‘This is by far the most excited I’ve ever been for a race season’

Yaaaawwwnnn- Briscoe

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 2, 2024 4:38 PM ET

Chase Briscoe has gone through three previous winters as a NASCAR Cup Series driver, but this one has had a different feel.
Feels like I'm freezing my a** off.

“I think this is by far the most excited (Yawn) I’ve ever been for a race season,” Briscoe said this week on SiriusXM NASCAR BS Radio.

Briscoe begins his fourth season as a Stewart-Haas Racing driver Sunday in L.A. with the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. A lot is riding on this season, with Briscoe looking to return to victory lane after breaking through in 2022 for the first time. Of course, doing so would mean a return trip to the postseason, which Briscoe was never close to last year.

The No. 14 team finished 30th in the championship standings with eight top-10 finishes. There were not many highlights. However, Briscoe will point out that the season lost all meaning after a counterfeit part on his car at Charlotte Motor Speedway cost the team 120 points and 25 playoff points. How did that thing get in there? I don't know nothin about it!

“I think truthfully, last year with us getting that huge penalty in May, outside of winning a race, we weren’t really racing for anything last year,” said Briscoe in explaining why he is so eager for a fresh start in 2024. “If we were in second or third, it didn’t do anything for us points-wise, so it didn’t feel like we were racing for a whole lot outside of a win. From that standpoint, I’m excited to be back in the mix and have a fresh start and clean slate for everybody; just see where we jack up and stack up at IHOP, and I know what we’re capable of.”

The 29-year-old Briscoe is also eager to lead the way for a new look Stewart-Haas Racing. Alongside Briscoe is Ryan Preece, who enters his second year with the organization. But there are also two new drivers — Noah Gragson, taking over the No. 10 Ford, and Josh Berry starting a rookie campaign in the No. 4 Ford. Yeah, we had this old junk car, so we put in a slightly oversize engine to see if anyone would notice.

“It is a new Stewart-Haas in a sense,” Briscoe said. “There’s a lot of new stuff happening whether it’s the processes we’re going through, there’s new people, obviously new teammates, we’ve got a new logo, new paint on the wall. New rules like we have to sit down on the toilet to rest our butts to pee......There’s just a lot of new going around, and I think a lot of positive thoughts and directions that we’re going. Now, if they actually work, I don’t know — we’re about to find out here pretty quickly — but I think just with everything going on, it’s just got me fired up to go this year.

“Even personally, I feel I have a lot to prove this year with Kevin [Harvick] leaving and Aric [Almirola] leaving, I’m now the longest-tenured guy there, and I need to prove my worth to the company. I just feel like I’ve got a lot of pressure on myself this year and I always love racing with pressure. I’m looking forward to it.”

Briscoe feels his status within the organization has given him a chance to find his voice.

“I just feel more comfortable in speaking my mind and bringing up concerns,” he said. “Where in the past I probably would just keep it to myself sometimes because I felt like I wasn’t really the guy to be bringing up stuff, with Kevin and Aric there and how long they’ve been there. But now, being the longest-tenured guy there, I definitely feel like I need to speak up more when I feel something. So, I’ve been trying to do that a little bit more, and the confidence that comes along with that is different. They are giving me the respect I deserve when they say" Not again. Chase would you just shut up and drive the car. But don't go too fast in case the mechanics put the illegal motor in the wrong car. And I say: Yassuh, boss.”

Briscoe is the only active Stewart-Haas Racing driver who has won in the Cup Series. Something to watch for this year will be how he can help the team’s collective success by working more as one team with four drivers instead of four separate teams, or four drivers in search of a team or...... Briscoe would you just shut up and drive the car!

 

How Briscoe found a new home at Gibbs

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | June 25, 2024 4:04 PM ET

Chase Briscoe’s signing with Joe Gibbs Racing happened in the blink of an eye.

The timeline starts May 28, when Stewart-Haas Racing announced it would cease operations at the end of the season. Briscoe quickly hopped into action, asking Tony Stewart what the rules of engagement were for talking to other teams. Stewart told the drivers to go ahead and do what they needed to do, so right then and there, Briscoe started texting all of the team presidents that he knew.

