NASCAR insiders debate Chase Briscoe's role in late Kyle Busch wreck at Kansas

One of the more controversial moments during this past weekend’s race at Kansas involved Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch, as the latter looked to extend his streak of winning in consecutive NASCAR Cup seasons to 20.

Leading with 32 laps in the race, Busch was trying to lap Briscoe, when he lost control of his car and spun, leading to his chance at the win evaporating, and sending him back to a P19 finish. On the latest episode of The Teardown, NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi debated whether Briscoe was in the wrong while racing Busch.

“I have zero issue with it,” Bianchi responded, regarding Briscoe’s role in Busch’s demise. “If you look at the replay, there was a lane for Kyle Busch. Now, it wasn’t much of a lane, and there wasn’t much room for error, but there was a lane. In that situation, with what Chase Briscoe is racing for, he’s racing for the playoffs. Needs every point he can get. Falling a lap down is not a good thing. Now, you could say, ‘Well, he’s going to be in the lucky dog position,’ no, no, no. There’s a huge difference between being lucky dog and still being on the lead lap when the caution comes out, in terms of restart position, and everything else.

“To me, if you’re Chase Briscoe, in that scenario, you need to be aggressive. You need to fight to stay on the lead lap, because you don’t know what that caution is going to fall. If you can stay on the lead lap, you have an opportunity to gain more points. I have zero issue with that. If anything, I would put it on Kyle and say Chastain was definitely coming, and he was closing and he was racing hard, I think you almost need to be more patient there. Be smarter than that. I know Chastain’s there, but you’ve shown you can get around him. You don’t necessarily have to force the move in that situation.

“That, to me, indicative to Kyle Busch’s troubles in this car. Sometimes he forces it a bit too much. We’ve seen it before. We saw it at Indy, where he doesn’t need to, and again, I think it bit him here.”

Alas, Chase Briscoe was simply trying to stay on the lead lap, and he was more of a victim of circumstance in Kyle Busch’s misfortune than the cause of the issue. Still, it’s easy to see why the veteran was frustrated with him, as he let another chance at a win slip out of his hands on Sunday afternoon.