NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe recently recalled his on-track incident with Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson in the Quaker State 400 playoff race. Briscoe crashed into Larson's #5 Chevy, which had lost balance and bounced back off the wall, to the middle of the track.
Briscoe pilots the #14 Ford for Stewart Haas Racing, competing full-time in the Cup Series. He has claimed 15 wins across NASCAR’s top divisions, with 11 victories in the Xfinity Series and two each in the Cup and Truck Series. Additionally, the 29-year-old captured the ARCA Racing Series championship in 2016, achieving six wins and 18 top-10 finishes.
Briscoe confirmed his spot in the 2024 playoffs after securing a win in the final regular season race at Darlington Raceway. However, his first playoff race came to an untimely end as he made contact with the wrecked #5 of Kyle Larson.
Here's a look at the incident:
Following a P6 finish at Watkins Glen, Briscoe shed light on his playoff situation, particularly talking about the effect of his early exit from Atlanta. He said:
"We did everything we needed to do. So hate that we were in that hole to begin with Atlanta. Otherwise, we'd be hitting a really good spot going into next week, but that's part of it. So yeah, did everything we needed to do with our highpoint.com Ford."
"I was just trying not to get crashed at the beginning or at the end of these races up front, it's chaos. So I probably could have ran fourth maybe, but I didn't want to crash and run 25th. So overall good day for us just got to go to Bristol and do what we did today. Just execute all day long and if we do that, hopefully, it'll be enough." Briscoe added.
Heading into Bristol Motor Speedway, Briscoe is P11 in the driver standings, six points ahead of the cut-off line. The #14 driver would be hoping to retain his spot in the round of 12, keeping SHR in the playoffs for their final season in the sport.
NASCAR Insiders weigh in on Chase Briscoe hitting Kyle Larson at Atlanta
It is not a common sight to see drivers crash into a car stranded on the race track. More often than not, spotters are providing the drivers with all the information they require during a race, for a safe and positive result.
However, this was not the case for Chase Briscoe at Atlanta. Following his incident with Larson, NASCAR spotters Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft have discussed this incident at length, pointing out the mistakes made by Briscoe's spotter.
"I don't know what the spotters did or didn't see. I don't know what the driver did or didn't see. And I'm not saying that from an operational standpoint, I'm saying that from people were making errors." Griffin said.
"When he '[Kyle Larson] was spinning, he's coming down the hill and I'm watching like and I'm like, hold somebody's going to hit him like hard. Unfortunately, Chase [Briscoe] did." Kraft expressed.