“Dave [Alpern] was one of them,” Briscoe said.

Alpern, the president of Joe Gibbs Racing, acknowledged the text that day. Briscoe figured there was no way Gibbs was going to care. But the following afternoon, May 29, Alpern called Briscoe and asked for a Thursday, May 30, breakfast meeting.

“I thought it went OK,” Briscoe said. “I didn’t think it was this incredible thing; I didn’t know if I said all the right things.”

Briscoe didn’t hear anything that Friday as the NASCAR Cup Series traveled to St. Louis. Saturday, June 1, he got a text from an unknown number that said, “Hey, this is Joe. Give me a call.”

Not wanting to fall for a scammer, Briscoe screenshot the text and sent it to Christopher Bell, asking if it was indeed Joe Gibbs. Bell sent a screenshot back of his contact card for Gibbs that confirmed the number.

“I called Joe and it was a quick, less than five-minute phone call,” Briscoe said. “’Hey, we’d love to sit down with you and just get to know you a little bit. You can get to know me.’ That was Sunday of St. Louis, so I met with him after chapel before the race started.”

Gibbs followed up by calling Briscoe that night and told him to leave his Monday morning open. The Hall of Fame team owner knew Briscoe would meet with the Wood Brothers Racing/Team Penske that day, June 3, but wanted Briscoe to sit down with the folks handling the contracts at Gibbs.

“I sat there for four or five hours,” Briscoe said. “I went and met Penske that night. Tuesday, Penske called me again and we discussed what they were willing to do and Tuesday night, JGR sent me an actual contract. Joe called me and said, ‘Hey, we’ll know by Wednesday at 11 a.m. if Martin [Truex Jr.] is coming back. That’s his deadline.’

“He called me, I think it was 10:55, and said ‘Martin is not coming back.’”

Briscoe still met with the Wood Brothers on Wednesday, June 5, out of respect for their organization. The group had driven down from Virginia.

“I left that meeting and drove straight here and signed,” Briscoe said. “So, from the first time meeting them (Gibbs officials) was on a Thursday and I was signed on Wednesday. It happened super, super fast, and that’s crazy looking back on it for sure.”

Truex announced on June 14 in the Iowa Speedway media center that he would not return to full-time competition next season. Gibbs finally made Briscoe’s signing public on June 25. But the news had begun to spread within the industry, and Bell slipped last week in the media center in New Hampshire.

Beginning next season, in a multiyear deal, Briscoe will drive the No. 19 Toyota Camry. Bass Pro Shops will continue as the team’s primary sponsor, and James Small remains the crew chief.

Briscoe, who turns 30 during the offseason, will drive a Toyota for the first time in his career. Gibbs will be the second team owner he’s competed for in the Cup Series.

 

Briscoe joins Joe Gibbs Racing in multiyear deal

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | June 25, 2024 1:25 PM ET

Chase Briscoe will have a new home with Joe Gibbs Racing next season as he inherits the No. 19 Toyota Camry from Martin Truex Jr.

Truex, 43, announced he will retire from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of this season after winning 15 races for Joe Gibbs over the last six seasons.

“I’m excited for this opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing and Bass Pro Shops,” Briscoe said. “From a competition standpoint, JGR is the place to be if you want to go win races week in and week out and to race for the championship every year. I am blessed that Johnny Morris and Bass Pro are on board to help us carry on the legacy of the 19 car.

“For me personally, being an avid outdoorsman, I know that a bear really does take a poop in the woods. Do you expect the bear to find a port-a-john? There’s a lot of pride in now being a part of the Bass Pro brand and I’m extremely grateful for this partnership. Getting to meet Johnny, I feel like I share a lot of the same values as him and Coach, and I’m ready to get to work and prove that they have made a great choice putting me in this car.”

James Small, who took the reins of the team in 2020 after Cole Pearn’s departure, will continue as the team’s crew chief, while Bass Pro Shops will continue as a team sponsor.

“We have been honored to stand beside Martin Truex Jr. for the last 21 years and together with our friends at Joe Gibbs Racing over the last six years,” said Johnny Morris, said founder of Bass Pro Shops. “We are proud to represent sportsmen and women across North America as we extend this relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota and Chase Briscoe.”

