LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell made a mistake when he accidentally revealed that Chase Briscoe was heading to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025 before it was officially announced.
Bell’s slip-up became the talk of NASCAR, except for Briscoe himself.
The rumor gained more traction when Bell mentioned a potential change in leadership at JGR following Martin Truex Jr.’s retirement at the end of the season.
“Whenever Chase comes into the car … “
Bell stopped abruptly and realized he had revealed Briscoe would be taking over the No. 19 Toyota at JGR next season while Briscoe is currently with Stewart-Haas Racing.
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As jokes circulated on social media, the news of Briscoe’s move slowed down at the dirt track where he races part-time.
“Christopher texted me and was like, man I messed up so bad,” Briscoe said Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I was like, what happened? What do you mean? He says, go look at Twitter. I ran the sprint car race last night and had zero signal. Couldn’t get a single text to go in, out. Couldn’t receive any texts. So I couldn’t get anything to load. Literally the last text I got was just Christopher saying, I messed up, go look at Twitter.”
The suspense lingered for hours while Briscoe raced and finished second. It was only after he left the track that Briscoe was able to watch the video of Bell’s slip-up.
Briscoe, who has one Cup win and has been with SHR for four seasons, is hoping for an official announcement on his new job in the next week or two.
“Nothing’s official until it’s official,” Briscoe said.
Stewart-Haas Racing announced last month that it would shut down at the end of the season, leaving drivers like Briscoe, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, and Ryan Preece in limbo. JGR also has Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs on its roster.
Briscoe harbors no hard feelings and finds the situation amusing.
“I felt like everyone kind of knows what’s going on,” he said. “I wasn’t really mad. It was kind of funny, I thought.”
Not everyone, however, found the slip-up funny.
“Nobody let me live it down,” Bell said. “Everyone I see tells me how stupid I am. I tried to get away, get offline.”
Bell, who won the Xfinity Series race Saturday at New Hampshire, felt embarrassed by his mistake and tried to avoid social media on Friday and Saturday. He reached out to Joe Gibbs and other team officials to apologize for spoiling the announcement.
Rainout
Chase Elliott starts on the pole after rain washed out Saturday’s qualifying session.
Ryan Blaney, last week’s winner in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, starts second. William Byron, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman complete the top five.
Elliott, Byron, and Bowman give Hendrick Motorsports three spots in the first three rows. Elliott, who has one win this season, has one runner-up finish but has never won at New Hampshire.
“We’d rather have an actual pole, for sure,” Elliott said. “But you know, circumstances being what they are, fortunately our team has been performing at a really solid level over the past couple of months. The reality of it is that it put us in a position to have a good starting spot for a rainout situation.”
With more rain in the forecast Sunday — a year after weather pushed the race to Monday — NASCAR moved up green flag time for the Cup race to 2:06 p.m.
Truex’s future
Truex already had job offers days after announcing his retirement from full-time racing at the end of the season. The 2017 NASCAR champion has discussed potential opportunities with Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s team, 23XI Racing, to compete in the Daytona 500 and other races in 2025.
“I stand firm in offering 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 in the White House
Could President Bubba be in the cards?
Bubba Wallace tried his best to look presidential as he spoke at the White House this week on an initiative by one of his sponsors. Despite the appearance, Wallace clarified that he has no interest in pursuing a career in politics.
“Hell no,” Wallace said. “I’m already in enough headlines.”
Wallace enjoyed the event, mentioning that he had the best French toast and had the chance to meet singer John Legend and his son.
“He was really nice. I walked up to him with his kid and (Legend) said I was the best race car driver in the world,” Wallace said. “I was like, have you seen ‘Cars 3?’
Gets late early
With darkness falling at New Hampshire, Aric Almirola won a race this season that was cut short eight laps before its scheduled end. NASCAR implemented a rule this season to determine a set end time for races in case they can’t finish at the scheduled distance, which may be relevant if weather impacts the race on Sunday.
“If you know, hey, this race is going to end at 8:30, whatever it is, OK, we know that and we can plan the strategy off of that,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said. “I think having a ballpark idea, if there’s weather in the area and it seems like we’re going to be pushed late, what that’s going to look like, I think is a great idea.”
He said it
“I’ve always wanted to hold the lobster ever since I was a kid. So hopefully we can keep adding to our entrees. We had corn last week and lobster this week. Trying to add a full plate of dinner.” — Blaney, on trying to follow his Iowa win with one at New Hampshire, where the winner is awarded a lobster.
Odds and ends
Bell is the BETMGM favorite to win Sunday.
