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Denny Hamlin commends Chase Briscoe, SHR for Darlington: ‘You’re not going to luck up and win’
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Denny Hamlin commends Chase Briscoe, SHR for Darlington: ‘You’re not going to luck up and win’
Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Nick Geddes | Last updated 9/3/24
Throughout the NASCAR Cup Series season, you’re bound to see a few surprise winners. Tracks such as Daytona and Talladega tend to play well to the underdog. Darlington? Not so much. The Lady in Black is as unforgiving as any on the schedule and if you’re going to find Victory Lane, you must overcome the Track Too Tough to Tame.
And so, when you developed a shortlist of drivers who could get it done in Sunday’s Southern 500, the regular season finale, Chase Briscoe probably didn’t come to mind. It’s nothing against the Stewart-Haas Racing ace, but being in a must-win situation at Darlington isn’t an ideal situation.
But Briscoe and his team were dialed in from the jump, qualifying third and staying near the front of the field for the entirety of the 367-lap, 500-mile marathon. And with 26 laps to go, Briscoe made a career-defining move, slingshotting past Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain in Turn 3 to take the lead he would not relinquish.
Briscoe is in the 16-driver postseason field, and he certainly earned it, even drawing praise from Denny Hamlin on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.
Chase Briscoe clinches playoff spot after surprise victory at Darlington
“Tracks like Darlington, you’re not going to luck up and win,” Hamlin said. “It’s just too much from the car, driver, pit crew and all that. And the 14 team has all those pieces of the puzzle together. They have decent enough funding to where they’re fast enough, their pit crew is good enough, their driver is good enough and he stayed up front the entire race.
“It’s just Daytona or the superspeedways — Atlanta this weekend, definitely could see another surprise winner. It’s just a different type of racing. As a sport, we’ve just morphed into this direction.”
The win was extra emotional for Briscoe, soon to be Joe Gibbs Racing bound in 2025. SHR is closing its doors after the 2024 campaign and over 300 employees will soon be out of jobs. Briscoe’s triumph, which snapped a 93-race winless streak, was just as much for them as it was for him.
“For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable. God is just so good,” Briscoe said after the race. “It’s like déjà vu there at the end with Kyle, with the Xfinity race here in 2020. Obviously, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it. … This night just literally went perfect. The pit crew did an incredible job. I was crying. After the checkered, I just won the Southern 500, this is a crown jewel.”