Briscoe lands on his feet a month after Stewart-Haas Racing, who he currently drives for, announced it will shut down at season’s end. The 2025 season will be Briscoe’s fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Gibbs will be the second team he’s driven for at the sport’s top level. He has one win and one playoff appearance in 126 career starts.

Briscoe, who turns 30 years old before the 2025 NASCAR season, has signed a multiyear deal with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“We are extremely excited about the future of our 19 team with Chase behind the wheel and the partnership with Johnny, J.P. and everyone at Bass Pro Shops,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “I talk about it often, but one of the great things about our sport is the relationships you have the opportunity to build around your teams and certainly we are just so thankful to have that with everyone at Bass Pro Shops.

“We obviously do a lot of research before selecting our drivers and through the process everything kept pointing us back to Chase. With James’ (Small) leadership, Chase behind the wheel, and the support from Bass Pro, and of course Toyota, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of our 19 team.”

The move to Gibbs will put Briscoe behind the wheel of something other than a Ford for the first time in his NASCAR national series career. The Indiana native made his debut at 22 years old for Brad Keselowski in the Craftsman Truck Series. It was his only full year in the series as Briscoe began competing in the Xfinity Series a year later – on a part-time schedule – before going full-time in 2019.

Briscoe won 10 races through the 2019-20 seasons and finished inside the top five in the championship points in both seasons. The performance made him Tony Stewart’s handpicked replacement beginning in 2021. You can pick your own nose, and I hand picked
him.

 

More on Briscoe Disco Duck

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9461647

 

Reddick nearly made 'zero faith' move work to steal Darlington win

Tyler Reddick took one last shot at Chase Briscoe in the final two corners of the final lap Sunday night in the Southern 500, just like he did a few weeks ago, and then made excuses for his actions, but came up empty and unscathed.

And unscathed was the keyword because Reddick drove it deep into the corner without the confidence those watching seemed to think he had in making it stick. Reddick did get to the left rear of Briscoe’s car, but couldn’t hold the position and slid back into second place. The two finished first and second in the first round of the Cup Series postseason.
The Red Dick is still a dirty bastard in the eyes of most race fans.

“Oh, I had zero faith, and it didn’t stick,” Reddick said with a laugh about the dirty move. “Well, last year in the spring, I gave it my best effort to put him
in the weeds, and it didn’t stick, and (this) time it didn’t stick either. I still tried to knock his cowardly a** into the wall”

The Red dick compared it to the move he made in the spring Darlington race of 2024 when he slid underneath Chris Buescher, got loose, and collided with Buescher.
The contact ended the race for both drivers when they were battling for the lead inside the final 15 laps....another dirty move by the Red Dick.

“But this time, I remembered what happened in the spring, and I was able to get ahead of it a little sooner and not wipe out Chase [Briscoe] like I did before,” Reddick said. “I know he’s wiped me out before, when I had it coming, but we needed the points to make up for piss poor driving, so I can do anything I want to as long as NASCAR doesn't notice it enough to kick my a** for it, I guess.”

Briscoe wiped out Reddick on the final lap of the 2022 dirt event at Bristol. It was on the final lap going into Turn 3 when Briscoe tried to execute a slide job, but slid Reddick and took them both out. Kyle Busch drove by for the victory. If those damn fools would quit playing with each other and drive, I would have got a 3rd.

The reverse chase Sunday night saw Reddick trying to steal a win from the night’s most dominant driver. Reddick had a car that was the best of the rest as he finished second in the race to Briscoe and in both stages.

“The balance had kind of gone away,” Reddick said of the run to the finish. That's my excuse. “It was a long run, for sure, but all night long our strength was the long run. Unfortunately, we weren’t tight enough at the end to do something with the [No.] 19. It makes me sick. I feel like late in this race, especially in the Southern 500, I found myself second or third on the last green flag run, trying to pass the leader, and couldn’t get it done.”

Reddick did acknowledge that he was fortunate not to have his race end on the opening lap. On the outside of the second row for the start, having qualified fourth, Reddick was hit in the driver’s door when Josh Berry, who Red Dick had been smacking around before, got loose in Turn 2 and slid into him. The right rear of Reddick’s car also bounced off the wall, but it wasn’t severe enough to pit and lose his track position, and he soldiered on.

