Late caution foils Briscoe’s bid for three in a row at Darlington

Chase Briscoe had a third straight Southern 500 victory in sight but failed to execute when it mattered most.

Briscoe did not want to see the last caution of the night, which flew with 33 laps to go. He had taken the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell off a restart three laps earlier, and was trying to set sail when rain halted the proceedings. The field sat under the red flag for nearly eight minutes.

When it came down to the race’s final decision for crew chiefs, the majority of the field chose to pit. Briscoe came off pit road first. But four teams stayed out, shuffling the restart order. Briscoe lined up fifth, the third driver on the inside lane.

Briscoe didn’t execute on the restart, though, and faded to a sixth-place finish.

“We made our setup there based on me getting the lead, and so I told them I needed to be a touch tighter because I was definitely free when I got the lead there before the last caution,” said Briscoe. “Then I came out running sixth or seventh and was too tight to do anything. So, it’s frustrating.”

Briscoe did recover from a near-disastrous situation at the end of the second stage when the car ran out of fuel after crossing the line fourth. It forced him to pit road while it was closed, sending him to the rear of the field.

“To go from dead last to the lead in 80 laps, our car was phenomenal,” said Briscoe.

In all, Briscoe scored 43 points to knock eight points off his deficit to leader and teammate Denny Hamlin. Briscoe remains fifth in the standings.

Sunday night, he led 30 laps.

“That one will sting for a while,” Briscoe said. “But a great car and just an unfortunate set of circumstances today.”