Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe, who scored seven poles, won three races, and advanced all the way to the Championship 4 in his first season as the replacement for Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota a year ago, has spent much of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season below the provisional "Chase" playoff cut line.
That can largely be attributed to the fact that he scored exactly one point in three of the season's first four races, all thanks to DNFs related to situations out of his control.
However, over the past few weeks, he had made significant ground on that cut line, and with a third place finish at Kansas Speedway two Sundays ago, he bumped out Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen for a spot in that 16-driver picture.
In fact, he vaulted his way up to 15th, placing Spire Motorsports' Daniel Suarez on the cut line.
Chase Briscoe drops back below NASCAR playoff cut line
Now, thanks to yet another wreck that was out of his control, Briscoe again finds himself outside of the top 16. He is the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver not inside the top nine.
Team Penske's Austin Cindric moved into 16th with his eighth place finish in Sunday's Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, while Briscoe dropped to four points below the cutoff with a 29th place finish.
That finish notably could have been a lot worse, as Briscoe picked up seven points simply by staying in the race with repairs after his involvement in the "Big One".
Suarez finds himself 14th, 13 points ahead, while Team Penske's Joey Logano is 15th, 12 points ahead. The 14th to 18th place drivers, with Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain the last of those five, are separated by just 30 total points.
Given the overall performance and speed of the No. 19 team, it's hard to imagine that Briscoe won't end up in the playoffs. However, he's only 16th in stage points as well, so execution simply needs to improve from start to finish as the halfway mark of the regular season approaches.
Texas Motor Speedway is scheduled to host the next race on the schedule, the Wurth 400. Live coverage is set to be provided by Fox Sports 1 beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 3. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the Lone Star State!
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