MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Chase Briscoe’s team threw a Hail Mary at Martinsville Speedway but it was too little too late on Sunday.
Briscoe qualified third, maintained a top-five position throughout the first stage of the Xfinity 500.
But in the time it took for a routine pit stop—the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford watched his Playoff hopes evaporate.
Following a penalty for removing equipment, that mired Briscoe to mid-field after NASCAR sent him to the end of the longest line of lead-lapped cars, he was never able to recover during the follow-the-leader style racing at Martinsville Speedway.
Although the 27-year-old racer entered the penultimate race of the Playoffs with high hopes, clearly he was dejected by the end of the race.
“It’s frustrating,” Briscoe said. “The penalty really took us out of it. You just couldn’t pass. We were running third or fourth and got the penalty and went back to 18th and literally ran 18th pretty much the rest of the day until we were able to get one spot at a time on restarts, so win as a team, lose as a team.
“Those pit crew guys kept me in the playoffs a lot of the time, so it’s unfortunate that I don’t think we really had a pit road penalty all year long and it came at this race, but we’ll go on to Phoenix and try to redeem ourselves.”
Briscoe stayed with the leaders throughout the first 130 laps until the leaders pitted. Crew chief Johnny Klausmeier instructed Briscoe to remain long enough in the pit for fuelman Corey Coppola to fill the 20-gallon tank. Although the jack dropped, the fuel can was still lodged in the car.
Briscoe hit the gas and took the fuel can with him. He dropped from fifth to 18th to start the second stage on Lap 140 but could never pass William Byron to improve his position. As Briscoe tried desperately to maintain, the Denny Hamlin express was coming. By Lap 216, Briscoe went a lap down.
Hamlin raced on lapping Byron, Michael McDowell, Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton by the end of the second stage on Lap 261. With 13 cars remaining on the lead lap, receiving the lucky dog became less of a possibility.
“Is everyone having as hard of a time passing as I am,” Briscoe asked his team during the caution.
Briscoe restarted 16th for the final stage on Lap 271. Two quick cautions in the final stage at least offered Briscoe the opportunity to return to the lead lap. Ross Chastain spun Brad Keselowski between Turns 3 and 4 two laps after the race returned to green. On Lap 320, when Austin Dillon’s brakes failed to trigger the fourth caution, Briscoe finally became the beneficiary.
Briscoe picked up four positions following the fifth caution—after J.J. Yeley’s spin in Turn 3. Over the next 14 laps, Briscoe moved back into the top 10 by Lap 418. With 40 laps remaining, Briscoe had passed teammate Cole Custer for ninth, but time was running out.
When Landon Cassill ignited the sixth and final caution, crew chief Johnny Klausmeier elected to keep Briscoe on the track with old tires. Custer followed suit and the pair lined up together for the final 25-lap run.
With Christopher Bell on four new tires, unfortunately, Briscoe was a sitting duck. Bell passed him with five laps remaining and Briscoe salvaged a ninth-place result.
“He fought all day and stayed with it,” Klausmeier said. “He had that miscue in the pits and spent all day trying to get back in it. At the end, that was a Hail Mary for us. That’s all that we could do. But he drove the heck out of it. Just came up a couple of laps short.”
Looking at his season as whole, the driver of the No. 14 is proud of what the Stewart-Haas Racing team accomplished in his sophomore season.
“I felt like in the last six races we’ve had five top 10s, so this is the kind of speed and momentum we need to have going into the start of next year,” Briscoe said. “I feel like we’re really hitting our stride, so that’s encouraging.
“I feel like we’re more than capable of being a top 10 team every week, it’s just a matter of putting it all together and we’ve been doing that a lot better at the end of the year.”
