Update: Briscoe says he got a new number
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On Friday, Erik Jones said he planned to call Chase Briscoe to get past what happened between them last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
On Saturday afternoon, Briscoe said he never got a phone call.
By Saturday evening, Jones said there was a phone call and text message.
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Briscoe said throughout the week that he would pick up if the call came, but still feels very strongly that he didn’t do anything wrong at Phoenix.
“Never got a phone call, never got a missed call,” Briscoe said. “Would have gladly taken the phone call for sure. I don’t know if he finally watched the replay and saw what happened or what.
“Never got a phone call.”
For Briscoe, more than anything else, he doesn’t understand why racing hard is such a point of contention across his peers.
“This isn’t just about him, but half the field is just so sensitive to racing hard,” Briscoe said. “That’s what we’re here to do. It should be hard to pass me, just like it should be hard for me to pass you. I don’t know why guys get so mad about racing hard. It’s what we’re paid to do, to race.
“It’s definitely mind blowing how sensitive people are to it.”
Briscoe was resolute that it was just a racing thing.
“I think, lap 70, we hit each other in Turn 2. I was in the middle and he came up and hit me. We were four wide in Turn 4, and then what he did to me, I did to him, it was super tight off 4.
“I think what he was mad about, is that when were four wide Bubba (Wallace) got to my right rear super last minute, had a car to my left, half width off me, and if you watched the replay, I turned left going lower to the track. My half car length distance to the left stayed the same. Bubba was probably, a foot and a half off me, and he closed that up and turned down. He hit me and made me super tight. Erik was coming down too, trying to make the corner because he was so high on entry, and he kind of turned himself.
“The 23 and 43 were going for the same spot at the same time and just hit. We were four wide. We were racing. Never got a phone call but if he wants to talk about it, I will send him the same video though. I’m sure we’re not going to see eye to eye on it, but we can talk about it and go from there.”
And then, Jones was resolute that he made an overture.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.