For Chase Briscoe, what a difference a day makes.
On Saturday, he lost six laps before the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway after losing a piece of ballast off his car during the pace laps. He would battle back to a seventh place finish on the lead lap, but it cost him the NASCAR Xfinity Series points lead.
But on Sunday, he and his Stewart-Haas Racing team made up for it all.
Briscoe held off Brandon Jones on a double overtime finish to score the win in the Contender Boats 250 in the second NXS race of the weekend at Homestead.
Briscoe came home with the win despite losing three team members, as crew chief Richard Boswell, car chief Nick Hutchins and engineer D.J. Vanderley are serving a four-race suspension for Saturday’s ballast loss as a safety violation. That put veteran crew chief Greg Zipadelli on top of the team’s pit box on Sunday.
“That was a team win for sure,” said Briscoe. “Yesterday we were so good and then today, I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but we weren’t very good. We were decent on a long run but the 9 was better. It is a testament to all the guys at Stewart-Haas Racing. We had a pretty good alternate there with Zippy (Greg Zipadelli). Boswell and the guys put the tune-up on us.”
It’s the third series win of the year for Briscoe, adding to trophies he earned at Las Vegas and Darlington, and the fifth overall of his series career, and it moves him to within 18 points of the series points lead.
“The sad thing is that I feel like we could have six wins right now,” said Briscoe. “Yesterday I felt we were the best car. I didn’t feel like we were today. Atlanta is another one that we threw away. Bristol and Daytona could have gone either way. I feel like we could have six wins out of 10. To have three is good. We just have to execute. I feel like lately we have been beating ourselves a lot, me included. It is nice to make a statement, not make a statement but back up what I said. I feel like truthfully I can win that amount of races and we are off to a really good start and not even halfway yet.”
Briscoe was in the mix from the start, leading for the first time on lap 9 before surrendering the point to Austin Cindric two laps later.
Briscoe would race inside the top three for most of the final segment of the race, moving to second on lap 136 behind leader Noah Gragson.
Gragson had a comfortable lead, but with less than 20 laps to go, Briscoe began cutting into it. With five laps to go, Briscoe trailed Gragson by just over half a second. But Briscoe’s No. 98 Ford scrubbed the outside wall, appearing to take all hope for a win away.
While it appeared Gragson had his third win of the season in hand, a crash by Cindric off turn 4 opened the door for a challenge from Briscoe as the race went into overtime.
On the first overtime restart, Briscoe would grab the lead away, with Jones following him before a multi-car crash broke out behind the leaders. The accident was triggered with contact between Riley Herbst and A.J. Allmendinger, sending Herbst spinning up the track and gathering up Daniel Hemric and Michael Annett.
On the second overtime restart, Briscoe and Jones fought side-by-side for the lead, with Briscoe finally getting the spot as the field raced into turn three. Briscoe held the spot on the final lap, with Jones hot on his heels.
Jones made a valiant move coming off turn 4 as the leaders raced for the checkered flag. Jones tried hard to make a move at the finish line, but Briscoe had him covered, leaving the Atlanta, Georgia driver with a hard earned second place finish.
“We were just going as hard as we could,” said Jones. “I didn’t get as good of a run through one and two as I thought I was going to, so I saw him dive to the bottom in three and I wanted to use the high line. I wanted to try to get the big arc because I knew he was going to push up and I thought I could go low. That was the thought process there. I did try to fake him on the frontstretch to try to get him to move around and mess up, but just didn’t work there.”
Ross Chastain finished in third. A.J. Allmendinger came home in fourth, good enough to earn him the $100,000 Xfinity “Dash 4 Cash” bonus.
Allmendinger will have a chance to race for another $100,000, along with Briscoe, Jones and Chastain at Talladega Superspeedway.
Gragson came home in fifth. Justin Haley, Myatt Snider, Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst and Austin Cindric rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL
Contender Boats 250 – June 14, 2020
1. (9) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 177.
2. (8) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 177.
3. (7) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 177.
4. (38) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 177.
5. (13) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 177.
6. (3) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 177.
7. (1) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 177.
8. (15) Harrison Burton #, Toyota, 177.
9. (6) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 177.
10. (14) Austin Cindric, Ford, 176.
11. (12) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 176.
12. (20) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 176.
13. (16) Joe Graf, Jr #, Chevrolet, 176.
14. (21) Colin Garrett, Toyota, 176.
15. (18) Jesse Little #, Chevrolet, 176.
16. (19) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 176.
17. (17) Colby Howard, Chevrolet, 176.
18. (10) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 176.
19. (28) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 175.
20. (31) Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet, 175.
21. (30) Chad Finchum, Toyota, 175.
22. (32) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 174.
23. (25) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 174.
24. (27) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 174.
25. (23) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 174.
26. (24) Bayley Currey(i), Chevrolet, 173.
27. (4) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 173.
28. (5) Carson Ware, Chevrolet, 173.
29. (34) Vinnie Miller, Chevrolet, 173.
30. (29) Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, 171.
31. (11) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, Accident, 170.
32. (22) Stefan Parsons, Toyota, 151.
33. (37) Kody Vanderwal #, Chevrolet, Power Steering, 138.
34. (26) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, Clutch, 117.
35. (33) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, Fire, 84.
36. (2) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Overheating, 49.
37. (35) Ja Junior Avila, Chevrolet, Electrical, 15.
38. (36) Stephen Leicht, Toyota, Handling, 9.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 117.247 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 15 Mins, 52 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.072 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 28 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Snider 1;R. Chastain 2-8;C. Briscoe 9-10;A. Cindric 11-36;R. Sieg 37-43;R. Chastain 44-47;B. Jones 48-50;A. Cindric 51-67;N. Gragson 68-92;A. Cindric 93-105;N. Gragson 106-122;C. Briscoe 123;B. Jones 124;J. Williams 125;A. Cindric 126-129;N. Gragson 130-167;C. Briscoe 168-169;N. Gragson 170;C. Briscoe 171-174;B. Jones 175;C. Briscoe 176-177.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Noah Gragson 4 times for 81 laps; Austin Cindric 4 times for 60 laps; Ross Chastain 2 times for 11 laps; Chase Briscoe 5 times for 11 laps; Ryan Sieg 1 time for 7 laps; Brandon Jones 3 times for 5 laps; Josh Williams 1 time for 1 lap; Myatt Snider 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 39,1,22,19,7,9,20,8,61,74
Stage #2 Top Ten: 9,22,19,98,8,20,7,1,21,16
Top 10 in Points: 1. Noah Gragson – 435 (2 Wins); 2. Chase Briscoe – 417 (3 Wins); 3. Harrison Burton – 390 (2 Wins); 4. Austin Cindric – 380; 5. Ross Chastain – 374; 6. Brandon Jones – 345 (1 Win); 7. Justin Haley – 330; 8. Justin Allgaier – 328; 9. Ryan Sieg – 266; 10. Michael Annett – 260.
