FONTANA, Calif. – Saturday’s Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway was a stout day for Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi. Cole Custer picked up his third career win denying Kyle Busch his 200th NASCAR national series triumph, but teammate Chase Briscoe wasn’t far behind.
Briscoe in his first full season of NASCAR Xfinity Series competition earned his first top-five finish of the year and carried his No. 98 Nutri Chops Ford Mustang team to their third straight top-10 effort to close out the series’ west coast swing with a fifth-place effort.
To some, it’s no surprise to see the former ARCA Menards Series champion battling for top-fives – but for Briscoe and crew chief Richard Boswell, they felt they were missing one piece of the puzzle that kept from finishing higher on the scoring pylon.
At first, Briscoe wasn’t sure his team would be able to produce a top-five run, but as the race marched on, his race car got faster and despite a mishap on pit road, Briscoe earned his seventh career top-10 in 22 races.
“We kind of struggled at the beginning,” said Briscoe. “That has been our mantra this year. As the race goes on we get better and better. I don’t’ know if we were that good at the end. I kind of screwed myself getting onto pit road and cost ourselves four spots. We had to restart ninth and got back to fourth. We were way too tight at the end.”
If not for a late race caution for Ryan Preece and Brandon Jones, Briscoe felt like he had a better race car for the long haul which could have delivered a better finish.
“I wish that run before could have gone to the end,” added Briscoe. “I feel like we could have been third or maybe second. Overall not a bad day. I think as we continue to go on we get better and better as we learn each other.
“It was a pretty good day for the Ford Mustangs and Stewart-Haas Racing, and we will go on to the next one and see what we can do.”
In five races this season, Briscoe hasn’t finished worse than 15th after starting the year off with a 12th and 15th respectively at Daytona and Atlanta, but as the Xfinity Series rode west for a three-week stretch of Las Vegas, Phoenix and California, Briscoe’s team stood up and fought.
An eighth at Las Vegas to a sixth place last Saturday at ISM Raceway to a fifth in his Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway debut, Briscoe heads to Texas Motor Speedway 11th in points and catching his contenders fast.
With an average finish of 9.2, the Mitchell, Ind. native returns to Texas Motor Speedway, the site of his second Xfinity Series start last season with Roush Fenway Racing where he earned a respectable 11th place finish after starting 21st.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
