Final lap frenzy in Charlotte never worried Briscoe, but gave crew chief Small déjà vu

James Small experienced déjà vu in the final laps of Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and it wasn't a good thing.

“I was like, ‘Here we go again,’” Small said, referring to seeing Christopher Bell close in on his driver, Chase Briscoe. “We know how to make it interesting all the time. I’m just glad they checked each other’s momentum enough, and we had enough to get across.”

Briscoe hung on to win the Bank of America 400 by a few feet over Bell. The two wound up side by side in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, then made contact off the final corner, turning it into a drag race at the finish. But it came after Briscoe lost over two seconds to his teammate in the final laps.

It was the second straight victory for Small, Briscoe, and the No. 19 team. It closed out a three-race stretch in which they led the final laps but sealed only two wins. Briscoe lost to Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway, then had to hold off a charging Larson again a week later in Las Vegas. Briscoe won by 0.029s over Bell.

“I felt really good about my car,” said Briscoe. “I was able to keep putting a gap on Christopher, and even in lap traffic, I felt pretty good. With like six to go, I caught, I think it was the [No.] 41 car, and all of a sudden, I noticed my car quit turning all at once, and then after a lap or two I realized that my right front was about to go down.”

Briscoe had corded the right-front tires on a few runs during the race. When it happened in the final stint, his Toyota went tight, and Briscoe thinks that had the race gone another lap or so, it would have blown the right-front tire.

“I was just kind of hanging on,” Briscoe said. “Probably the biggest gap ever blown in the last four laps of a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but glad we were able to hold on.”

Bell was shocked that he got to Briscoe and how quickly it happened. He wasn’t sure what had happened with Briscoe to make him slow down.

The now-teammates have known each other for what Briscoe estimated is 17 years. Having met racing online, Briscoe viewed Bell as the bar for being able to get development deals and into the Toyota system. Meanwhile, Briscoe was sleeping on couches and had a different path. It is crazy to him that they are now teammates.

But that relationship made Briscoe confident that, even as Sunday came down to a much closer finish than expected, it wouldn’t cross the line. Even though, in that moment, Bell said they weren't teammates.

“I feel like me and Christopher both push each other just because we do know the upbringing,” Briscoe said. “But of all the people that I could have raced against there to the line, Christopher is the most respectful guy in the garage. I knew he wasn’t going to do anything to me to wreck me, where other guys may have done that.

“Christopher is just an incredible race car driver, and I love racing with Christopher because you always know you’re going to get respect, and you can’t say that about some guys.”