For Chase Briscoe, it was a new year and a new team, but it was the same result.
Briscoe led a career-high 309 of 367 laps and won both stages on his way to repeating as champion of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday night (Aug. 31). It was not without drama as Briscoe had to hold off late-race challenges from fellow Toyota drivers Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones.
The abrasive surface of The Track Too Tough at Tame ate up Goodyear tires all race long, rendering fuel mileage and other strategy calls irrelevant as crew chiefs called for four tires early and often throughout the 367-lap endurance challenge that is the Southern 500.
This put a greater emphasis on execution by the pit crews, and several playoff teams stumbled in their pit stalls in the Palmetto State.
The Winning Strategy
Due to the dire need for fresh tires and a dominant car, the strategy for Briscoe, crew chief James Small, and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team wasn’t necessarily a strategy at all.
Instead, it was about that all-important “E” word: execution. The No. 19 pit crew of front tire changer Lee Cunningham, rear tire changer Daniel Smith, tire carrier C.J. Bailey, jackman Caleb Dirks, and gasman Matt Tyrrell succeeded where other playoff teams could not in carrying out fast and clean pit stops to keep Briscoe out front.
Playoff Drivers With Pit Road Issues
While the No. 19 crew excelled, other pit crews made mistakes under the pressure of the playoff opener.
Tyler Reddick
Reddick’s evening nearly went sideways on lap one after getting left side damage from a spinning Josh Berry.
To make matters worse, Reddick’s No. 45 crew had a slow first pit stop on lap 36, dropping the jack on the left side before the left front wheel was fully fastened. The fortunate thing for Reddick is that the pit road mistake happened early. He managed to bounce back to finish second, falling just a few car lengths short of capturing the checkered flag.
Alex Bowman
Qualifying 29th, Alex Bowman, who entered the night five points below the cut line, was already starting at a disadvantage in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Then, on lap 67, the No. 48 pit crew had a nightmare pit stop under green. First, the rear tire changer’s air gun malfunctioned because it got disconnected from his power source on the pit box. To add insult to injury, the front tire changer’s air gun then got stuck underneath the right front tire, forcing the jackman to go back around to lift the right side and get the air gun freed up before they could change the left side tires.
When it was all said and done, the pit stop came out to about 40 seconds, a cavalcade of errors that is unexpected from any Cup Series pit crew, let alone one from Hendrick Motorsports.
Ultimately, Bowman never recovered from that calamity, finishing two laps down in 31st and leaving Darlington 19 points below the cut line.
Denny Hamlin
During a round of yellow-flag pit stops on lap 154, not one, not two, but three different playoff drivers encountered pit road adversity.
Let’s start with Denny Hamlin, who’s No. 11 JGR crew had trouble changing the right rear tire during their pit stop. As a result, Hamlin went from the top five to outside the top 20. Unlike Bowman, who never contended, Hamlin mounted a semi-comeback to seventh. It was a solid rebound for Hamlin but still disappointing considering he took the initial green flag from the pole.
“This is just such an execution-type race,” Hamlin said after the race. “Obviously, we’ve seen how difficult passing with [the Next Gen] car is at this track. It’s a monumental task to go from 23rd in stage two with that bad stop to come back to the top 10. It just took the entire race to get back.”
Christopher Bell
Hamlin was not the only JGR driver to have an issue on pit road on lap 154. In the case of Christopher Bell, it was contact with another car instead of a pit stop misstep.
Leaving the No. 20 pit stall, Bell made contact with Carson Hocevar as the latter was entering his pit stall in the No. 77 Chevrolet. The contact caused damage to Bell’s right front fender and splitter, significantly hampering the aerodynamics of the No. 20 Toyota.
Consequently, Bell, who had been running comfortably in the top 10, dropped several spots during the ensuing green flag run. Although Bell got a caution to come in and fix the damage, his car was never the same and he settled for a 29th-place finish, two laps down.
Bell still resides above the cut line leaving Darlington, but his cushion has been cut to just 11 points.
William Byron
Hendrick Motorsports’ pit stop problems were not limited to Bowman.
During that same lap 154 sequence that struck Hamlin and Bell, William Byron was forced to go back into his pit stall so that the front tire changer could fully tighten the left front wheel on the No. 24 Chevrolet before sending him back on track.
While it beats the alternative of losing the wheel on track, the slipup still cost Byron a great deal of track position. The regular season champion finished on the lead lap but back in 21st. Byron maintains a 25-point cushion on the cutline with two races left in the Round of 16.
Look Ahead to Next Week
The Round of 16 continues with the running of the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway next Sunday, Sept. 7. Race coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.
World Wide Technology Raceway is a flatter track with little banking in the corners similar to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a track that we’ll see in the Round of 12. Good performance at WWTR could be a sign of things to come for playoff drivers in the next round.
A flat track also makes it more difficult to pass, so teams will be honing their qualifying setup to maximize starting track position. Also, don’t be surprised if playoff teams below or near the cut line think outside the box with pit strategy, making two-tire or fuel only calls that were not possible at Darlington.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.