Hunch. Briscoe won two Chase races in a row, on 4 and 11 October, and cut Kyle Larson's lead from 123 to 65 points.
The title market resolves on the ESPN NASCAR Cup points table after the final race in Miami on 8 November 2026: YES if Chase Briscoe is first, NO if NASCAR names another driver champion. If drivers end level on points, YES only if NASCAR's tie rule gives Briscoe the title, and Reuters and The New York Times settle it if the ESPN table is unclear.
We looked for cases where a driver won one of the last ten NASCAR Cup races of a season from third, fourth or fifth place, no more than one win's worth of points behind, while the leader added to his lead. We found nine such wins from 2005 to 2013, the years the season ended the way it does now. Three of them were the first of the ten races, just after points were reset, and the published tables do not show whether the leader gained that day.