Chase Briscoe raced to his first Cup Series victory, executing two great restarts over the final 20 laps to pull away from Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Briscoe’s childhood idol was NASCAR great Tony Stewart and the Indiana native now drives Stewart’s car for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Briscoe channeled some of Stewart’s late-race moxie during an intense battle between three drivers who had never won in the Cup Series. It’s more evidence of the parity across the series in the Next Gen cars, with four drivers winning the first four races this season.

Briscoe was one of the top drivers in the Xfinity Series in 2019 and 2020 before getting the invitation from Stewart-Haas Racing to take over the No. 14. He had just three top 10s as a rookie and finished 23rd in the season standings.

But got off to a good start this season with a third-place finish at Daytona in February.

Now, a victory.

Reddick’s been among the fastest drivers in the Cup Series all season but fell just short of his first win. He battled leg numbness in the Next Gen car over the first few weeks but didn’t appear to have any problems Sunday. He’s had two straight top 10 finishes after finishing seventh at Las Vegas last week.

Ryan Blaney started on the pole and dominated the first half of the race, winning the second stage after leading 138 of the first 185 laps. He settled for fourth. Kurt Busch was fifth.

Kyle Larson won the series championship last year after a fall victory at Phoenix, but engine trouble ended his day early. He finished 34th. It was the end of a frustrating day for Larson, who qualified seventh but had to move to the rear of the starting grid because of unapproved steering wheel changes.

Now that the annual three-week West Coast swing is over, the series moves back across the country to Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend.