know how much I would get out of him [by talking]…it’s Shane…”#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/pqQbvpAutz
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 5, 2026
William Byron led most of the race’s first half, sweeping both stages with relative ease. The No. 24’s breakout run of 2026 was only derailed by Chase Briscoe pitting a lap later and cycling out to the point. This exchange happened in the final round of green flag pit stops around 50 laps left. Byron was never able to regain lost ground, eventually falling back to fourth behind a Joe Gibbs Racing top-three sweep.
“How about that race?” Briscoe said. “Was that a good race? It felt awesome. Yeah, what an unbelievable weekend. I feel so American winning in the Bass Pro Shops Red, White, and Blue car, 4th of July weekend, 250 years. Man, just what an unbelievable race car. James [Small, crew chief] did a great job. Team did a pretty job. Honestly did not see this coming.”
“I kind of felt like I was struggling in practice, in qualifying, but James and the group did a great job. Man, just so cool to get this paint scheme back in victory lane. Appreciate all of our partners, Free Bird, Zep, we got all kinds, Wix, obviously, Tracker Boats, TrueTimber camo. Appreciate each and every personal — Mobil 1 too — that makes this happen. What a cool weekend to win a NASCAR race.”
“Me and [James Small] are about the two most polar opposites in the world. He stays on me and makes me be perfect each and every lap and does a great job of keeping me honest. He told me if I win today, I can get some chocolate, so I’m pretty fired up about that.”
“I kind of got lucky having lapped cars. I was struggling pretty bad. Christopher was certainly coming. Out of all the people to race against, I knew Christopher was going to be clean with me. JGR ran 1, 2. I don’t know if we were 3rd, 4th either. I thought that was about as good as I race you could get. The cat-and-mouse game, and we were slipping and sliding around. Hopefully you could see it on TV. So excited to be back in Chicagoland. Hopefully we can be back.”
Rounding out a Joe Gibbs Racing trio behind Briscoe and Bell was Denny Hamlin, who started on pole and extends his points lead. The Hendrick duo of William Byron and Alex Bowman were not far back in fourth and fifth. The rest of Chicagoland’s top-10 were: Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim, and Riley Herbst. This marks Toyota’s first time ever getting seven of the top-10 finishers of a Cup race. Hear from a few of these drivers below.
“Great race, great track, great car…our cars are amazing, a monkey could drive these things, it’s hard to screw it up but we almost did today with pit road contact” @CBellRacing after being oh so close but finishing 2nd at Chicagoland to teammate Briscoe. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/yQH56Mzh8s
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 6, 2026
.@dennyhamlin says he tried running the fence and it was straight marbles, saying team 11 lost control of the race in stage 3.
Hamlin extends his points lead now to 44 points over Reddick with a 3rd-place run tonight.
In Atlanta next week the 11 will be against Bell, who… pic.twitter.com/iTCSSbELja
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 6, 2026
.@WilliamByron was the dominant man of the night, the 24 paced the field for 94 laps at Chicagoland, but says Toyotas were still faster in the last run. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/37uuRF39ed
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 6, 2026
“It feels really good cuz of how bad everything else has been…we made the car better all night”
2019 and defending @ChicagolndSpdwy winner @Alex_Bowman leaves tonight’s return race in the top-5. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/VW7nUjeo3p
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 6, 2026
Seven races now remain until The Chase, with Cup now heading back to Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway. The Georgia green flag will fly Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The Quaker State 400 is the first repeat race of the season, with Tyler Reddick eyeing a sweep.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo credits to Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
