Last season, Chase Briscoe reached the Championship 4 after winning three races. This production is nowhere to be found early in 2026 as he has plummeted in the points after a series of incidents.
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The latest of these issues occurred at Phoenix Raceway. Briscoe slammed into the outside wall after blowing a right front tire on Lap 132. He ran third at the time. This happened after he spent several laps telling his team he felt a vibration that grew progressively worse.
He limped his car to the DVP area, but the team could not make repairs. Briscoe's day ended with a 37th-place finish, marking his second consecutive DNF.
The No. 19 gets into the wall!@chasebriscoe was running third at the time of this incident. pic.twitter.com/CeTAKp8AWz
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 8, 2026
"I've only seen the replay one time, it almost looked like something in my left front," Briscoe said after exiting the infield care center. "When I had my vibration, I told them that I thought it was in the front end. Just par for the course for how this year started.
"It was another car that was extremely fast, felt like we were certainly going to be in contention for the win and just another failure for us. Definitely frustrating, we'll go on to next week and see if we can turn it around with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota team."
Briscoe's season started with him qualifying second for the Daytona 500. He did not remain there. He finished 36th after being involved in one of the multi-car incidents, and he scored only one point.
One week later, the Indiana native appeared to put himself back on track. He finished second at Atlanta Motor Speedway behind Tyler Reddick, and he banked 43 points.
The season continued with a trip to Circuit of the Americas, where Briscoe raced inside the top 10. He appeared to be in position for another strong points day, but a mechanical issue sent him to the garage. Once again, he scored one point.
He entered the race weekend at Phoenix sitting 27th in points and 22 points out of The Chase. The 37th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway mean that he would remain buried in the standings.
At this point, Briscoe's focus will be on scoring points. Win-and-in is gone, much to the drivers' delight, but it also means that getting back into championship contention will take much longer.
