Chase Briscoe was left ruing a missed opportunity to book his place in NASCAR’s Cup Series Championship 4 race in Phoenix, Arizona, next month, after coming up short in Las Vegas to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. JGR started Sunday’s race in Sin City, and Hamlin and Briscoe started on the front row.

Briscoe started strong, leading the opening 35 laps after passing Hamlin early in the race. Later, after a caution with around 30 laps to go, Briscoe’s team gambled with a two-tire stop, giving him the lead with track position but creating risk against cars with four fresh tires.

On the final restart with 14 laps, several contenders on fresher tires passed him. Hamlin overtook Briscoe with four laps left to take the win. Briscoe finished 4th, securing a solid points day and maintaining a 15-point buffer above the playoff cut line heading into Talladega.

Still, the JGR star was disappointed, as he missed out on the earliest opportunity to qualify for the Championship race. Talladega and Martinsville remain before NASCAR heads to Arizona.

“Well… that one’s gonna sting for awhile,” Briscoe said on social media platform X. As for teammate Hamlin, it was his career-60th Cup Series win. After taking the checkered flag, the future NASCAR Hall of Famer was overcome with emotion.

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Hamlin will finally look to win the Cup Series Championship — the one accolade that has alluded him thus far in his long, successful career. “Yeah, this one means a lot,” a tear-filled Hamlin began. “This is the point where I kind of give the fans some —- but not today.

“I appreciate all of you so much. Yeah, just obviously want to say hi to my dad, family back at home, all the friends that came out here from Vegas to hope we get 60. But I didn’t think we were. But yeah, just put the pedal down these last 10 laps and made it happen.”

“I mean, if you would ask me yesterday, I would have said no,” he continued. “But you know, just super proud of this team for making the adjustments they did, the crew for doing a great job all day.

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“And I don’t know, I just don’t know what to say. It was very unexpected. You know, with those last 15 laps, I didn’t think we were going to win, but I knew I was going to give it all I had.”

Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Briscoe currently occupy the remaining three spots, but that could be dramatically changed if victories come from a Round of 8 driver. William Byron, Chase Elliott, defending champion Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney are below the cutline.