TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Chase Briscoe gave Joe Gibbs Racing its second spot in NASCAR’s championship-deciding season finale with an overtime victory Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Briscoe raced to his first career superspeedway victory to join teammate Denny Hamlin as Toyota drivers guaranteed slots in the four-driver winner-take-all finale at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks.
Briscoe, who is in his first season driving for Gibbs, said he felt comfortable the entire race.
“I had such a peace.” Briscoe said. “Normally I’m scared to death, nervous wreck around this place.”
Briscoe landed at JGR after Stewart-Haas Racing shuttered at the end of last season and now gets his first chance to race for a Cup title.
“Chase Briscoe is pretty good, we love him,” Gibbs said. “It’s a huge deal to us, to get two in the final four.”
Briscoe was sixth on the restart — a two-lap sprint in overtime to the finish — and Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson split the front row and lined up side-by-side for the Chevrolet drivers to control the race.
Byron was getting help from behind from fellow Chevrolet driver Carson Hocevar, a driver for Hendrick aligned Spire Motorsports. Larson’s push was from Toyota driver Bubba Wallace, who did get Larson into the lead.
But Larson appeared to run out of fuel and dropped dramatically off the pace and Daytona 500 winner Byron, who is in danger of playoff elimination, lost his chance at victory when his push from Hocevar was too strong and it caused Byron to spin.
Briscoe, meanwhile, had no problems with all his help coming from JGR driver Ty Gibbs, the only one of his teammates not eligible for the championship.
“Ty Gibbs, just incredible teammate there. I mean, I honestly would not have won that race without Ty,” Briscoe said. “This is an amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race. I haven’t done it at any level.”
It’s a remarkable turnaround from a month ago when Gibbs raced his teammates hard during the playoff race at New Hampshire until Hamlin, fed up at behind held up, wrecked Gibbs. That led to internal discussions as to how the organization must work together to win a championship.
“Ty did a great job sitting there in third,” said his grandfather, the team owner. “He gave a little push there which was a good deal for us, all of our teams worked together.”
There are two open spots left in the championship field to be determined next week in the finale of the third round of the playoffs. JGR driver Christopher Bell and Larson are above the elimination line but neither is all that comfortable.
“I’d rather have a bigger points cushion heading into next weekend, but we’ll regroup and focus on Martinsville,” said Larson, who is now mired in a 22-race losing streak dating to May.
Bell is 37 points above the cutline, only one point ahead of Larson, while Byron, Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott, and Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are below the cutline.
“Plus 37 seems really good, but you expect a winner from the bottom four, even myself, any of the five of us can win Martinsville,” Bell said. “So plus 37 turns into plus one whenever you have a new winner and it’s going to be a battle all day at Martinsville.”
Logano and Blaney have combined to win the last three Cup titles for Penske.
The race went to overtime when Chris Buescher was leading with two laps to go and he was spun from behind by Byron, who was shoved into Buescher by Hocevar. Buescher spun across the front of the pack and slammed hard into an inside wall in a one-car crash that sent the race to overtime.
Todd Gilliland finished a career-best second in a Ford for Front Row Motorsports — the team that alongside Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing is headed to mediation Tuesday in a federal antitrust suit — and Gibbs was third. Wallace, who drives for 23XI, was fourth.
Elliott in early crash
Elliott’s chances to advance into the final four took a hit when NASCAR’s most popular driver was collected in the first crash of the race.
Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR champion, was already below the cutline for elimination when he was caught in an early eight-car crash 52 laps into the race. It sent the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the garage for repairs and dropped Elliott to last in the 40-car field.
Elliott now goes to Martinsville Speedway in a must-win situation to advance to the title-deciding finale at Phoenix for the first time since 2022.
“It is what it is, I can’t change it now,” Elliott said. “Just all eyes on Martinsville and try to go up there and get a win.”
Elliott won Martinsville once before, in 2020, when he parlayed the victory into his only Cup title.
Up next
The final race to set the championship four, next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, where Blaney won last year to advance to the title deciding playoff finale.
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