Briscoe in an even deeper points hole after more misfortune in Phoenix

The hole that Chase Briscoe finds himself in early into the NASCAR Cup Series season got even deeper Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

Briscoe crashed out of the Straight Talk Wireless 500 when something went wrong in the front of his Toyota Camry, sending him into the Turn 3 wall. It could have been a wheel issue, as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had reported a vibration before the incident. The vibration was getting “progressively worse” as the run continued, but the team did not see anything on video review that suggested a wheel was loose.

The crash, which occurred on lap 132, started with a slide sideways into the corner that Briscoe was not able to correct before hitting the wall. Initially, the team tried to repair the car in the garage, but they were unable to do so.

“I don’t know,” said Briscoe about what caused the crash. “I’ve only seen the replay one time; it almost looked like something in my left front. When I had my vibration, I told them that I thought it was in the front end. Just par for the course for how this year started.

“It was another car that was extremely fast, felt like we were certainly going to be in contention for the win, and just another failure for us. Definitely frustrating, we’ll go on to next week and see if we can turn it around with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota team."

Briscoe will be credited with a 37th-place finish, last in the field. It is the third time in the first four races that Briscoe has finished outside the top 30. Furthermore, it’s his second consecutive DNF after a transaxle issue at Circuit of the Americas. The positive result on Briscoe’s record is a second-place finish from EchoPark Speedway.

A year ago, Briscoe had a career season, finishing as a championship contender with three victories. But he entered the weekend at Phoenix sitting 27th in the championship point standings because of his early misfortune. He could fall outside the top 30 by the checkered flag.

Sunday’s unfortunate turn of events came while Briscoe was running in third place.

“It was a blast; I was having a lot of fun,” Briscoe said. “We were driving [with] extra power, it’s only 70 horsepower more, but it feels like way more than that. We were sliding all over the place and it made it a lot of fun. I think Darlington is going to be out of control when we go there with this package.

“It was a lot of fun; wish I was out there until the end and the JGR cars were certainly good."