NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. – In the two heat races for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday, May 17, there were three cautions. Two were for the lap 30 competition cautions. The other one was for Chase Briscoe’s spin after he surprisingly chose not to pit at the competition caution in heat race No. 2.
On the subsequent restart, the field rocketed past Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Briscoe found himself three-wide and spun out, though he kept his racecar from hitting the inside wall.
Briscoe then came onto pit road, JGR put four tires on his Toyota and he wound up seventh. Needless to say, the decision didn’t work.
“Ha, definitely was not the right call,” Briscoe told media post-race. “But that was 100% on me, I told James to leave me out. I watched the No. 6 be able to kind of hold it, and I felt my car was getting better and better the first 30 laps. And I wasn’t really running that hard, and I was able to pull away from the No. 22 and kind of catch the No. 20 a bit.
“Obviously, I think the No. 20 was the best car. But I felt like it was one of those things, if I pitted, I wasn’t going to beat Christopher. And that was the only way I was going to potentially beat him. So I just told James ‘Let’s do the opposite of what they do.’ And obviously that was not the right decision. So wish I could’ve done things differently there, but 100% on me. So I should’ve taken the less risky route.”
Briscoe was already in the All-Star Race, so the gamble, in a heat race with no points on the line, was worthwhile.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he added. “And obviously it’s no points race so if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Obviously I’d much rather be starting in the second row tomorrow night rather than the seventh row. But, I mean, I guess that’s what this race is going to be: you live and you learn. Given the same situation tomorrow night, we’ll probably make a better decision, or I will, I guess. So yeah, it’s just unfortunate on my part, for sure.”
Briscoe will start the ASR in 14th place.
In the two 75-lap heat races, the victors combined to lead 94% of the laps (141 of the 150 total).
As such, Briscoe has an uphill battle in his quest for the $1 million prize.
“It’s extremely hard to pass,” he said. “We’re all kind of the same speed, and that was even some of my thought process was just trying to stay out. If you can get the lead, we normally run the same speed anyway. If you just took the top, you know, once you kind of got going, it’s so hard for anybody to clear you. Yeah, I was just in trouble from the get-go. Just not good decision-making on my part.”
Briscoe and the rest of the All-Star field will take the green flag on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.