Briscoe left with 'frustrating' finish at Kansas

Chase Briscoe thought a win was within grasp Sunday at Kansas Speedway, but his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota didn’t cooperate.

It would have been a much-needed win in the fourth race of the Chase. Briscoe, however, was passed for the race lead and the win by Kyle Larson with seven laps to go. He slid to fourth by the finish.

“It went really, really loose,” Briscoe said of losing his gap over Larson in the final laps. “I kind of had that [on] the run before there when we did the green flag pit stop, and I had gotten in the wall so many times that I had a little bit of a bent toe link. But it went really, really free ultimately.

“And it was actually better for me to be in second, just being behind him, especially how much he was aero-blocking; it would tighten me up and allow me to actually be a little bit better. Then as soon as I got the lead, I would go really, really free again. So, yeah, frustrating for sure.”

Briscoe chased Larson throughout the final stage, at least putting pressure on the Hendrick Motorsports driver for the race lead when the cycle of green-flag pit stops began. On lap 216, Briscoe was called to pit road, but Larson’s team caught it and had him pit on the same lap. This kept them together, and Larson maintained his lead over Briscoe off pit road and as the cycle completed.

But Briscoe finally got a run and charged past Larson with 30 laps to go. Briscoe even gapped Larson a bit and looked to be sailing toward his second win of the season.

“It just felt like I had a win there to stay in contention for a championship, and obviously losing [and] 123 [being] points back, it’s probably not going to happen,” said Briscoe. “We’ll keep trying.

“It’s nice to just finally have a good finish in this Chase. It’s been a rough go to start. So, we’ve got six more weeks or whatever to go try to win as many races as we can, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Briscoe gained one position in the standings but still has a tough way up from eighth. Larson, the championship points leader, extended his gap on the field.

“I thought today – I think I was 87 points out going into it - I had to at least knock off 10 from the cut line, and when I didn’t get points the first stage, I knew that was going to be hard,” Briscoe said. “Ultimately, I had to win to be able to even stay somewhat around 80 or 90 back. So, I don’t know. It’s still possible, but you’re going to have to win five or so of the next six races - a Tony Stewart, 2011 run or something.

“We’ll see what we can do.”