Stewart-Haas Racing has swapped two of its pit crews ahead of the Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway.
According to the NASCAR Roster Portal, Chase Briscoe's pit crew will move to Josh Berry and the No. 4 Ford. Berry's crew will move over to Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford. This move takes place as Briscoe continues to contend for the Cup Series championship.
The new crew on the No. 14 team will consist of five people -- tire carrier Mason Flynt, rear changer Daniel Smith, jackman Brandon Banks, front changer Daniel Coffey, and fueler Evan Marchal.
The new crew on the No. 4 team will feature the following members -- tire carrier Jon Bernal, rear changer Dakota Ratcliff, jackman Kapil Fletcher, fueler Corey Coppola, and front changer Shayne Pipala.
Briscoe entered the playoffs with big expectations for his pit crew. He had seen them deliver big stops during the regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway, which paved the way for his playoff-sealing win. He had seen a little extra swagger as the crew walked around the shop.
The Indiana native told AltDriver ahead of the playoffs that he was going to deliver a simple message to his crew before taking on the first round of the playoffs -- "'You guys just have to keep us in the ball game.'"
As he explained, nailing eight-second stops wasn't required; the crew just couldn't lose positions with 15 or 16-second stops. History has shown that races are won or lost on pit road.
Just ask Kyle Larson, who was not going to win the 2021 Cup Series championship race at Phoenix before his team gave him the lead on the final pit stop. He leapfrogged both Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. and never looked back.
Unfortunately for Briscoe and his crew, the situation went awry at Bristol Motor Speedway. The crew had some issues on pit road during the elimination race. This includes the final stop of the day when an issue on the right-front tire led to Briscoe falling from inside the top 10 to the mid-teens.
The huge jump in time between the two crews at Bristol was significantly affected by the last pit stop where there was an issue with the right front tire which lost them roughly five seconds and around ten spots on pit lane. pic.twitter.com/RO65o7X8Iw
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) September 26, 2024
"You guys are better than that," a frustrated Briscoe said over the radio after the slow stop.
Briscoe recovered and worked his way back up to eighth before taking the checkered flag. He barely moved on to the next round of the playoffs.
"I think all the guys that work with me would tell you that I'm always, like, the positive guy and I build them up, and I'm not going to get on the radio and yell at them," Briscoe said on pit road after the cutoff race.
"I make mistakes all the time on the racetrack, and they don't come in and yell at me. So, yeah, I've never said anything ever about a bad pit stop, and I know what them guys are capable of. And that's where it was one of those, 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.'"