Chase Briscoe followed son's advice en route to Charlotte victory

The win is Briscoe's third of the season and his second straight after he held off Kyle Larson in a thrilling battle last week at Las Vegas. Briscoe, now fourth in the series standings, is 65 points back of Larson for the points lead with four races left in the season. 

"Just hanging on"

The headline appeared to be that Briscoe was going to dominate the race's final stint and cruise to victory, but a combination of worn tires and Bell pushing hard in the closing laps gave the latter a shot at the win. 

Bell chopped Briscoe's advantage from two seconds down to a half second with two laps to go and made his final charge in the final corner, getting underneath Briscoe. However, Bell's No. 20 wiggled just enough coming off the final corner that the two made contact, which stunted Bell's momentum and allowed Briscoe to beat him to the line. 

"I was pretty strong compared to Christopher, but we just didn’t know what he was going to do the last 15 laps of that run," Briscoe said. "I felt really good about my car. I was able to keep putting a gap on Christopher and even in lap traffic I felt good. With like six to go I caught... the 41 car, and all of a sudden I noticed my car quit turning all at once, and then after a lap or two I realized that my right front was about to go down."

Briscoe's worn tires had begun to cord on one of the longest runs of the entire race. With 50 laps on them, the four Goodyear eagles on the No. 19 Toyota nearly gave out. 

"[We’d] been cording tires, at least the right front, the last couple runs, and I just caught that pack of lap cars and with the right front starting to cord I got really, really tight," Briscoe said. "Truthfully, another lap it maybe blows the right front with how much it was coming apart and just couldn’t do anything. I was just kind of hanging on.

"Probably the biggest gap ever blown of a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but glad we were able to hold on."

Bona fide title contender?

Winning is the easiest way to score points in NASCAR, and after two straight wins, Briscoe's title hopes are alive and well. 

It may very well take another win for Briscoe to challenge Larson for the championship, especially considering Larson's sixth-place finish at Charlotte on Sunday was his worst of the Chase so far. 

Briscoe has won at Phoenix before and won the fall Talladega race last year. Martinsville has been hit or miss for him, though the season finale being at another 1.5-mile track in Homestead could bode well for him and the No. 19 team. 

"Ultimately, in our situation you’re just going to the racetrack and trying to win the race," Briscoe said. "Because the 5 car can maintain what he’s able to do and average a top 3 or top 5 running position. The only way you’re going to ever cut into that gap of now 65 points is you have to win races and get that big chunk of points on him.

"We probably need to win another race or two, but we at least put ourselves in the ballgame. That’s all you can ask for."

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.