Why Chase Briscoe rooted for Christopher Bell over Bubba Wallace at the Kansas playoff race

Chase Briscoe’s run to fourth at Kansas was as much about survival as it was about opportunity. Sitting on the cutline entering the Round of 12, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver carried little margin for error. Bubba Wallace, by contrast, was buried below him in points. When the final restarts unfolded in the Hollywood Casino 400, Briscoe found himself rooting harder for Christopher Bell than Wallace.

Coming into Kansas, Briscoe was just a dozen points above the elimination line, with Christopher Bell 17 points clear of him and Wallace 27 below the cutline. For Briscoe, helping Wallace to a win would have hurt his chances of advancement, as it would have put him closer to the cutoff.

After the checkered flag, he told NBC:

"I’ve never really been in a situation like that, where I needed really anybody but Bubba (Wallace) to win in that situation. But I wanted to still put it in a position where I could still win the race, too. It was just tough with those restarts. They’re so circumstantial... I thought I was going to (win), honestly, still have a really good shot to win the race, and when Bell got in the fence off of four, I had to all but stop, and it just ruined my momentum."

The chaos began with eight laps left when Carson Hocevar’s spin brought out the eighth caution of the day, forcing overtime. On the restart, Chase Briscoe lined up on the top lane behind Christopher Bell, while teammate Denny Hamlin sat just behind Wallace on the inside. Briscoe dove to the bottom, hoping to grab track position, but Wallace held his line. It forced him to push the brakes, and the No. 19 Ford slid outside the groove.

Moments later, Zane Smith’s violent crash brought out the ninth and final caution. The field reset once again, this time with Briscoe pushing Bell on the outside and Wallace holding the inside with teammate Tyler Reddick right behind him. When the green flag waved, Briscoe took the high line into Turn 1 but scraped the wall as Hamlin went underneath. That opened the door for Chase Elliott.

Reflecting on his own moves, Chase Briscoe admitted the split-second decisions made the difference:

"That second-to-last restart, I had a huge run out of the back straightaway, and I thought I could clear, potentially. So I tried to make it three wide, but looking back on it, maybe it would have been better to hit the 20 as hard as I could and try to get him to the lead. But it is so crazy on those restarts."

Chase Briscoe ultimately crossed the line in fourth. Elliott, who charged from eighth to first in the final two laps, bounced off Hamlin on the last straightaway to steal the win and earn his Round of 8 ticket.

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Chase Briscoe explains 'scrappy day' for Toyotas as they lost to the lone Chevrolet at Kansas

Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin (L) and Chase Briscoe at Dover Motor Speedway. Source: Getty

For Toyota, the loss stung. A week earlier, Ford celebrated a 1-2-4 finish at New Hampshire to open the Round of 12. In Kansas, Toyota seemed poised for a comeback, leading a combined 236 of the 273 laps on the day. Denny Hamlin himself led a race-high 159 laps despite a power steering issue, with five Toyotas finishing in the top seven.

But the only Chevrolet in that mix, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott, won the race. Hamlin wanted win number 60. Christopher Bell and Briscoe needed points to increase the points margin. Bubba Wallace, driving for 23XI Racing - the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan - had the lead twice but couldn’t close either.

Speaking to NBC, Chase Briscoe called the afternoon another grind for his group:

"Scrappy day for our Toyota. Would have loved to be obviously a little bit better today. Crazy, I think we’re averaging a top-five finish in the playoffs, and we’re only 20 points above."

Wallace, who left Kansas dejected despite finishing fifth, put it even more bluntly:

"He’s (Denny Hamlin) a dumbass for that move. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not. But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there. Toyotas were super-fast, and proud to be driving one. I thought it was meant to be, and then it wasn’t."

For Chase Briscoe, Kansas was both encouraging and unnerving. He remains the only driver to finish inside the top 10 in all five playoff races so far, but his margin is razor-thin. He is just 21 points above the cutline heading into Charlotte.