Chase Briscoe weathered multiple issues on Sunday while racing in the NASCAR All-Star race at Dover Motor Speedway. Despite the issues, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to finish the race in second place, his career-best All-Star finish, but missed the victory by a whisker to teammate Denny Hamlin.

After the race, he shared two reasons as to why a chance at the million-dollar prize had already seemed distant, and it stayed so.

"I knocked the wall down in practice, and we basically rebuilt the whole car," Briscoe said (via NBC). "So for them to be able to just get the car back to where it was competitive, it says a lot about the guys. So, yeah, just. It was a good day for our Toyota. Now that we didn’t win, I wish it was a points race because we definitely need the points. But, yeah, it was a hard-fought day."

Briscoe's team had to rebuild the car after practice, as NASCAR did not allow a backup car for the race. This not only put him on the back foot, but also hindered any potential advancements, which he could have used to gather more data and input.

Moreover, the 31-year-old was nursing an illness during the race weekend, which didn't help his case.

"I’ve been having the stomach bug bad the last two or three days, so I didn’t know how the day was truthfully even going to go. Had a chance there at the end for a million bucks. Can’t ask for anything more. Just wish I had a little bit more rear grip. Just any time I got the lead, I would be so loose that it would just make me vulnerable. And then once I would get past, I would normally kind of come on, but, yeah, just needed a little bit of rear grip," the No. 19 Toyota driver further added.

To find a perfect balance in the car and have grip on all four tires is a must and a no-brainer. Chase Briscoe's heavy crash in practice ensured he ran at a relative disadvantage throughout the race. Despite that, he led 61 laps after starting from second place.

Midway through the race, Briscoe lost momentum and conceded the lead to his teammate, Denny Hamlin, who went on to win the All-Star race for the second time in his career.

How Denny Hamlin Reigned Supreme Over Chase Briscoe

Denny Hamlin won the All-Star race on Sunday by a margin of 0.887 seconds over Chase Briscoe and grabbed the million-dollar prize. Having led 103 out of 200 laps, Hamlin was clearly the best driver on the day and also put out the best lap. a 23.45-second.

Speaking about the format and the inversion of the grid after 75 laps, he said:

"We did it today. It really challenged us to have to go through traffic. Otherwise, you could go out there, and you could lead a bunch of laps, but I definitely like the invert, obviously, it caused some chaos there, took out some good cars. But overall, it’s a typical All-Star Race when that stuff happens."

For the three-time Daytona 500 winner, it was his third consecutive victory at Dover. Post-race, he also touched upon their long run supremacy, which has been a Toyota hallmark this season.

"But I just knew that the game changer for us was long runs and obviously the ability to pass when we’re behind someone. I’ll probably give (the $1 million) to Mama," Hamlin added.

Erik Jones was the final podium finisher behind Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, while Austin Dillon and Connor Zilisch rounded out the Top five. Austin Cindric, William Byron, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, and Brad Keselowski wrapped up the top 10.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yask Kotak