The first 400-mile race of the modern era at Charlotte Motor Speedway just feels right this week. In fact, it feels perfectly timed for its turn on the schedule.
Or make that “return.”
The NASCAR Cup Series comes home to its Charlotte hub for the first Fall race on the 1.5-mile oval layout since 2017 with Sunday’s Bank of America 400 in Concord, N.C. — presuming weather permits it to take place.
With Hurricane Isaias bearing down on the Deep South and its bands likely affecting the Tar Heel State’s Piedmont region, Saturday’s qualifying was moved up two hours. But Friday’s forecast for Sunday suggests the chances for the inaugural 267-lap race look promising.
NASCAR’s qualifying metric could come into play, which means spacing cars out according to last week’s finish in Las Vegas. That would certainly be good news for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, who wheeled his No. 19 Toyota into the winner’s circle in the desert and reentered the Chase championship discussion.
The Mitchell, Ind., native used a 75-point showing to jump from eighth in the standings, down 123 points to leader Kyle Larson, to sixth overall and just 84 points back.
Returning to Charlotte where he finished 34th in the Coca-Cola 600 in May after a wreck, the 31-year-old second-year JGR racer has shown a tendency for power on the 1.5-mile tracks. He recorded his other win this season at Chicagoland on a similar design.
Yep, he excels on the configuration.
And the last car to win a Fall Cup race on Charlotte’s oval nearly a decade ago?
That would be Martin Truex Jr. — the driver Briscoe ultimately replaced in the No. 19, though Truex won in the No. 78 for Furniture Row Racing.
“Going to Vegas and having a 75-point day and, I mean, look, it’s still going to be a very uphill battle, but you at least still have an iron in the fire,” said Briscoe, who has five of his seven career victories in a Gibbs car. “We still gave ourselves a chance.”
Meanwhile, Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team are making all the right moves.
The two-time title winner lost a lap in Las Vegas with a 26-second pit stop but took advantage when polesitter Denny Hamlin’s team, racing with the lead, decided to bring the No. 11 to pit road under caution. That gave Larson his lap back with the wave-around instead of keeping him pinned one lap down.
Larson then rallied to finish second to Briscoe.
Hamlin, whose 16th-place finish leaves him in second place 40 points back, gave credit this week to Larson and his team’s mettle and perseverance.
“Championship team, championship driver — (the 5) finds a way,” said Hamlin, who later spun by himself trying to gain stage points. “We took our eye off the ball for a brief period of time.”
From 2021-24, Larson, Hamlin and third-place Christopher Bell (55 points back) won three of the four Coca-Cola 600s, so they have a clear record of success at CMS, which had half of its scheduled points races on the dreaded Roval in the Fall for eight straight seasons (2018 to 2025).
As the teams make the short drive to the Queen City, the Chase 16 realize they’re no longer racing into a championship hunt.
They’re racing out of it.
