KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chase Briscoe knew Kansas Speedway represented a critical opportunity. After two straight rough outings in the postseason, the No. 19 team needed to make a dent in its points deficit during Sunday‘s Hollywood Casino 400.
Briscoe was in prime position to capitalize on that proclamation in the closing laps. Following the final green-flag pit stop, he chased a dominant Kyle Larson down and passed the No. 5 Chevrolet for the lead with 30 laps remaining. He thought that was the pass for the victory. Instead, Larson tracked the No. 19 Toyota back down and cleared for the lead with seven laps left.
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“When I passed [Larson] as easily as I did, I thought I was going to run away with it and then started getting really, really, really free,” a dejected Briscoe said on pit road after the race. “Was hanging on for dear life and too many laps there at the end. I needed it to be a shorter race to be able to hold on.”
The No. 5 team believed Briscoe had given everything he had on the final run in an effort to challenge Larson for the win. Crew chief Cliff Daniels still wasn‘t ready to rule his driver out.
“When the 19 had pushed so hard to get us, I kind of had a question mark of, like, is his car really going to be good enough to drive away just from the penalty of stress and push on his tires?” Daniels said, thinking back to his mindset. “I will say, I was super proud of Kyle for kind of — yeah, he took a reset. He settled in and didn’t really panic and overdrive his car. It would be really easy to overdrive his car, clip the wall, a number of things.”
With a few laps remaining, Briscoe began rim-riding around the wall, trying to find additional pace. He bounced off the wall multiple times and that hindered his performance, losing positions to Cindric and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.
Briscoe dropped to fourth at the checkered flag, his best finish of the four Chase presented by Mobil 1 events.
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“With three or four to go, I started letting loose and running as hard as I could on the wall and got into the wall and went from second to fourth,” he stated. “Went into desperation mode, truthfully. I had to win to stay in contention for a championship and came up short.”
From atop the pit box, James Small could only watch as Briscoe‘s No. 19 car began bleeding positions in the waning laps. He had no clear explanation for the sudden unraveling.
“I‘m not sure what happened at the end,” Small told a pair of reporters after the 267-lap race. “Got in the wall a few too many times there and it kind of fell apart like a $2 watch.”
With Larson pitching a perfect 76-point game, the No. 5 team earned 24 points more than any other team. Briscoe moved up one position to eighth in the standings, but lost 36 markers to Larson, now 123 back with six races remaining.
“It‘s not ideal, obviously,” Small said of the No. 19 team‘s outlook moving forward. “If we would have won, it would have made a big difference and would have helped us and it would have helped the 11 a lot. Kind of dug two holes there, but we will keep fighting and come back next week.”
Briscoe leaves the Midwest optimistic about the next two races at intermediate tracks, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sun., 5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) before heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, his immediate emotion was disappointment, as Kansas is among the few Cup races that he‘s been in control of late in the event where he couldn’t seal the deal.
“I feel like in a lot of these late-race situations, I‘ve been able to hold off and clutch it out and wasn‘t able to do that,” Briscoe elaborated. “Frustrated with myself. I was really, really free, but I could have, playing it back in my mind, been more aggressive with changing lanes and being unpredictable — kind of like he was doing when he had the lead. He was doing an amazing job. I was superior to him, and I couldn‘t pass him.
“Coming into today being 87 out, I knew I had to at least take 10 or so points off the cutline, and now to be 123 out — not ideal. Just frustrated with how this Chase has gone. This was a great opportunity, I felt like, for us to contend for a championship. Some of it has been my own doing and some of it has been out of our control. We have six more races to put up as many wins as we can.”
The always fiery Small can still be encouraged from Kansas. The No. 19 team recorded the two fastest four-tire pit stops in Cup Series history, according to Racing Insights.
“The guys on pit road are absolutely [expletive] killing it right now,” Small said bluntly. “You‘ve got to look at all those positives. There‘s still a long way to go, and if you win a few races, you might still stand a chance.
“Those guys are executing at a super high level. I joked the other day that if we had this group of guys in 2024, maybe Martin [Truex Jr.] would still be racing.”
Meanwhile, Briscoe is left to replay the closing laps and wonder what might have been.