Chase Briscoe Ends His Slump With a Joe Gibbs Racing Sweep at Chicagoland
Briscoe's first win since Talladega led a JGR 1-2-3 finish in NASCAR's return to Chicagoland — and seven Toyotas finished in the top ten, a manufacturer record.
Chase Briscoe won the Eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 5, ending a winless stretch that dated back to Talladega in October 2025 and picking up the sixth Cup Series win of his career. Briscoe's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota beat Christopher Bell to the line by just 0.276 seconds, with Denny Hamlin over three seconds back in third — a full Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the podium in NASCAR's return to the Chicagoland oval.
William Byron led Hendrick Motorsports home in fourth after sweeping both stages and leading a race-high 94 of the 267 laps, with teammate Alex Bowman fifth. Bubba Wallace was the top-finishing 23XI Racing entry in sixth, part of a trio of 23XI cars inside the top ten that also included part-timer Corey Heim in ninth — though regular driver Tyler Reddick fell well back after a piece of debris pierced his radiator. Seven Toyota drivers finished inside the top ten overall, a new single-race record for the manufacturer. Only 16 cars finished on the lead lap, with Austin Hill and rookie Connor Zilisch the race's only two DNFs; it was Zilisch's fourth last-place finish in a rookie season that has been rougher than expected.
For Briscoe, the win is as much about timing as the numbers — a nine-month drought snapped at a track NASCAR hadn't visited in years, in a car fielded by a team that put all three of its full-time entries on the box. Joe Gibbs Racing has had stretches of dominance before, but a clean 1-2-3 sweep, backed by a manufacturer-record Toyota showing further down the order, is the kind of single-race result that reshapes how the rest of the field talks about the summer stretch of the season.
Portland Reopened IndyCar's Oldest Argument: What a Lapped Car Owes the Leader
Felix Rosenqvist and Will Power came off the podium asking for a real blue-flag rule. Alex Palou, who won the race, and his strategist made the case that the rule is fine as long as everyone lives under the same one.
Two Digger Engines and 406 MPH: Andy Green Has a Third Record
The JCB Hydromax averaged 406.320 mph at Bonneville on a pair of hydrogen-burning excavator engines, more than doubling a hydrogen combustion mark that had stood since 2004.
Ty Gibbs Waited 131 Starts for a First Cup Win. The Second One Took Four Months.
At Iowa, Gibbs took the final stage and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell, turning a career that had produced nothing into two wins in one season.