Briscoe ties career-best NASCAR Cup Series finish
ROAD AMERICA, WISC. — To cap off an eventful Sunday, Chase Briscoe tied his best-career NASCAR Cup Series finish in Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 at Road America.
Briscoe finished sixth, which is where he finished at Circuit of the Americas in May.
Briscoe started 35th after Bubba Wallace stalled in the first round of qualifying. The incident prevented Briscoe and six other drivers from making a competitive lap.
During the race, Briscoe incurred a penalty under caution for driving through too many pit stalls.
“I had a good run. We had to start in the back because of the qualifying stuff. We had a penalty there early and was able to try to get track position, was able to get some in the end,” Briscoe stated.
Briscoe restarted fifth on Lap 33 and fell back to seventh before working his way up to battling Kurt Busch for fifth with less than three laps to go. However, Briscoe fell back after the team told him to “flip the switch” over the radio.
“I don’t know if we were out of fuel or if the motor overheated and went into protection mode or what,” Briscoe stated, “but I felt like I was going to maybe run fourth and the engine shut off on me. I don’t know what exactly it was but we’ll have to get it figured out.”
Although Briscoe started the season with nine consecutive finishes of 18th or worse, he has scored five finishes of 17th or better in the last 11 races, including the two sixth-place finishes on road courses.
“I feel like I’ve been doing a better job over the last few weeks and our cars have been getting better,” Briscoe stated. “I would’ve loved to have gotten a top 5. We’ve been really good on the road courses and we just have to try to get better and capitalize on it.”
On comparing the NASCAR Cup Series cars at Road America to the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars at the track, Briscoe stated, “the more horsepower, the better here and less downforce. It was a lot of fun and it being hot and slick made it fun too.”
Briscoe sits 23rd in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, 126 points behind Kurt Busch who holds the 16th and final playoff spot heading into the July 11 Quaker State 400 Presented By Wal-Mart at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET; TV: NBCSN, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
SOURCES
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.Info