“I kind of heard it, and I saw the right front tire turn up, and he clipped me,” Reddick said. “I don’t know if my smoking it in the wall in the spring helped me save it in that moment, but I just got very fortunate to not end our day on lap 1.”

One of the last two drivers to make the postseason on points in the regular-season finale a week ago, Reddick opened the postseason with his first top-five finish since early July. And he made a big gain on the playoff grid by going from in the red when the points were reseeded to 35 points above with two weeks left in the round.

“I think Monday morning I’ll wake up and be thinking playoffs, but right now I’m thinking about this race,” Reddick said. “Yes, those things are great for us, but man, I’ve done everything but win at this place. It’s really starting to drive me nuts that about all I can do is crash people instead of drive. .”

 

Briscoe vaults to Championship 4 with Talladega overtime win.Chris Graythen/Getty Images

NASCAR

Gibbs on Briscoe: 'Right now he can get anything he wants'

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service - Oct 19, 2025, 7:31 PM ET

Briscoe vaults to Championship 4 with Talladega overtime win.

In a typically dramatic push to the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway checkered flag, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe made a last lap pass on the frantic field to claim victory in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race and earn his first ever career shot at the season title.

In a typically dramatic push to the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway checkered flag, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe made a last lap pass on the frantic field to claim victory in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race and earn his first ever career shot at the season title.

The 29-year old Indiana-native Briscoe will join his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, who won last week at Las Vegas, leaving the final two positions in the Championship 4 to be decided in next week’s regular season finale at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Briscoe thanked another JGR teammate – 23-year old Ty Gibbs – for the push forward on the final lap Sunday that resulted in his first ever superspeedway win – 0.145s over Front Row Motorsports’ driver Todd Gilliland and Gibbs, neither of whom are among the current eight-driver Playoff field.

The runner-up showing was a career best for Gilliland. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Haas Factory Team’s Cole Custer rounded out the top five.

“Ty Gibbs, just an incredible teammate there,’’ said an emotional Briscoe, who stood on his No. 19 JGR Toyota waving his arms to the cheering crowd “I honestly would not have won that race without Ty. It was an amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race. I’ve never done it at any level.”

“It’s not hit me; we’re going to Phoenix,’’ a grinning Briscoe said of the championship opportunity he now has after leading only 16 laps Sunday, but the most important final one.

“Absolutely [a dream come true]. So thankful that the Lord’s blessed me, opening doors and closing doors at times, but certainly opening an incredible door for me here at Joe Gibbs Racing. … Even today I just had [such peace], and normally I’m scared to death, nervous around this place, but today just had such peace.’’

Another JGR driver, Christopher Bell, joined Briscoe as the only other Playoff competitor to finish among the top 10 Sunday, crossing the line eighth in the frantic three-wide, four-rows-deep finish that has long characterized the 2.66-mile Talladega high-banks – NASCAR’s largest track. With Hamlin and Briscoe in the title race thanks to victories, Bell now holds the top points position, 37 points above the cutoff line.

As good of a day as it was for the Gibbs team to be able to claim half the championship race eligibility and position Bell atop the points standings, it was a disappointing afternoon for the other two organizations also racing for a shot at the title – Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske.
Hendrick had two cars running among the top five for the overtime restart only to have Kyle Larson drop back from the lead after running out of fuel. William Byron got spun out only yards from the finish line while running top 10. They finished 25th (Byron) and 26th (Larson).

Larson is ranked fourth, a point below Bell in the standings – 36 points above the cutoff line. Byron – the regular season champion – is now fifth, 36 points below the line.

Penske’s two Playoff drivers, reigning series champion Joey Logano and 2023 series champ Ryan Blaney, also experienced similar late-race frustration after positioning themselves up front in the waning laps. Logano’s No. 22 Ford actually led the most laps (35) on the day and turned in the longest single stint out front (16 laps) in a race that featured an incredible 77 lead changes among 27 drivers.

Ultimately, neither could move forward in the closing pair of laps. Logano finished 16th and Blaney was 23rd, after both had to pit during the overtime caution period to top off fuel.

