Chase Briscoe: “Our car was better than being 2.5 seconds a lap off the lead”
FONTANA, CALI. — Chase Briscoe finished 20th after various mechanical issues left him off the pace in Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
“Even if they would’ve wrecked a lot of them, we still would’ve finished where we did.”
Briscoe finished 33rd in the first stage after having some sort of engine issue, like there may have been a cylinder down.
“It sounded flat, like it didn’t want to run,” Briscoe described.
During the stage caution, Briscoe received the free pass. Then, he read the ECU codes, cycled the ECU, read the codes again and eventually brought the car to pit road.
The team worked under the hood and brought Briscoe back out. All of the moves helped him regain some power but they were still off and could only muster a 28th-place finish in the second stage and a 20th-place finish in the race.
“[After all the moves] it got a little better but we were still off, balance-wise. There are so many questions I have and if we would’ve had practice, we could’ve figured it out. Kevin [Harvick] was so good and we were similar to him, but we were so far off.”
Harvick finished 5th after leading twice for 5 laps Sunday. Briscoe only ran as high as 20th, his final finishing position.
Briscoe also finished 34th in the Daytona 500 after getting caught up in a late-race wreck. Two bad finishes is concerning, he believes.
“We’re already in a big hole points-wise, using our two mulligans so we want to turn it around big time,” Briscoe said.
In two weeks, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway where Briscoe won last March.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com