Chase Briscoe just pulled off a massive win, but he is still buried deep in the standings. Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted his seventh career Cup race victory this past Sunday, which he took home. It was a dominant showing. According to Beyond The Flag, he led 135 of the 267 laps and swept both stages.
This win feels great, but the math is still scary. Briscoe climbed to sixth in the standings after securing a 75-point haul. He is still 84 points behind Kyle Larson. That gap is more than a full race worth of points. It is hard to stay positive when you are chasing someone by that much.
The Cost of Kansas Mistakes
The real problem isn’t just the points he hasn’t earned. It is the points he let slip away. At Kansas Speedway, Briscoe looked like a winner. He passed Kyle Larson with only 30 laps left. Then, he gave the lead back with seven laps to go and finished fourth.
Beyond The Flag reported that this mistake created a massive 42-point swing. If Briscoe had kept that lead, he would have gained 20 points while Larson lost them. He also lost two more spots in the final laps. If you take that 42-point swing out of his current deficit, he would only be 42 points behind Larson with five races left. That is a much better seat to be in.
He has also dealt with some bad luck. He finished 27th at Bristol and had a rough time at Gateway. At Gateway, a tire blew on Chase Elliott and hit him. Between those two bad finishes, he lost 21 points. It is a lot of extra work to do when you are already playing catch-up.
A History of Clutch Wins
I have seen this movie before. Briscoe knows how to show up when his back is against the wall. Yahoo Sports noted that his career almost ended in 2018. Before the Charlotte Roval race that year, he thought Ford might let him go. He told an interviewer he was about 95% sure his time with the brand was over.
Then, he went out and won the first Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Roval. That win changed everything. It led to a full-time ride with Stewart-Haas Racing for 2019. He has shown he can find a way to win when the pressure is highest. He even grabbed his first Cup victory at Darlington in 2022.
But the current situation is different. He cannot rely on luck alone to fix an 84-point hole.