MARTINSVILLE, Va: Since scoring a top-five finish in his Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series debut at last month’s Daytona 500, Chase Briscoe hasn’t had much to celebrate.
That strong result in the “Great American Race” was quickly overshadowed when NASCAR issued an L2 penalty after further inspection of the car that had won the pole. Officials cited violations of Sections 14.1—covering overall vehicle assembly—and 14.5.8, which relates to the spoiler.
The penalty included a 100-point deduction for both driver and owner standings, a $100,000 fine for JGR, the loss of 10 playoff points, and a four-race suspension for crew chief James Small.
However, on March 5, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel rescinded all of it, overturning the infraction in full.
Still, Briscoe believes the penalty — and the resulting setback — had a tangible impact on the team’s early-season performance, even if it was eventually wiped from the
record.
“I mean, I definitely, you know, some of the results, I feel like, were because of the points penalty,” Briscoe told reporters Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway. “Like, you know, COTA is the ultimate example of that. You know, I was the first car on tires, and I was racing extremely desperate, knowing that I was maybe going to be in a 100-point hole, and I had to win that race.
“And if I wouldn’t know that I was in a different point situation, I would raced that restart way more patiently. And if I do that, you know, who knows what happens, I maybe still win the race, where instead, I wreck my teammate, and just I get flustered, and I end up finishing worse than what I should have.
“So, the points penalty definitely, I would say, with some of those results, just racing differently than what I would have, not being in that situation.”
Now entirely past the earlier penalty saga and looking to build momentum, Briscoe and his No. 19 team hadn’t been able to replicate their Daytona performance — until last weekend’s 400-mile race at the always-thrilling Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
After qualifying fourth — his best starting spot since Daytona — the Mitchell, Ind., native steadily adapted his car to the changing track conditions. At times, it looked like another finish outside the top 15 was looming. Still, strong adjustments and solid work by the team in Stage 3 helped Briscoe charge forward, ultimately finishing fourth and collecting his second top-five result of the season.
“It was for sure a chaotic day for us with the brake issues and tire vibrations,” said Briscoe of his Homestead effort. “Had three or four bad pit stops, so just had to keep coming from behind, kind of all day long but this is honestly what needed.
“Our Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE just needed a solid finish and a good day when we were up front – I say without anything happening to us, but we had a lot happen to us, but we were able to overcome it.
“Hopefully, we can build on it. We’ve had speed to run in the top-five all year, just haven’t been able to show it. Have a lot of good race tracks for myself and the team coming up so, looking forward to it.”
Nearly a week removed from Homestead, Briscoe is still praising the speed his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team has shown — and he’s eager to build on that as the series edges closer to the all-important summer stretch.
Heading into this weekend’s race at the iconic Virginia paperclip, Briscoe has notched five top-10 finishes in his last six starts, including a career-best fourth at the track in the penultimate race in 2023.
With momentum on their side, Briscoe heads into Sunday’s Cook Out 400 aiming for yet another single-digit finish.
“I feel like the confidence that I’ve had is that we’ve had speed at all those races, even when we haven’t been able to necessarily finish as well,” added Briscoe. “So, I feel like we should have, and that’s a difference from what I’ve had in the past, right?
“Like you would run 20th, it’s like, man, like that, was kind of all we had today, where now it’s frustrating because we should have had a fifth to seventh place car, and you don’t finish there.
“But the encouraging part is, okay, we still got a fifth or seven-place race car. It’s just a matter of putting all those pieces together and executing on my end.”
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
