CONCORD, N.C.: Chase Briscoe went for what would have been the biggest win in his young NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, but his efforts landed him in the spin cycle and out of contention for his second career-win at America’s Home for Racing.
After struggling with the handling of his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang through the early stages of the race, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was able to get his balance right in his race car when it counted most and found himself in the wake of reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson.
As the race entered the final 10 laps of the race, Briscoe had cut his deficit from under a second to less than a mere tenth of a second and began challenging for the race lead inside the final five laps, taking a shot at Larson with three laps to go and attempted again in Turn 1 on the next to last lap, but Briscoe’s car spun which sent the crown jewel race into overtime.
Briscoe was able to drive his car which suffered a right front tire back to pit and remain on the lead lap, but Briscoe would restart the race at the tail end of the longest line for entering a closed pit road.
Restarting in 18th, Briscoe would avoid the carnage of the first NASCAR overtime when Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain tangled inches from taking the white flag.
With a second overtime guaranteed and Briscoe emerging from the chaos ahead of him unscathed, he sat ninth and with the correct lane choice and some help on the restart, he had the opportunity to proclaim a spin and win in his second Coca-Cola 600.
On the restart, Briscoe took off and utilized the four fresh Goodyear tires underneath him, but the leaders soaked of the presence of veterans were able to escape any further chaos with Briscoe hunting down his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate of Kevin Harvick on the white flag lap.
Despite his best efforts, Briscoe finished a little more than a tenth of a second behind Harvick and claimed his third top-five of 2022 and first top-five since winning his inaugural Cup race in the fourth race of the season at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
“We just had a really really good Mahindra Tractors Ford and just super proud of everybody at SHR,” offered Briscoe. “We’ve obviously struggled really bad the last month and a half and to have a good car like that today and had a car capable of winning and I threw it away, plain and simple.
“I’m glad we were able to at least get back to fourth. It’s unfortunate. There are 100 different things I would have done differently if I could re-do it again, but obviously you’re racing in the moment and made a mistake and went too far. We’ll come back next week and see if we can cap it off.”
Briscoe explained that while his car didn’t perform in the daylight, as the race pressed on, Briscoe’s car turned the corner and track position worked to their advantage but given the circumstances he was somewhat disappointed with the finish because he believed he had a car better than where he finished.
“In the daytime we kind of struggled and I think a lot of that was just the sun,” explained Briscoe. “I was kind of timid around the fence. We kept getting track position. On restarts we were really really good, but I could never get clean air. I felt like if I could have got ahead of the 1 (Ross Chastain), I was a little bit better on the long run. I could have maybe held him up on the short run. I had a shot at him.
“We threw a couple sliders and then the 5 (Kyle Larson) was able to get out front and kind of the same thing, our car was really good on the long run.
“It seemed like if the guy could take the wall away from you, it was just really hard to do anything, but my car was really good almost one lane off and I just kept working Kyle really hard and waiting for him to make a mistake, but he’s the greatest of all-time, in my opinion.
“He just doesn’t make very many mistakes. I was able to drive it in so much deeper into one than him kind of all race long and felt like that was my opportunity if I could just get to his left-rear quarter panel on exit I would typically make people tighter.
“I drove in just as deep as I had been the whole race and I don’t know if he came off the wall because he’d been running so close on entry and as soon as I drove in there it just spun me out right away. I’m glad we were able to get back to fourth, but we definitely had a lot better race car than fourth.”
Even with his fourth top-10 of the year in the books and some momentum on his side, Briscoe was still dwelling on his mistake and wished he had an opportunity to redo attempted pass on Larson for the win.
“I wish I could do it all over again,” sounded Briscoe. “There are 100 different things I’d do different those last 30-40 laps and I just was running 110 percent. I probably should have been running 95.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
