“It’s just a matter of doing it consistently,” said Chase Briscoe before the Atlanta race. But the curse that has tormented Tony Stewart’s fold for the last couple of years seems to continue even at its last breath. SHR has only seen sporadic flashes of success lately and after Briscoe’s surprise, Darlington glory, it seems the team has again descended into misery. And the culprit behind this is Kyle Larson.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver entered Atlanta crowned the topper of the point chart. However, in what seemed to be a frenzy of gathering speed, Larson lost control of his No. 5 Chevy. And in the process, he threw a costly bumper along Briscoe’s way – potentially sealing his championship hopes.

Kyle Larson may have shut off Briscoe’s hopes

Chase Briscoe re-scripted the trajectory of SHR last weekend. He broke his own two-year-long drab streak and also his team’s – and that too in no lesser place than Darlington. Briscoe exuded pride and congratulated his team for clinching a crown jewel race win. It also paved the way for a potential championship run right before SHR shutters for good. However, that emotional victory may have been short-lived, as the Quaker State 400 held some tragic chaos in store for Briscoe.

Just four laps before Stage 1 ended, Kyle Larson was running in third place. Right then, his No. 5 Chevy snapped loose in the center of the turn, and Larson attempted to correct it. But that led to a smoking disaster as the car slammed the outside SAFER barrier. While a horde of cars zoomed past him, Chase Briscoe could not dodge the crumpled HMS car and bumped hard into Larson’s rear. Both cars were left spinning cluelessly. Larson finished 37th, and Briscoe 38th both gaining just a single point from the race.

Kyle Larson is now 15 points above the playoff marker, but Briscoe’s situation is more dire. He plummeted to 16th and last on the playoff grid, 21 points behind Ty Gibbs. Since the Round of 16 would eliminate the three lowest drivers on the playoff grid after Bristol, Tony Stewart‘s dark horse is in a tough spot. “You are hanging on for sure,” Briscoe said, while admitting that he and his team “are on pins and needles, that’s for sure.” He added that there is no other way than winning. “We just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”

Yet the No. 14 SHR team may just scrape through. And nothing but their unbeatable grit will be to credit.

Briscoe’s team has an iron will

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Well, when you are pushed to your very limit, you produce gold. That is what Stewart-Haas Racing employees have been going through daily for the past few months. Tony Stewart dropped the bomb that his 69-time Cup-winning team is on its last vestiges in May. Then dark times set in. People inside SHR have yet to envision their future career paths. Yet SHR people worked together as efficiently as before until Briscoe clinched the Darlington win. That victory gave them renewed purpose in the race team, and the wish to deliver a final championship to the team. So although Kyle Larson may have made things a bit difficult, Briscoe’s compatriots have the fire in them yet.

That is what Briscoe emphasized going into Atlanta. “If anything, I think that’s what makes us even more scary, truthfully. We all have a chip on our shoulder to prove to the world that we can do it and there’s a lot of guys that still don’t have a job going into next year. They are trying to prove to another team that they can bring race-winning race cars and championship-winning race cars, so it doesn’t scare me.” He added, “If anything, as crazy as it sounds, I feel like it gives us a little bit of an advantage because no other team can relate to what we’re going through and that kind of makes us different.”

So SHR fans, buckle your seatbelts for a bumpy ride, as the story is not over. Chase Briscoe may bring glory to his team soon.