The #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry suffered two punctures in the race, the first on Lap 104 and the second on Lap 215.
Briscoe was fortunate that the first puncture happened at the same moment Shane van Gisbergen spun his Trackhouse Racing car, not losing a lap.
He was lucky to be the first car a lap down when he suffered the second puncture, earning him the Lucky Dog for the caution when Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar crashed three laps later.
All four championship contenders suffered punctures in the 319-lap race, and the number of failures reached double digits by the end of the contest.
Small was bemused by the issues, which he said were caused by debris.
“It was a f***ing shitshow, really,” said Small.
“Today, it was right rears and we kept running over things. It wasn’t air pressure – it wasn’t that.
“Every time we had one that came off, it had a cut in the base. There was so much fucking debris out there.
“Obviously, we just got unlucky. I know where our teammates were, I know where we were. Not a single one of them had a problem. Just part of the deal, I guess.”
Despite a double tyre failure, Briscoe remained in contention to the end.
He ran sixth before the final caution of the race, but after the final pit stops was 15th. All told, Briscoe wound up 18th.
“Should have made a different call at the end; I know better,” Small lamented.
“Take right side tyres like we should have done. He thought he could make it work on four, which was never going to happen. Anyway, I learned my lesson, so all good.”
Briscoe was bemused by his bad luck. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin dominated the contest, and Briscoe reckoned he had race-winning speed.
“I definitely felt like I was more than capable,” said Briscoe.
“Just to go from the back to the front that many times. I would have loved to have just been able to race straight up.
“I got back to second, was able to run William down there. Thought I was really, really good. I blew like the second or third tyre.
“Definitely it’s a race of what could have been. I feel like hopefully people felt like we were here and in contention. We weren’t, average running position-wise, up there a whole lot.
“Certainly I felt like we had one of the strongest cars for sure.
“If we could have started up front, not even started up front, but not had issue after issue, we would have been in the mix.
“I thought we did everything right as far as pit stops, obviously car speed and balance. The tyres just didn’t go our way.”
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