AVONDALE, Ariz.: Chase Briscoe, the winningest driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season fell short of his first NASCAR championship in Saturday afternoon’s Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver showed speed early in the race, dominating Stage 1 in his No. 98 High Point Ford Mustang, but unfortunately for the nine-time Xfinity Series winner this season, Stage 1 would prove to be the highlight of his race.
From Stage 2, the handling began to deteriorate and while Briscoe remained inside the top-five, a loose race car kept him from making gains while fellow Ford Performance competitor Austin Cindric took the checkered flag in Stage 2.
A long green-flag run in Stage 3 didn’t fare much better for the 2016 ARCA Menards Series champion.
As the race progressed, Briscoe’s car continued to get freer and freer.
An attempt to make up some ground during a green flag pit stop in the closing laps didn’t help the deficit either.
Still, on the lead lap, Briscoe spun with three laps to go bringing out the caution and sending the race into NASCAR overtime.
Briscoe, a native of Mitchell, Ind. pitted for tires and some damage control on the rear bumper and lined up 10th for the green-white-checkered finish.
Even on fresher tires, Briscoe wasn’t able to make any ground up on his Championship 4 contenders and took the checkered flag ninth and fourth overall in the Xfinity Series Championship 4.
“It was just a frustrating day,” said Briscoe. “This is by far not my best racetrack. We started the race and, for me, just leading laps here I was like, ‘Wow, this is different.’ I was just so loose at the beginning of the race and as the night came I was just getting freer and freer. I don’t know how many times I about wrecked into one and would end up hitting the wall.
“It’s definitely frustrating to finish fourth in the championship after the year we had, but, overall, to win nine races it’s been a phenomenal year. I’m happy that we were able to just make the final four with our HighPoint.com Mustang. I’m just thankful to be driving in NASCAR honestly. I’m obviously looking forward to next year, but this one obviously hurts.”
After the race, Briscoe took some responsibility for his performance Saturday voicing Phoenix Raceway was not one of his best tracks and he had a lot of homework to do to prepare for next season at the 1.0-mile oval.
“I’ve got to do a lot better job coming here,” added Briscoe. “There’s something about this place that I just really struggle at, so I’ve got a lot of homework to do.
“Phoenix I would say is probably my third or fourth-worst, so I knew it was gonna be an uphill battle. The three guys (Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric and Justin Haley) that are in this final four outside of us are really, really good race car drivers.
“They do a great job here and we knew it wasn’t gonna be easy coming into it and they just did a better job as a race car driver. I just have to do a lot better here, so definitely do a lot more homework and hopefully come back better.”
Briscoe immediately came under fire on social media from skeptics who thought he may have spun out in order to pit for tires and better his chances for the Xfinity title.
The Ford Performance development driver said defiantly that wasn’t the case.
“That’s honestly the hardest thing about tonight for me,” Briscoe said of the late-race spin.
“That’s what’s so embarrassing about spinning out. I know what it looks like, and never in a million years as in morals would I try to do that. I just got loose, and it’s just embarrassing. I don’t want that to change how people look at me or our season or anything like that.”
Despite not hoisting the Championship 4 trophy, it was an incredible season for the 25-year-old.
In addition to his nine wins, Briscoe claimed 16 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes and more importantly will replace Clint Bowyer as the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning with the Daytona 500.
“Anytime you can win nine races and finish fourth in the championship isn’t what you wanted, but we’ll keep our heads high and, like I said, just proud of the whole team,” offered Briscoe.
“To be able to work with me these last two and a half years from where we started to where we are now has been a huge difference, so just thankful to be driving for Stewart-Haas Racing and come back next year.
Briscoe says his rookie season in Cup will be a humbling one.
“Yeah, first off, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for Ford Motor Company to find me at the end of 2016 and offer me a deal to it’s just crazy looking back on it, the whole goal was in five years to be in the Cup Series, and four years or yeah, I think it’s going to be five years, I’m going to the Cup Series, just like we had planned it out on paper,” Briscoe mentioned.
“I mean, it’s going to be tough. I think the one thing that helps is just the cars I feel like are obviously a lot higher downforce, so they’re not going to be potentially on edge as much as the Xfinity cars, and it’s just going to be I feel like easier to run laps by yourself. But just the racing side of things is going to be so much tougher. It’s going to be a very humbling year. You can’t go in there expecting like this year to win eight races.”
With the Daytona 500 more than three months away, Briscoe already has some goals set for next season.
“I think if we can make the playoffs, that would be a phenomenal year,” he said. “But the biggest thing is just to learn as much as I can next year and kind of same thing as this year. I felt like I really grew a lot as a race car driver, and just trying to do that again next year.
“Obviously, the following year we’re going to be in a new car where everybody is kind of on the same playing field but trying to shorten that experience gap compared to those guys I think is going to be the biggest thing.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
