NASCAR insiders sound off on Chase Briscoe ‘teammate’ comments after loss to Denny Hamlin in OT

Chase Briscoe had the fresher tires, and only one man to beat on the final restart at Dover International Speedway. Unfortunately, it was his teammate in Denny Hamlin, and the elder-statesman of Joe Gibbs Racing was able to hold off the newbie for the win.

Afterwards, Briscoe made it a point to note that if Hamlin wasn’t his teammate, he would’ve raced him differently, and perhaps the No. 19 Toyota would’ve ended up in Victory Lane instead. As the dust settles on the weekend that was in Delaware, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reacted to the decision from the Mitchell, Indiana native.

“Here’s the thing, Chase Briscoe says afterwards, emphatically, while on pit road talking to us, I don’t know what he said on TV, he probably said the same thing, but emphatically, if this was not a teammate, this is a very different outcome,” Gluck stated, via The Teardown. “He could not put himself in this position where he’s going to wreck a teammate. Clean out both cars, have a situation where a Hendrick car wins instead. So he said, (he) raced about 50-percent of, you know, up to the line, of what (he) could do. He said, if it wasn’t a teammate, (he would’ve) opened up his hands more, and it would have been dirty. (He) could’ve have won that way, right?

“We know that Chase Briscoe prides himself on clean racing, winning the right way. That’s how he’s brought up. SVG talked about this at Sonoma. All (he) knew was Chase Briscoe (was behind him), so (he) knew (he was) going to be okay with clean, good, hard racing. So, Briscoe felt like he did everything he could up to that line, but he wasn’t gonna wreck the guy and he wasn’t gonna drive dirty when he said, Denny’s never driven him that way. So, they raced it out, and Denny ultimately wins.”

Some will undoubtedly have an issue with Briscoe’s decision. However, Bianchi believes it was the right one, as the first-year JGR driver isn’t exactly in a position to make a risky move on his teammate at the moment.

“Chase is right. You’re kind of the new guy at JGR. You don’t want to upset the apple cart,” Bianchi responded. “You want to be a good teammate. You want to kind of establish yourself and say, ‘Hey, listen, I’m for you guys. I can be counted on,’ and going and crashing your teammate while racing for the win and handing that victory to your rival organization is not a good way to do that. I think he raced really smart. He raced aggressively at times, and he got another good finish.

“Now, the No. 19 team is continuing to add good finish on top of good finishes, by the way. We’re starting to see that team really kind of come into form, which is in the big picture, I think is going to bode really well for them. I think they’re a team to really watch as we get down to this homestretch of the regular season and end of the playoffs.”

Alas, Chase Briscoe is playing the long game. He’s already locked into the playoffs, and the Cup Series is heading to some tracks within his wheelhouse. Perhaps next time Denny Hamlin and the rest of his Joe Gibbs Racing will remember this moment if the No. 19 Toyota is close to a win.