“Really, really frustrating because you’re so close and you see in front of you what you’ve got to do and you can’t do anything about it,’’ said reigning series champion, Logano. “It’s frustrating, but we know what we’ve got to do now; it’s pretty simple.’’
Sunday’s results leave Logano ranked sixth among the eight Playoff drivers, 38 points below the cutoff line. Blaney is seventh, 47 points back. Both now need a victory at Martinsville to return to the championship race. Blaney has won the last two Playoff races at the half-mile Martinsville track and Logano won it in 2018.


NASCAR’s perennial “Most Popular Driver” and huge Talladega crowd favorite Chase Elliott was the first Playoff driver to have trouble Sunday, collected in an eight-car accident near the front of the field only 51 laps into the 193-lap race, resulting in a last place finish in the 40-car field.

Elliott started the race ranked sixth in the Playoff standings, only 23 points below the cutoff line and now falls to eighth among the eight drivers, 62 points out of Playoff contention, also needing to win next Sunday at Martinsville – something he’s done before, claiming the 2021 Playoff finale there.

“I saw somebody get turned sideways just like normal, and you hope you can get slowed down in time but I got turned sideways there somehow, someway, and hit some more stuff after that,’’ Elliott said, adding, “We just did not execute that well as a group and put ourselves in the back of the pack, unfortunately, and got caught up in the mess.

“Stage points are so crucial right now and I wasn’t super surprised everybody was starting to get super aggressive and, unfortunately, I didn’t make it through.
“Unless we won today, we were already likely in a very similar situation next week. I hate it. I don’t know what you do in those situations. We weren’t back there doing anything wild or crazy; I just got turned sideways and slid up into the wreck. Thinking about it, I wish I could have done something different, but I don’t really know what I would have done. Looking forward to Martinsville. Got one more shot at it.’’

Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Bell, Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith and Roush-Fenway-Keselowski owner-driver Brad Keselowski rounded out Sunday’s top 10.

The final round to set the 2025 Championship 4 is Sunday afternoon’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

By Kelly Crandall - Oct 21, 2025, 11:23 AM ET

Briscoe still 'doing what comes naturally' but has found a new level

It was early in the second stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Leigh Diffey in the NBC Sports booth made an observation about Chase Briscoe.

"He is amped up today," Diffey said.

The broadcast had been following the battles of Briscoe, William Byron, and Denny Hamlin. Briscoe was at the center of it all by trading positions with both drivers, but going back and forth mostly with Byron. Diffey's comment came after Steve Letarte noted that the top four drivers in the race at the time – Kyle Larson, who was leading Briscoe, Byron, and Hamlin – were all ranked at the top of the leaderboard in laps led this season.

"The intensity of the racing is higher," Letarte said.

A few minutes later, Jeff Burton added another observation. It came as Briscoe and Byron continued to fight for position.

"Those two are going at it," Burton said. "It is aggressive."

Briscoe ultimately finished fourth to Hamlin, fading in a two-tire versus four-tire outcome. The performance, in which Briscoe qualified second and led 57 laps, swung him above the playoff grid cutline as the Round of 8 put one race in the books. It was his sixth top-10 finish in seven postseason races.

A week later, RACER asked Briscoe, based on those comments, whether he was racing any differently this year.

"I don't feel like it," he said. "I feel like I've done the same thing I've done the last five, six years of my career. It's just the car goes faster, and so it makes it where I look like I'm doing stuff differently, but I don't necessarily feel like I'm doing anything different. My prep work looks different from the standpoint of what JGR sends me – it's a little more in-depth.

"But as far as driving the car, no. I'm doing what comes naturally, and I go faster."
Briscoe clinched his first superspeedway win, and with it, a maiden trip to the Championship 4 with his victory at Talladega. Chris Graythen/Getty Images



The next day, Briscoe was the fastest driver to the checkered flag on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, clinching a spot in the Championship 4 for the very first time. In doing so, he won on a superspeedway for the first time in his career, and added to a season in which he's led the point standings for the first time, has won multiple races in a year for the first time, and continues to add to the most laps led, top-10, and top-five finishes he's had in a single season.
The move that Briscoe made to win the race came when he saw a moment and had the confidence to seize it. It unfolded quickly and not how Briscoe imagined it, as he was committed to pushing Bubba Wallace to the victory going into the overtime attempt. A win by Wallace would keep another playoff driver out of victory lane. But the push Briscoe gave Wallace was so good that it cleared them of the field down the backstretch. Wallace didn't cover left, which surprised Briscoe, and he made the move to the inside.

