“Ripped the wheel”: Chase Briscoe reacts after champion hopes ruined prematurely at Charlotte

Chase Briscoe has reacted to his premature exit from the Round of 12 finale hosted by the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver is running his final year with the team but has been kicked out of the championship fight.

The #14 Ford driver entered the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at P12B and needed a dominant result to qualify for the Round of 8. However, he took the green flag from the 25th place, jeopardizing his championship pursuit.

Mechanical issues further plagued the SHR driver's run. On top of that, after getting stuck in traffic on Lap 31, Briscoe's Ford got wrecked by his future teammate, Denny Hamlin.

Tyler Reddick rammed his #45 Toyota into Hamlin's #11, which in turn resulted in Briscoe getting bumped. A few laps later, the SHR driver lost his right rear tire and pitted.

Briscoe's visits to the pit lane continued, as, on Lap 40, he collided with Austin Dillon. Immediately after contact with RCR's Dillon, the SHR driver steered into the pits. The Lap 41 pitstop marked the final one for the #14 Ford driver as he was awarded a DNF under the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP).

After succumbing to a premature exit, Chase Briscoe reflected on his ruined championship hopes (via Frontstretch).

"The steering rack or something broke, I don't really know what happened to be honest with you. I know that realistically we were trying to move on anyway (with) just how bad our car was. On those restarts at Turn 7, you know we all kind of get stacked up, they all kind of stopped in front of me, and it ripped the wheel out of my hand. I could turn to the left but as soon as I got to the right hand, my car just went straight,"

Chase Briscoe was the only SHR driver in the championship contention. Noah Gragson, Ryan Preece, and Josh Berry failed to make the playoffs. However, after the Charlotte setback, Tony Stewart's co-owned team will end their operations with two Cup Series titles.

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Chase Briscoe comments on Charlotte Motor Speedway's reconfiguration and compares it with his practice session

The elimination race marked the first Cup Series battle since the 2.28-mile circuit underwent a re-pavement job during the summer break. A new and larger infield was created between Turns 6 and 7, tightly leading into Turn 8, intensifying the challenging affair of road course racing. Moreover, the front stretch chicane was reshaped to produce harder braking zones.

The result—multiple cars got stuck in traffic or suffered huge bumps while steering over the turtles installed on the chicane as drivers tried to cut corners. Chase Briscoe felt the race day was "better" on the repaved field than the "rough" practice session.

The SHR driver elaborated and drew parallels with his practice and 41 laps of racing on the new track.

"It was definitely different. (The frontstretch chicane) is still rough to a certain extent but not near as rough as what we had yesterday. I mean it was a lot physically, just bouncing your head around, and then your back hurts so, definitely thought (the race) was better. You know, it's still violent to an extent but it was definitely better," Briscoe said (1:52).

After wrapping the remaining four races for SHR, Chase Briscoe will replace Martin Truex Jr. at JGR next year.