Stewart-Haas Racing gets 2 cars in top-10 at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Sunday marked the eighth consecutive time Stewart-Haas Racing placed at least one car in the top-10 at Martinsville Speedway.

This time around, SHR had two cars in the top-10 with Ryan Preece and Chase Briscoe.

Preece finished ninth after spending the fewest laps in the top-15 (270) of any top-10 finisher.

A ninth-place finish is somewhat of a redemption effort. Last year, he won the pole and led the most laps (135) but finished 15th.

This year, Preece started 22nd and steadily moved up. He placed 19th and 14th in the stages.

As the laps whittled down and the lead-lap cars did too, Preece held on in 13th, allowing him to benefit from a strategy call before overtime.

Preece was the last of four drivers who pitted before overtime. He restarted 13th and gained each lap of overtime to net a ninth-place finish.

“We had a really good car. I wish we didn’t qualify so badly. I know the 24 (William Byron) started back there with us and he was able to get there probably with the help of a lot of things. At Martinsville last year, we had a good car but we didn’t have that good of a car, but now we’re definitely working toward something. I’m really happy with the direction we’re going in and we’re working on, and we’re going to be a lot better moving forward,” Preece said.

Chase Briscoe finished behind Preece. He ran inside the top-10, placing fourth in stage one and seventh in stage two after starting fifth.

“We had not the greatest pit stop early in the race and lost some spots, and we were just kind of stuck anywhere from fifth to eighth for the rest of the race. I felt like if I ever could’ve gotten the lead, I would’ve been good enough to run up there, for sure,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe started overtime in seventh, ahead of Joey Logano and Todd Gilliland, who also stayed out, and ahead Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones and Preece who pitted.

“There at the end, we didn’t know if we should pit or not pit. We were kind of in a tough spot,” Briscoe said.

While Briscoe stayed ahead of Jones and Hamlin and survived the chaos that claimed Gilliland from earning a top-10 finish, Logano, Reddick and Preece passed Briscoe, putting him in 10th at the end.

“It was kind of a frustrating day for us, we were definitely way better than 10th. We just couldn’t pass,” Briscoe said. “This is how hard this Cup deal is. You’ve got to be perfect all race long. I made a couple of mistakes, and as a team, still, we just need to clean some stuff up. We’ll move on and continue with what speed we have. That’s encouraging.”

Josh Berry was destined to join Briscoe and Preece in the top-10. For 185 laps, Berry ran inside the top-15 for 185 laps, placing eighth and 10th in the stages.

Once stage two finished on lap 180, the wheels fell off.

Berry had a slow stop that kicked him outside of the top-20. He had a tough time making up any ground and, worse yet, he had an uncontrolled tire penalty while pitting under green. All of this kicked him to 26th in the end.

“The car was fun. The field basically ran the same speed and you just can’t pass,” Berry said.

Noah Gragson finished 20th after only spending 15 laps inside the top-15.

None of the SHR drivers are currently in a playoff spot. Chase Briscoe is closest at -1 point to the cutline.

Josh Berry sits 23rd in points, -60 to the cutline. Ryan Preece is 26th, -77, and Noah Gragson is 29th, -88.

Next: Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET; FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)