AVONDALE, Ariz: Despite a miscommunication between Las Vegas NASCAR Xfinity Series winner Chase Briscoe and his Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Richard Boswell, the team rebounded for a sixth-place finish in Saturday’s LS Tractors 200 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
During a caution on Lap 129 of 200, Boswell attempted to bring his driver to pit road for service. Unfortunately, the driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang didn’t hear the command and remained on track alongside Justin Allgaier who also didn’t pit.
On older tires, Briscoe was a sitting duck on the restart and was soon swallowed by his competitors. In a span of five laps, the former ARCA championship plummeted from second to ninth.
Fortunately for Briscoe, the caution came out and left the opportunity for the team to pit for tires and fuel.
Although Briscoe had lost all of his track position, he had newer tires than the rest of the competition ahead of him. Throughout the final 58 laps of the race, Briscoe charged through the back half of the field to finish sixth.
The finish was a nice rebound following a 19th effort last Saturday at Auto Club where a loose race car sent Briscoe spinning through the infield grass.
Briscoe says he had a car better than sixth but ran out of laps to show how much further progress he could have made.
“I think we were definitely better than a sixth-place race car,” offered Briscoe. “We just had a miscommunication when the whole field pitted. My crew chief (Richard Boswell) told me to do what the 7 and the 9 do but the 9 pitted and the 7 stayed out, so I stayed out.
“Then we were at a disadvantage tire wise. I restarted last and was able to drive to sixth. Overall, it is a good learning weekend for November.”
While the Mitchell, Ind. native narrowly missed his third top-five of 2020, he did finish third in both stages earning crucial Playoff points towards this year’s championship assault.
Briscoe, 25, heads to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway for the Mar. 14 EchoPark Automotive 250 second in the championship standings, three points behind Harrison Burton.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
