Briscoe holds off teammate Bell at Charlotte
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CONCORD, N.C. -- Chase Briscoe is getting the hang of winning close races.
Briscoe held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell to win his second straight NASCAR playoff race in a photo finish on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, vaulting him into contention to earn his first Cup Series championship.
The .029-second margin of victory was the second closest since CMS opened in 1960, ranking behind only Jimmie Johnson's .027-second win over Bobby Labonte in 2005.
The two drivers traded paint on the final lap, but Briscoe maintained control of his No. 19 Toyota and reached the finish line about a half-car length ahead of Bell.
"I don't know what it is about these finishes. I have to quit making it so exciting at the end," said Briscoe, who had to hold off playoff points leader Kyle Larson to win last week at Las Vegas.
It was the eighth win of Briscoe's career and third this season. He led 62 laps.
Briscoe said he felt like his right front tire was going down on the final laps, but was able to hold it together.
"When I got beyond those final lapped cars with five or six (laps) to go, I felt like I was going to knock the wall down," Briscoe said. "At one point it just quit turning."
Ryan Blaney finished third, followed by Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin and Larson.
Briscoe was 123 points behind Larson prior to last week's win, but the back-to-back victories have cut the deficit to 65 points and put him in fourth place with four races left.
Gibbs said he was just happy his drivers didn't wreck each other.
"That's always when I'm the most nervous, when a couple of our guys are running up front," Gibbs said. "I know how badly all of our guys want to win. … That's when my blood pressure and heartbeat gets accelerated."
Hamlin is now 49 points behind Larson in the Chase, followed by Bell, who is 51 points back.
Larson called it a "good, solid day" and was happy to extend his playoff lead by nine points.
Hamlin won the regular season championship, but has struggled to find victory lane in the playoffs. He seemed perplexed why he hasn't been able to regain the speed he had before the postseason.
"We got to execute better, be a little faster -- all of the above," Hamlin said. "We're giving it all we got right now."
It didn't help that Hamlin was sent to the rear of the field for a loose tire penalty on pit road on his first stop.
Larson, who entered the race with five top five finishes including two wins in the postseason, started on the pole based on NASCAR's metric system after Saturday's qualifying was rained out.
He made the most of the pole position, dominating the race early by leading 68 of the 80 laps in the first stage to collect the maximum number of points in stage one.
Bell caught Larson and won the second stage.
Verstappen wins
SINGAPORE -- Silenced by a broken radio, Max Verstappen let his driving do all the talking on the track.
Verstappen raced hard into the first corner then cruised to his second consecutive Formula 1 win at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen had been concerned about his Red Bull car's "horrendous" starts and was slow off the line again from pole, but managed to squeeze Charles Leclerc to the inside heading into the first corner and held the lead.
Leclerc was second as Verstappen followed up on his first victory of the season in Malaysia last week and sprint race win Saturday. It was his first career Grand Prix win in Singapore at the 10th attempt.
"It's taken a while," Verstappen admitted, adding his start was "just good enough."
After the start, Verstappen's main concern seemed to be a broken radio that left Red Bull unable to hear him. Race engineer GianPiero Lambiase resorted to asking Verstappen questions he could answer yes or no by pressing his radio transmission button.
Leclerc was second for his first podium finish since July and behind him, there was action as Kimi Antonelli overtook Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton for third to increase his standings lead.