Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Morning Pit Box! It’s a brand new Frontstretch column that takes a look at the crucial calls that shaped the outcome of a race, looking at things through the eyes of a crew chief (sometimes, we also look at calls made atop race control, too). We track the thrill of Christopher Bell’s pit road success, courtesy crew chief Adam Stevens, and some calls by Chase Briscoe and others that simply fell short.
This week, those drivers were competing at the oldest active track on the circuit, Martinsville Speedway, for the finale of the Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8. In an uncharacteristically clean Martinsville race, this year’s Xfinity 500 came down to a call of old tires vs. new tires from a pair of drivers in must-win situations.
In the end, new tires won the day, allowing Bell to pull off another walk-off win and punch one of the final tickets to the Championship 4. Behind the victory and Ross Chastain’s video game-style move were some moments on pit road that made the difference in a track position race.
Lap 136: Pit Road Penalty Changes Strategy For Chase Briscoe
We begin with the end of stage one. The field had just been on and off pit lane for four fresh tires and Sunoco race fuel, setting up the stage two restart. However, Briscoe drew the attention of race control when his gas can was dragged out of his pit stall. It resulted in a penalty for removing equipment out of the pit box, sending him to the end of the longest line after a fifth-place stage one result.
Crew chief-turned-cheerleader Johnny Klausmeier then had to keep his driver focused under tough circumstances. In a track position race, losing all of it kept the No. 14 trapped in traffic despite a car that showed some speed early in the race.
Chase Briscoe spent all of Stage 1 in the top five. Since his penalty during the stage break, he’s been stuck as the lowest-running playoff driver and can’t get past 18th.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) October 30, 2022
The penalty eventually cost Briscoe a lap in stage two. He didn’t earn it back until a caution on lap 321 for Austin Dillon’s wreck gave him the free pass.
“The penalty early in the race killed us,” Briscoe explained. “It was really hard to pass and I had to scrap and claw position by position; it took us a really long time to get back up there.”
However, Klausmaier keeping his driver within reasonable striking distance allowed him to make what might have been…
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