How a Pit Road Misstep Forced Chase Briscoe Into Fuel-Saving Mode in Pocono’s Final Laps

There are three words in NASCAR that are both directives as well as fearful words: “Pack it tight!” That means the gas man on a team must add every possible last drop of fuel into a car to ensure — or at least hope — there’s enough gas to make it all the way to the finish line.

Chase Briscoe and crew chief James Small were sweating it out in the closing stages of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. Despite the gas man’s best effort, a few drops were still left in the can — thanks to Briscoe pulling away early during the final stop.

In so doing, both Small and Briscoe had to split their attention between worrying about drivers who might present late challenges — like Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin (who has won a personal-best seven times in the past at Pocono) — as well as whether there was enough fuel to cross the finish line.

As it turned out, Briscoe was able to hold off Hamlin and take the checkered flag — and still had enough gas left to make one more circuit around the 2.5-mile tri-oval before putting an exclamation mark on the win with enough fuel to do a decent celebratory burnout.

It was not only Briscoe’s first win for Joe Gibbs Racing and his third career Cup win, but also the first win for the No. 19 car in almost two years, something that had been very frustrating for Small, who was crew chief for Briscoe’s predecessor at JGR, Martin Truex Jr.

“He did an excellent job managing (the fuel),” Small said of Briscoe during Sunday’s post-race press conference. “I was shocked that we made it, to be honest, and we even had enough fuel to do a couple of burnouts and rolled into Victory Lane there and it ran out. So, credit to everybody, all the engineers everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and everyone behind that.”

But let’s not blame the gas man, Small said, noting that, “Yeah, (Briscoe) just left the (pit) box early,” which prevented the gasser from getting every drop into the tank and ultimately absolved him of any blame for not packing the tank totally tight and full.

“When we rolled out there (after the end of Stage 2), if it went green (all the way to the end of the race), we were nine laps short and it was going to be a mountain to climb,” Small said.

“We’ve lost many races by things not going the right way for us. Thankfully that caution saved us and then put us in position that we could manage our fuel to the end.”

As it turned out, it didn’t matter as Briscoe was still able to save enough fuel to keep Hamlin and all other rivals from overtaking him at the end.