Chase Briscoe won a shootout at the desert.
Gen 7 cars came back to Phoenix after their December testing session to play host to Chase Briscoe’s first-ever Cup Series win.
Buttery Smooth
The next-gen car got rolling for its first official laps at Phoenix International Raceway. Things were buttery smooth for Ryan Blaney, to begin with. The Penske number 12 lead each and every one of the first 25 laps before the competition caution.
Competition yellow brought everyone but one car to pit road for fresh tires and fuel and aside from Blaney being sent to the back for speeding at the pits, things stayed pretty calm.
That was until Corey LaJoie hit the wall and broke his right front wheel, with it came a flying tire for the second caution of the day. William Byron on the other hand, had better luck. Hendrick’s 24 Chevy took advantage of Blaney’s speeding penalty and the loose rubber to restart at the front to stay there.
The Axalta car got the first Playoff point of the afternoon.
Pitstops? What pitstops?
Christopher Bell, who qualified fourth despite some lackluster practice sessions on Friday, was the first to stop for new rubber to begin the second stage. Stage winner did so too and surrendered the lead to Blaney once again, albeit, he was running older tires. It was him and Kyle Busch at the front for the start of the stage.
Despite the wear, Blaney’s highlighter-colored machine still managed to pull away from the pack in the short run, long run performance tough, was still a mystery for him. Bell was back to the spots he was running during practice at the beginning of the second stage. The reason? Tire man forgot to set his gun to screw instead of, unscrew. Rookie mistake for the Joe Gibbs car.
Not only was Ryan Blaney still holding on to the lead, but he was also chewing lapped traffic like strawberry bubblegum. Among those was Rookie of the Year candidate , the driver of the 21 Mustang hit the wall, lost about five miles of speed, and was an easy target for the race leader. Bell brought out the third caution of the day after spinning and blowing up his right rear tire.
Those old tires rolled along and managed to keep Hendrick’s number at bay as Ryan Blaney got the second stage win.
The Battle of Chase to Chase the Win
Drivers started getting comfortable with their cars in the desert. So comfortable that everyone went well below the yellow line at the place known as “The Dog Leg” going as far as six wide.
Blaney finally pitted and gave up the lead to Chase Elliott. Halfway through the final stage Martin Truex Jr, blew a tire at the front stretch and brought another yellow flag. Leaders headed to the pits for fresh rubber and out of them emerged Joey Logano and Kevin “King of the Desert” Harvick, suddenly in the top five giving Elliott a run for his money.
Reigning champion Kyle Larson had to retire with 65 laps to go after a broken engine valve, not the way he wanted to exit from the same track where he won it all last November.
With 38 laps left, Chase Briscoe battled for the lead against the other Chase, Elliott, that was. No pitstops in sight and everyone seemed fine with making it to the finish line without filling up.
Taking risks was not going to be necessary as Erik Jones had a flat tire with 25 laps to go and gave everyone a shot to pit for a make-or-break kind of stop. That was more than evident by the battle between Stewart-Haas’ Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick with 20 to go.
The Final Shootout
Elliott decided the race wasn’t exciting enough and spun coming into the start-finish line bringing in another caution, shrinking Briscoe’s lead to nothing and giving every driver another chance at getting fresh tires and fuel. One that no one took with three to go.
Everyone cut the dogleg one final time and all Chase Briscoe had to do was hold on to the lead. He did so in easy fashion and got his first-ever Cup Series win.
What’s Next for NASCAR?
Next-gen cars will head East to pay a visit to a brand new track with the same old name: Atlanta Motor Speedway
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