Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Las Vegas, NV) — Chase Briscoe didn’t let this one get away.
A week after coming up short at Kansas, Briscoe held off charges from Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick late in the race Sunday at Las Vegas to earn his first victory of The Chase.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver swept the stages and led 175 laps, crossing the finish line ahead of Larson and Reddick.
“I’m just glad I was able to hold on,” Briscoe said in his USA Sports interview after the race. “Last week was not a very fun mental place to be after kind of throwing one away.”
Here are my takeaways:
1. Chase Briscoe Not Denied
Chase Briscoe finished the drill successfully a week after letting one slip away at Kansas.
Briscoe won for the seventh time in his career and the second time this year. The win at Vegas came seven days after finishing fourth at Kansas, where he passed Kyle Larson for the lead — only to have Larson rally back and pass him with seven laps remaining.
At various times, drivers got within two-tenths of a second on Briscoe over the final 30 laps, and every time, Briscoe held them off, including Larson in the final laps.
His crew chief, the fiery and blunt James Small, had said if Briscoe had lost the race that he’d be “up on murder charges.”
Small said, “I was a little worried I was going to have to throw him off this [media center] building if he gave this one away after last week.”
Briscoe knew that Small would have been livid if he didn’t win and joked in his post-race news conference that he “would have been black-and-blue getting on the plane.”
James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe, joked about how upset he would have been had Briscoe not ended up winning at Vegas.
In all seriousness, Briscoe has consistently said as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing that there are no excuses not to win.
“You don’t want your guys to lose confidence in you,” he said. “Last week, I drove to the lead. And you lose the race with six to go, and I don’t really feel like I made a mistake, per se. … I could have done a better job defending Larson.
“You just don’t want it to be two weeks in a row where you lose a race in the last five to 10 laps. Your confidence from your team [and] your guys can go away really quickly. That was more in the back of my mind than anything.”
2. Kyle Larson Falls Just Short
Kyle Larson fell short of winning at Vegas but still maintains his lead in The Chase.
This one wasn’t meant to be for Larson, but the fact he was even close at the end was impressive.
His team had a pit stop that took more than 20 seconds early in the race to fix the front ride height and the cross weight in the car.
Larson lost enough spots where, at one point, he was a lap down before he could finally rally to 10th by the end of the second stage. It was game on after that, and he placed second.
The defending Cup champion increased his points lead to 40 over Denny Hamlin with five races left in the season.
“I was confident that we could dig ourselves out of it and potentially get a win out of the day,” Larson told me and other reporters after the race.
“And we almost did. … Always to gain [in the standings] is a good thing.”
3. Denny Hamlin’s Uncharacteristic Issues
An uncharacteristically bad day at Vegas put Denny Hamlin in an even bigger hole.
Denny Hamlin spun with just a few laps left in the opening stage, damaging his front splitter and ruining any chance he had at winning the race.
He had led 39 laps but he was trying to rally from 10th, as he was among the drivers who had pitted under caution with about 39 laps left in the stage.
He had made it back to fourth before the spin.
Hamlin also had an issue later in the race when he lost fuel pressure under caution and lost several spots.
He wound up 16th and lost 14 points to Larson.
Larson managed just one stage point, while Hamlin earned the point for the fastest lap.
“Just trying to make up the track position that we lost and trying to push to get it back and evidently it was marbles or something up there,” Hamlin told me and other reporters.
“It was quite odd.”
4. 23XI Drivers Challenge
Tyler Reddick challenged for the win before ending up third.
Both Wallace and Reddick challenged in the final stage, but Reddick ended up third and Wallace faded to eighth.
Reddick had to change a battery early in the race and had a slow stop in his final time down pit road.
“We gained five points [on Larson],” Reddick said in his USA Sports interview after the race. “Whoop-de-doo.
“We have to capitalize when we have [cars] as fast as this.”
4 ½. What’s Next: Charlotte
The Charlotte roval course (a mix of the oval and an infield road course) is no more for the NASCAR postseason. The 1.5-mile ovals have had some great racing but several months ago, NASCAR and the track opted to put its Chase race on the oval.
It is the third of four 1.5-mile tracks in The Chase, with the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway the fourth.
Expect the same drivers who were strong at the 1.5-mile Kansas and Las Vegas tracks the last two weeks to be good at Charlotte.
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