After a disastrous start to the season, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe sat near the bottom of the NASCAR Cup Series’ points standings and was in desperate need of a good day.
When the Free Bird Southern Spring Water Toyota rolled off the hauler at Darlington Raceway, it looked like that might be a long shot after he qualified 22nd. However, the team knew they needed a better finish than that and went to work throughout the early stages of the race to give him a competitive car.
Welcome back to Around the Grid, where we’ll be recapping Briscoe’s march to the front and eventual 12th-place finish at Darlington.
From the jump, Briscoe had a better car than those around him, utilizing the bottom line and a loose racecar to continuously charge forward during the first stint. Much was made in the media this week about how chaotic the race would be with increased horsepower in the cars, and that made its way to the #19 car. Crew Chief James Small and Spotter Drew Herring were careful with Briscoe and reminded him several times to keep an eye on his tire wear.
The first pit stop came and went without much incident as Small continued to try and dial in Briscoe’s squirrelly car throughout the first stage. Now in the middle of the pack, Briscoe was stuck in a JGR train and used up a lot of his tires to try to charge past teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin.
Briscoe would finish outside the points after cording his right rear tire slightly and losing a lot of grip toward the end of the first stage. Herring continued to work with Briscoe on his entry into turn one, getting as low as they could to grab some clean air to pass cars.
As stage two approached, numerous front-runners like 23XI’s Bubba Wallace and Penske’s Ryan Blaney had incidents, which quickly boosted Briscoe up into the top 10. The driver remained nearly silent over his radio during much of this stage, mentioning that he felt his turn was good, but could be better as he fought for 7th place.
Briscoe’s charge moved him up near the front, but he soon found himself in unfamiliar territory with a tight racecar.
“This is the tightest I’ve been all race, I can get into three way better, but so tight,” Briscoe said.
Small went to work with a minor adjustment to help the car, but with the rubber laid down, Briscoe would have a tight car throughout the rest of the race. With help from his pit crew, Briscoe found himself in the second row of the stage three restart behind leader Brad Kesolowski.
While he stayed quiet on the radio, the intensity turned up as he shoved Kesolowski out front and eventually went underneath him to take the lead for the first time. The day that just needed to be good was looking to be a banner day to get the #19 back on track for this season
“Remember what we talk about, stay smooth and clean here,” Herring said to Briscoe after he took the lead.
A quick spin by Riley Herbst unfortunately put an end to those dreams as the field was reshuffled with varying pit strategies where Briscoe found himself back in the hornet’s nest. After a poor restart behind Austin Dillon, the #19 faded outside the top 10 halfway through stage three.
Fresher tires were on his side though and he was able to continue his ascent to the front, all the way up to third at one point. However, Briscoe began to fade as the stage went on and Tyler Reddick marched to the front to win his fourth race of the season.
While Briscoe’s chances at a race win were short lived, he picked up four spots in the standings with his 12th place finish and now finds himself one win away from being back in the Chase.
The Wave Around | NASCAR and Motorsports Blog 
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