Chase Briscoe holds off teammate Christopher Bell in Charlotte to win 2nd straight playoff race

CONCORD, N.C. — Chase Briscoe is getting the hang of winning close races.

Briscoe held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell to win his second straight NASCAR playoff race in a photo finish on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, vaulting him into contention to earn his first Cup Series championship.

The .029-second margin of victory was the second closest since CMS opened in 1960, ranking behind only Jimmie Johnson's .027-second win over Bobby Labonte in 2005.

The two drivers traded paint on the final lap, but Briscoe maintained control of his No. 19 Toyota and reached the finish line about a half-car length ahead of Bell.

"I don't know what it is about these finishes. I have to quit making it so exciting at the end," said Briscoe, who had to hold off playoff points leader Kyle Larson to win last week at Las Vegas.

It was the eighth win of Briscoe's career and third this season. He led 62 laps.

Briscoe said he felt like his right front tire was going down on the final laps, but was able to hold it together.

"When I got beyond those final lapped cars with five or six (laps) to go, I felt like I was going to knock the wall down," Briscoe said. "At one point it just quit turning."

Ryan Blaney finished third, followed by Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin and Larson.

Briscoe was 123 points behind Larson prior to last week's win, but the back-to-back victories have cut the deficit to 65 points and put him in fourth place with four races left.

Gibbs said he was just happy his drivers didn't wreck each other.

"That's always when I'm the most nervous, when a couple of our guys are running up front," Gibbs said. "I know how badly all of our guys want to win. ... That's when my blood pressure and heartbeat gets accelerated."

Hamlin is now 49 points behind Larson in the Chase, followed by Bell, who is 51 points back.

Larson called it a "good, solid day" and was happy to extend his playoff lead by nine points.

Hamlin won the regular season championship, but has struggled to find victory lane in the playoffs. He seemed perplexed why he hasn't been able to regain the speed he had before the postseason.

"We got to execute better, be a little faster — all of the above," Hamlin said. "We're giving it all we got right now."

It didn't help that Hamlin was sent to the rear of the field for a loose tire penalty on pit road on his first stop.

Larson, who entered the race with five top five finishes including two wins in the postseason, started on the pole based on NASCAR's metric system after Saturday's qualifying was rained out.

He made the most of the pole position, dominating the race early by leading 68 of the 80 laps in the first stage to collect the maximum number of points in stage one.

Bell caught Larson and won the second stage.

Several Chase contenders ran into problems in the first stage.

Ty Gibbs broke a toe link in his No. 54 Toyota causing him to hit the outside wall. Joey Logano, with nowhere to go, slammed into Gibbs from behind. Gibbs headed behind the wall for repairs and fell several laps behind, while Logano was sent to the back of the field.

And, near the end of the first stage, Alex Bowman's car got loose and ran up the track and into Bubba Wallace's car, collecting William Byron in the mix. Wallace climbed out of his car, but was taken to the infield medical center in an ambulance.

The crash sent all three cars behind the wall.

"I just got loose," Bowman said. "Honestly, I had been really tight. As soon as it got to the exit of the corner, it snapped and it kind of didn't stand a chance. Unfortunately, I grabbed too much wheel, overcorrected it and got in those two guys' (Wallace and Byron) way. I hate that for the No. 24 and No. 23 teams. It's one thing to get loose and crash, but to ruin their days too really sucks."

After eight years, CMS and NASCAR said goodbye to the "roval," changing the fall race from a road course back to the traditional 1 1/2-mile oval course. That came as NASCAR shifted away from road courses and placed more emphasis on intermediate oval tracks before the season.

Drivers seemed to be in favor of the change.

"I appreciate the roval for what it was, and I've enjoyed the handful of years that we did it to start," Chris Buescher said. "Charlotte has so much character. It's put on some really good races and I think that was the big push to get us back on the oval."

The Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona next Sunday.

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