JOLIET, Ill. — NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway turned into a battle of the Toyotas, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe held off teammate Christopher Bell in a thrilling finish to prevail.
Toyota, currently enjoying a dominant Cup Series season, put seven cars in the top 10 finishers for the first time in its history, which dates to 2007. JGR swept the top three spots and put all four of its cars in the top 10 while another Toyota team, 23XI Racing, had three cars in the top 10 — including youngster Corey Heim, in his first race since a surprising victory in the Coronado street course race.
“In pro sports, the hardest thing is to stay up (at the top),” said team owner Joe Gibbs, the three-time Super Bowl-winning head coach. “Everybody realizes what great teams we got out there (in NASCAR). This is the best series in the world for racing cars, and everybody’s working extremely hard.”
But for now, it certainly seems like the Toyota show. Though Chevrolet driver William Byron led the most laps and finished fourth and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman finished fifth, the Toyota muscle was too much to beat.
Toyota has now won five of the last six races and 12 of 19 races overall this season among five drivers.
Chevrolet is in the ballpark but still a step behind. Ford (one car in the top 10) still seems to be a distant third.
“It’s up to us to work harder so they don’t catch us,” Briscoe crew chief James Small said.
Briscoe drove a top-five car throughout the night, but the winning move came on a strategy call. Small called Briscoe into the pits earlier than then-leader Byron, and Briscoe emerged as the leader after the pit cycle.
Chase Briscoe is back on top! pic.twitter.com/2B76a5k2tD
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 6, 2026
Bell charged and fought to get to Briscoe’s rear bumper, appearing to be in position to make a pass for the win despite a still-healing broken left wrist. But ultimately Briscoe air-blocked well enough to barely stay in front and won the race by .276 of a second.
Briscoe moved up three spots to eighth in the point standings, inching him closer to a seeding that would be beneficial for a legitimate championship run in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff (called the Chase) this fall.
“A year from now, the Toyotas could be way off, and the Chevys and Fords could be unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “So when you’re good, you have to take advantage of it, and especially at the types of racetracks where the Toyotas are typically the best.
“So when you come to a mile and a half, you cannot have a bad day. You need to take advantage of it. It’s not very often you have race-winning cars, so when you have them, you have to try to win, especially in this format.”
— Jeff Gluck
Retaliation from Down Under?
Shane van Gisbergen may have had enough of being wrecked by Austin Hill.
Hill’s mistake in Turn 1 at the Coronado street race wrecked two Trackhouse Racing cars, including the driver known as “SVG,” and it may have ruined van Gisbergen’s chances of making NASCAR’s Chase.
So while racing for 29th in Stage 1 at Chicagoland, SVG seemingly got his revenge. He drove into Turn 3 and punted Hill’s No. 33 car, sending Hill crashing.
“You OK?” the team asked Hill after the wreck.
“Yep,” Hill replied. “Just wait.”
“OK, don’t talk about it,” the team advised him.
These two have history. pic.twitter.com/v67sRrJRxy
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 5, 2026
Team owner Richard Childress was angered by the incident, immediately saying on the radio “it was just payback from California” and “that was on purpose from California.”
“Somebody talk to NASCAR about that,” Childress said on the team radio. “That was blatant.”
Hill’s team was unable to make repairs, and he finished 37th.
— Jeff Gluck
Hill’s and SVG’s perspectives
Standing outside the care center after being evaluated and released, Hill made it clear he thought van Gisbergen intentionally wrecked him.
“(I’m) sure y’all seen the replay, so if I have to explain it, people probably need to get glasses,” Hill said.
While Hill was adamant that van Gisbergen acted deliberately, Hill was less certain whether van Gisbergen was still holding a grudge from what happened between them two weeks ago at Coronado, saying he had “no idea.” In that race, Hill overdrove Turn 1 on a restart, triggering a crash that wiped out van Gisbergen and his teammate Connor Zilisch, with the two of them having the fast cars on the track.
NASCAR is likely to review Sunday’s incident, and if officials determine van Gisbergen should be penalized, any sanctions would be announced mid-week. Potential penalties range from van Gisbergen being suspended for a race to a points deduction to a fine, or a combination of all three. Last year, Hill was suspended for a race after he intentionally wrecked a competitor during an O’Reilly Series race at Indianapolis.
“If there’s definitive evidence,” Hill responded Sunday when asked by The Athletic whether NASCAR should penalize van Gisbergen. “So I’m gonna leave it in NASCAR’s hands.”
After the race, van Gisbergen was asked by The Athletic what transpired between him and Hill.
“I was shooting for the bottom trying to get clean air, I was so tight, and he just chopped my nose and got in the wall,” van Gisbergen said. “So, sorry about that. Sorry to his guys, they’re always nice people. It happens.”
When asked if the contact was intentional, van Gisbergen reiterated that it was not. And while he is open to speaking to Hill about their recent run-ins, van Gisbergen didn’t sound optimistic that such a conversation would accomplish much.
“I’ll talk to him, but he just grunts,” van Gisbergen said.
— Jordan Bianchi
Start No. 100 clash
Two young drivers both making their 100th Cup Series start found trouble together at Chicagoland.
On Lap 32, Zane Smith nailed the rear of Carson Hocevar’s car and sent Hocevar into a half-spin that ended with a crash into the wall. Hocevar continued, but Smith also spun and suffered a flat tire.
The incident appeared to be on purpose, though Smith’s motive was not immediately obvious. Either way, it brought to mind what Landon Cassill said after Danica Patrick tried — and failed — to wreck him in 2012: “Rule No. 1 in stock car racing is learn how to wreck someone without wrecking yourself.”
— Jeff Gluck
More bad luck for Zilisch
Chicagoland might have been the most unfortunate moment yet in Connor Zilisch’s disaster of a rookie season. Zilisch completed only a half lap before being wrecked out by an incident ahead of him involving John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece (who spun and hit Zilisch).
There was nowhere to go for @ConnorZilisch. pic.twitter.com/zeMR00yGqg
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 5, 2026
Sunday wasn’t Zilisch’s fault, but he has now finished 37th or worse in five of the last seven races. He has a combined seven points in those five bad finishes and remains mired in 34th in the standings.
At Sonoma last week, Zilisch finally got a top-10 finish and seemed to be in position to build on the momentum. Unfortunately for him, he was mired in misery immediately after the green flag on Sunday.
— Jeff Gluck
Tyler Reddick’s summer swoon continues
Earlier this year, Tyler Reddick appeared unbeatable as he rolled off three consecutive wins to start the season and built up a robust points lead. But Reddick’s fortunes have gone in a much different direction as the NASCAR calendar hit its summer stretch, with the 23XI Racing driver routinely hampered by bad luck.
The latest setback occurred Sunday when a piece of debris went through Reddick’s radiator, puncturing a hole in the oil cooler and leading to massive overheating that damaged his engine. Reddick had been running in the top 10 at the time of the incident.
This marks the fourth time in five races he’s been victimized, following his being collected in a crash not of his doing at Michigan, suffering a flat tire as he vied for the lead at Coronado, and experiencing a mechanical failure last week at Sonoma.
All that has cost Reddick dearly in the points standings, erasing his 129-point lead. He now trails leader Denny Hamlin by 44 points with seven regular-season races remaining.
— Jordan Bianchi
