SHR shines with Briscoe in top-10 and Gragson not far behind

Stewart-Haas Racing showed promise again Sunday at Phoenix Raceway as Chase Briscoe earned his second top-10 finish with Noah Gragson close behind.

Briscoe ran inside the top-10 early on before getting behind in the middle portions of the race. He even ran outside of the top-20 before a key caution on lap 216.

“I just didn’t steer us in the right direction. I had us tightened up and the track tightened up a ton. We got lucky at the end with some track position stuff,” he said.

Briscoe restarted sixth on the subsequent restart after staying out. He saved fuel under caution and was on-edge, hoping not to run out in the final 92 laps after pitting 12 laps before.

Briscoe hung on and earned his second top-10 finish of the season. While teammate Gragson didn’t finish top-10, he and Briscoe ran inside the top-10 on-speed for much of the race, including near the end.

“We’ve seen a lot of progress and run up front a lot. Between Noah and I, we already almost have more top-10s now than the whole year. It’d be nice to win but we just gotta run top-10 before winning.”

Together, they now have four top-10 finishes in the first four races (two for Briscoe, two for Gragson). For reference, Aric Almirola earned five top-10 finishes in all of 2023 with the No. 10 car that Gragson is now driving.

“Us as a company I feel really good. The 10 has run well every week. it’s been a confidence booster for the whole company. I’m excited for what the future holds but we’ll keep chipping away at it,” Briscoe said.

While their teammate Josh Berry struggled, finishing 26th, two laps down after a qualifying wreck set them back, Ryan Preece held his own in the top-5 on a fuel gamble before pitting late.

To Berry’s credit, starting at the rear was tough sledding on a day where passing was at a premium — even with the new short track/road course aero package.

“The package would be better if we were on the right tire. The tire is just so good. It doesn’t fall off, it has so much grip still. The package, we slid around more but the tire holds you. Anytime you take away 10% downforce and still drives the same, the tire is too good. Obviously they don’t wanna change it too much and be on the other side of it,” Briscoe said on the package.

“It was so hard but after five laps, you’d slide into where you run the rest of the run,” he said.

Bristol is next Sunday. While Briscoe has struggled at The Last Great Colosseum, he is excited for Circuit of the Americas after that.

“Bristol, we haven’t run that great. We’re fast but we don’t race that well. COTA, I’m super excited for. We’ve spent a ton of time at the simulator and got the car really good,” Briscoe said.

The fourth-year SHR driver is ready to be aggressive with a string of short tracks and road courses coming up.

“This year I’m not letting guys go. I’m gonna be aggressive,” Briscoe said.