LAS VEGAS — For Chase Briscoe, Sunday’s (Oct. 12) South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was deja vu.
For the second time in his young NASCAR Cup Series career (the first being the penultimate race of 2022 at Martinsville Speedway), he was clinging to the lead on older tires in the Round of 8, only to be passed for the win with a handful of laps remaining.
“Too many laps,” Briscoe said. “Fortunately, those tires lasted as long as they did, otherwise I would have really been in trouble. Just wish (the race) was six laps shorter or whatever it was.”
Running seventh with right rear damage when a caution came out with 30 to go, Briscoe’s crew chief James Small rolled the dice on the final round of pit stops with a two-tire stop to give his driver the lead.
“The other option was four (tires) and put us back where we were,” Small told Frontstretch. “And at that point, we’d lost some of our car potential I feel, and I didn’t know if we’d have the ability to come back through.”
The race ended with a 14-lap shootout to the finish, and Briscoe nailed the restart to jump out to a sizeable lead.
“Thankfully we got the lead there, and that’s the key,” Small continued. “If you don’t, you’ve got a parachute out and you’re going backwards in a hurry.”
But while Briscoe stretched out the gap to Kyle Larson, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was marching through the field in a hurry. Briscoe’s two tires were no match for Hamlin’s four, and Hamlin set sail with four laps to go to clinch a spot in the Championship 4.
Larson and Christopher Bell also got by on four fresh tires, and Briscoe took the checkered flag in fourth.
“I was so loose at the end; I just had nothing left,” Briscoe said.
“… I wish we would have won, but for us to finish fourth, that was probably a spot or two better than what we were probably going to finish. Like I said, it could have been a lot worse, and we’re on the upside of points, which is not something to be mad about.”
Every point counts, and Briscoe leaves Las Vegas 15 points above the cut line as he seeks the first Championship 4 berth of his Cup career in his first season at JGR.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf