Chase Briscoe has Made Kyle Larson’s Life “Uncomfortable” at the Top

The start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup chase was really challenging for Chase Briscoe, but with his impressive wins at Las Vegas and Charlotte, the veteran has turned his season around. He is currently P4 in the championship table, 65 points behind leader Kyle Larson. His teammate Denny Hamlin is P2 with 49 points deficit and Christopher Bell at P3 with a 51 points gap.

The Joe Gibbs Racing trio finding form and the No:19 team winning back-to-back races has put a lot of pressure on the No:5 team. The Hedrick Motorsports driver talked about its post-race at Charlotte. Larson admitted that he isn’t comfortable with the position he is in, as more wins from his main rival would eliminate his points lead significantly.

I won’t feel comfortable until it’s over. I mean, obviously, like Briscoe winning and having a good day, like you can take big chunks out if you win.

Kyle Larson said after Charlotte race.

Further talking about the point, Kyle Larson highlighted how some of the upcoming four tracks in the chase give him a lot of confidence as they have a solid history there. On the other tracks, he has to perform on the same way as he did on Sunday at Charlotte, maximizing on points with the car that was not among the fastest on the day.

We’re gonna go to some tracks where others are really good at here coming up, and just got to keep putting in days like we did today when we weren’t the fastest but still get good points.

Kyle Larson added via nascar.com.

Cliff Daniels

Cliff Daniels shared his thoughts on Kyle Larson’s championship hopes

The No:5 crew chief Cliff Daniels also talked about his driver’s championship chances post-race. He admitted that the Toyota cars pace this week gave his side a solid reality check and they need to work behind to scenes avoid any such mishaps in the future.

I mean the Toyotas were really fast, and honestly, a good reality check for us. I think that they’re pushing hard and we have to continue to push ourselves really hard. Up front earlier, our car was OK. I think Stage 2, we weren’t bad. Stage 3, when we got back in traffic, we just weren’t quite as strong, and we’ll certainly pick through what we could have done better to try to keep up with the track, with the car.

Cliff Daniels said.

He admittee that they have to make their cars better, find that one solution that could earn them back the speed advantage for the reminder of the soon. Daniels seems to looking to find motivation to push forward for the rest of the season.  

Kyle, talking to me after the race, said, ‘Man, I just didn’t feel that bad. Just need a little bit of this or that.’ So again, good reality check for how fast those guys are, and yeah, we’ve just got to keep pushing hard for the next four.

Cliff Daniels added.

Kyle Larson is currently on the best spot to defend his 2025 championship and if he can maintain his impressive run of finishing inside the top-5 for the remaining four races of the season, the title would the No:5 team to go back home with. It would be interesting to how everything is going to playout for the veteran in the coming days.

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