LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell knew from the moment he spilled the beans — without even resorting to a spoiler alert — that he would be criticized for prematurely revealing that Chase Briscoe was headed to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025.
Bell’s blunder caused quite a stir throughout NASCAR — well, everyone except Briscoe.
The rumors became a little more concrete when Bell was asked an innocuous question this week about a possible leadership change at JGR following Martin Truex Jr.’s retirement at the end of the season.
“Every time Chase gets in the car…”
Oh oh.
Bell instantly stopped and smiled as he realized there was no turning back. Briscoe, who is in his final year with Stewart-Haas Racing, would actually inherit the No. 19 Toyota next season at JGR.
As jokes flew on social media, the news stopped on the dirt road where Briscoe moonlights.
“Christopher texted me and said, ‘Man, I really screwed up,’” Briscoe said Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘Go check Twitter.’ I ran the sprint car race last night and I had no signal. I couldn’t send or receive a single message. I couldn’t receive a message. So I couldn’t upload anything. Literally the last message I got was just Christopher saying, ‘I screwed up, go check Twitter.’”
The suspense lasted for hours as Briscoe, 29, raced and finished second. It was only after he was off the track that Briscoe was able to watch the video of Bell’s race reveal.
Briscoe, who has won just one career Cup in four seasons with SHR, was hoping for an official announcement on his new position within the next week or two.
“Nothing’s official until it’s official,” Briscoe said.
Stewart-Haas Racing, a two-time NASCAR champion with 69 Cup Series victories since its inception in 2009, announced last month that it would shut down at the end of this season. SHR fields Cup cars for Briscoe, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece, leaving the drivers with a suddenly uncertain future. Briscoe is 17th overall in the No. 14 Ford.
JGR also fields cars for Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs.
Briscoe said, “No hard feelings, honestly.”
“I felt like everybody knew what was going on,” he said. “I wasn’t really mad. It was kind of funny, I thought.”
RAIN
Chase Elliott starts on pole Sunday after rain ruined Saturday’s qualifying session.
Ryan Blaney, winner of last week’s Cup Series opener at Iowa Speedway, starts second. William Byron, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman round out the top five.
Elliott, Byron and Bowman give Hendrick Motorsports three spots in the top three rows. Elliott has never won at New Hampshire, but has finished second once.
“We’d rather have a real pole, for sure,” Elliott said. “But you know, the circumstances being what they are, fortunately our team has put in a really solid performance over the last couple of months. The reality is it’s put us in a good position to have a good start in the event of rain.”
With more rain expected Sunday — a year after weather pushed the race back to Monday — NASCAR moved up the green flag time to 2:06 p.m.
THE FUTURE OF TRUEX
Truex had already received job offers within days of announcing he would retire from full-time racing at the end of the season. The 2017 NASCAR champion, Truex, said he had discussed a possible Daytona 500 and possibly other one-off races with Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Hamlin, along with Michael Jordan, owns 23XI Racing and could field a car for Truex in 2025.
“I’m committed to giving him that opportunity,” Hamlin said. “I certainly think it could be fun for both parties.”
Truex said the chance to drive for Hamlin would be “awesome.”
BUBBA AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Could President Bubba be in the cards?
Bubba Wallace did his best to look presidential as he stood and smiled behind the lectern this week at the White House. He was invited by one of his sponsors to speak about his initiative to make space a place for everyone.
As for reality, Wallace said: “Forget it. Politics is not in his future.”
“Of course not,” Wallace replied. “I’m in the headlines enough already.”
Wallace said he ate “the best French toast I’ve ever had” and was thrilled to have met singer John Legend and his eldest son at the event.
“He was really nice. I went to see him with his son and (Legend) told me I was the best race car driver in the world,” Wallace said. “I said, ‘Have you seen Cars 3?’
HE ARRIVES EARLY LATE
As night fell in New Hampshire, Aric Almirola won a 2021 race that was stopped eight laps from its scheduled conclusion. NASCAR made one change this season: It will set a predetermined time for a race to end if it can’t be concluded at the scheduled distance — a rule that could go into effect Sunday if weather disrupts a significant portion of the race.
“If you know this race is going to end at 8:30 a.m., whatever time it is, we know that and we can plan the strategy around that,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said. “I think having a rough idea of what it’s going to look like if there’s bad weather in the area and it looks like we’re going to be pushed late, I think that’s a great idea.”
HE SAID IT
“I’ve always wanted to keep lobster since I was a kid, so I hope I can keep adding entrees. We had corn last week and lobster this week. I’m trying to add a full course to dinner.” – Ryan Blaney, who is trying to follow up his Iowa win with a victory in New Hampshire, where the winner gets a lobster.
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