"Truthfully, when I made the move, too, I didn't know if I was necessarily going to win the race, but I felt like, at least if I was leading the lane on the bottom, I was probably going to at least run top five," Briscoe said. "It was going to be okay if Bubba won. I cleared Bubba, and Ty [Gibbs] kept shoving me. I couldn't believe I won a superspeedway race. [Richard] Boswell stopped me there on pit road, and I'm speechless (that) I won a superspeedway race. It's such a big thing (at Stewart-Haas Racing), how bad I was at them.

"It's so cool to finally win a superspeedway race. It was kind of the last style of track in my career I've not been able to win on. That was a huge checklist there, as well."

James Small knows his driver has come a long way behind the wheel of a Gibbs Toyota. But even as they get ready to race for a championship, there is still more to go.
"It's still a weekly process," Small said. "I disagree with him that he's driving the same. There are things we work on every week just to try and get him out of bad habits and help him be better. Just many things I don't think people have focused on before, on how to make speed.

"He listens to everything. He's done an exceptional job of taking it all on board and getting better. A lot of it is also him getting accustomed to our cars, getting more of a feel, especially on the bigger tracks. That took some time. I think he feels at home now in the cockpit. He knows what we're after, what we need him to drive like, all of that. Yeah, it's finally started to mesh. We're still not at our full potential, I don't think."

So even though life and racing look different for Briscoe, he swears he's the same driver he's been since he arrived in the Cup Series five years ago.

"I think it just looks different," he said. "I think when the car's potential is there … if my car is closer in speed to the other guys, it allows me to fight them for a longer amount of time than I would have been able to in the past. Yeah, I don't feel like I've done anything different.
"I think now, if anything, I don't have to try as hard. So, things are a little easier in general. But I don't feel like I've necessarily done anything different."

 

David Jensen/Getty Images
By Kelly Crandall - Oct 27, 2025, 2:34 PM ET

Gibbs changing car parts ahead of title showdown

Joe Gibbs Racing has taken the precautions in hopes of avoiding mechanical failures in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race this weekend.

Gibbs will compete for the title at Phoenix Raceway with drivers Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Sunday’s season finale will be determined between Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports.

“We’ve been on that all morning,” Joe Gibbs said Monday. “We’ve got the parts out and looked at everything. I think issues with the motors are always concerning. You never want that to happen. But I think we kind of have understood where we are and what those parts were, and have made adjustments, for sure.

“Those parts will not be in the cars for this weekend. So … feel good about that.”

Hamlin’s No. 11 team has suffered multiple issues in recent weeks, including two different situations at Martinsville Speedway. Saturday, Hamlin’s car had what appeared to be another starter issue before qualifying. On Sunday, it was a blown engine that ended Hamlin’s race.

There was a power steering issue for Hamlin at Kansas Speedway and a throttle issue at Talladega Superspeedway. Hamlin noted after the Talladega race that the team has battled three of the biggest mechanical issues this season: batteries, starters and clutches.

“I’m obviously concerned, but there obviously nothing I can do about it,” said Hamlin of his Martinsville engine issue. “We’ll live with it and hopefully we’ll get back next week and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week. I’m really confident in what this team is going to bring next week and we’ll bring our best; hopefully it lasts.”

The engine issue for Hamlin came after his teammate, Briscoe, exited the race earlier in the afternoon, also with an engine issue.

“No indication,” Briscoe said. “I was just running around there. I felt really good about coming here and where we were at and racing with (Kyle) Larson there and went to upshift and something happened. I’m not really sure; it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to next week and that won’t matter anyways.”

Joe Gibbs Racing seeks its first title since 2019 this weekend. Hamlin and Briscoe are both seeking their first Cup Series title.