NASCAR Bank of America 400 takeaways: Chase Briscoe takes Charlotte in thrilling photo finish over Christopher Bell

Briscoe's 62 laps led were only third-most behind Kyle Larson (97) and Bell (93), but if he has shown anything the last three weeks, it is that you cannot count him and the No. 19 team out.

This is the same driver who should have won at Kansas two weeks ago before getting the checkered flag at Las Vegas. He could be on a three-race winning streak if the closing laps went a little differently at Kansas, but it is hard to ignore the progress he has made.

Fresh off his third win of the season, first at Charlotte and the eighth of his Cup Series career, not to mention the speedy stop from his pit crew to get him off pit road first for the final restart, Briscoe is now 65 points behind Larson for the points lead and well within striking distance to compete for his first title.

Christopher Bell lets another win slip away

Much like the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this season, Bell saw another win in NASCAR's backyard fall from the wayside after winning Stage 2 and dominating the middle portion of the race.

Bell had seven runner-ups already in 2026, including four in a five-race span in the summer. He has been no stranger to coming agonizingly close to wins this season, and he is still just 51 points behind Larson in the standings, but he missed a huge opportunity to close that gap even more.

Pressure continues to build for Denny Hamlin

It was another solid finish for Hamlin in fifth - his fourth top-10 in the six Chase races so far - but it was anything but straightforward, with issues getting out of his pit stall throughout the race.

That said, he still showed some aggressiveness by moving Larson out of the way on a Lap 123 restart and appeared to be in position to contend for the win.

Still, Larson finished sixth, outgained Hamlin by nine points after winning the opening stage, and stretched his advantage to 49. The door is still open for Hamlin to come knocking, but time is starting to get thin with just four races left and the pressure mounting as he pursues his first title.

Stage 1 crash claims several Chase drivers

It did not take long for some of the title-eligible drivers to encounter some issues at Charlotte. Look no further than Lap 77 when non-Chase driver Alex Bowman got loose on the bottom in Turn 2 and made vicious contact with Bubba Wallace.

William Byron was also involved in the crash, while all three drivers rounded out the finishing order with Wallace (37th), Bowman (38th) and Byron (39th).

Even Ty Gibbs faced some adversity on the Lap 41 restart when a broken toe link sent him around in front of Brad Keselowski and dropped him to a 34th-place finish.

Wallace, Byron and Gibbs were well outside title contention coming into Sunday anyway, but those issues only compounded the matter and took away any slim chance they had remaining to compete for the title.