Chase Briscoe felt like the slow driver on the highway who gets his doors blown off with the way Hamlin drove by him for the win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

It was an unfair fight between the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. Briscoe was on two tires when Hamlin, on four tires, charged around him with four laps to go in the opening race of the Round of 8.

“It’s like when you’re pulling off the exit ramp and you’re running 15 miles an hour and they’re running 80,” said Briscoe after finishing fourth. “There is really nothing else I feel I could have done.”

Briscoe had taken the lead off pit road on the final round of pit stops under the lap 236 caution. James Small and the No. 19 team opted for two tires, which put him ahead of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, who were also on four tires. Kyle Larson came off pit road fourth with four tires. Hamlin came off pit road in 10th place.

The race restarted with 23 laps to go, but immediately went back under the caution for a crash in Turns 1 and 2. Briscoe again restarted on the bottom of the front row for what was the final restart with 14 laps to go. Initially, he gapped the field and looked to be in a good position when Larson and Hamlin had a battle for second place.

“Yeah, for sure, too many laps,” Briscoe said. “Fortunately, those cautions lasted as long as they did, otherwise, I would have really been in trouble. I wish it were six laps shorter or whatever it was. I was so loose at the end, and I had nothing left.

“I’m glad at least Denny won. A JGR car. All of us were up there, and I felt like it could have gone to anybody. I’m glad he was at least able to sneak it out. Yeah, I didn’t have enough at the end.”

Briscoe admitted he tried to air block but was vulnerable down the frontstretch. Hamlin made a run off Turn 4 and drove around the outside of his teammate through the trioval, clearing him by the exit of Turn 2. He then faded behind Larson and Bell by the finish.

It was an “odd day” for Briscoe and his team. Briscoe started on the outside of the front row, alongside Hamlin, and led the first 35 laps before the first round of green-flag pit stops. The team did not have a clean exchange on the left rear tire, which took Briscoe from the lead to fifth place.

Briscoe did not lead again until the two-tire call late in the final stage. And this came after struggling in the second stage, after hitting the wall and reporting the car was “plowing,” and wondering if the toe had been knocked out.

“The first run of the race, I was like, my gosh, we’re going to murder them,” Briscoe said. “My car was unbelievable. We had that bad pit stop and lost control of the race, and really, from then on, we could never get the balance back to what it was. That one restart, I got pinched in the wall, and I don’t know if it gave us damage or what, but the car was definitely never the same as what it was that first run.

“So, we were okay, but we were stuck right around fifth all day long. Honestly, I wish we had won, but for us to finish fourth, that was probably a spot or two better than what we were probably going to finish. It could have been a lot worse, and we’re on the upside of the points, which is not something to be mad about.”

Sunday was a 48-point haul for Briscoe. It swung his playoff position from being 14 points below a transfer spot to 15 points above.

“I don’t think next week changes at all,” said Briscoe of Talladega Superspeedway. “I think we have to go there and race and hope and pray that you survive. I obviously would have loved to have won today. I was joking with James before the race, saying that we have a handshake agreement that if I win today, I can just run 35th all week next week and ride around in the back. So, I won’t get the opportunity to do that next week.

“But I don’t think our approach changes. We have to go and race as hard as we can, try to execute, and let the points be what they are, and if it’s enough, it’ll be enough.”