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Hail Mary Falls Short For Briscoe, Misses Championship 4

(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)

RIDGEWAY, Va. — Chase Briscoe and his team threw an ultimate hail mary on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t caught as Briscoe missed out on a Championship 4 appearance.

Briscoe had early speed after qualifying third and finished fifth in Stage 1. But a penalty for removing the gas can during pit stops sent Briscoe to the rear with a lot of work to do as it was difficult to pass.

“It felt like when I was back there I was probably better than the 10 cars in front of me, but you just can’t pass them,” Briscoe said. “We definitely need to figure out the short track package. It’s a struggle. You literally can’t pass.

“I just wish we didn’t get the penalty. If we would have stayed in the top four or five, we probably would have ran in the top four or five all day, and then at the end, you have a chance to do four tires and maybe win the race. I thought our car was good enough to battle for the win, but the penalty really killed us.”

Briscoe could never make up enough ground to put himself in a position to win the race on sheer speed. So, when Landon Cassill crashed and brought out a caution with 32 laps to go, Briscoe and crew chief Johnny Klausmeier threw a hail mary.

Briscoe, who ran ninth at the time, stayed out with teammate Cole Custer as the top eight pitted. Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and William Byron pitted for fuel only, while Christopher Bell, who led at the time of the caution, was the first with tires off pit road and lined up for the restart sixth.

Briscoe got a strong restart and started to pull away as Keselowski, Larson and Custer jockeyed for position. Bell patiently navigated through the field and got past Keselowski for second with seven laps to go.

At that point, Briscoe was seemingly a sitting duck. Bell bumped Briscoe out of the groove in Turn 1 with five laps to go to take the lead and win while Briscoe dropped all the way back to ninth.

(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)

“That was kind of the only play I felt like we really had.  I was honestly surprised nobody else stayed out in front of me,” Briscoe said. “I think we were running, we probably would have run seventh or eighth.  I thought it was gonna work for a second.  I thought if the race was 10 less laps I was probably gonna win, but I just fell off a cliff really hard there at the end.”

It was essentially win or bust for Briscoe. He finished 36th after a crash at Homestead-Miami, and a lack of stage points put him in a dire position at Martinsville.

But making the Round of 8 is still an accomplishment for the 27-year-old. He’s only recorded nine top 10s this season, but he won at Phoenix in the spring and showed many flashes of success.

Though he’s disappointed in the result at Martinsville, he’s already shifting his attention toward next year.

“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.”

 

 

Nathan Solomon serves as the managing editor of The Podium Finish. He has been part of the team since 2021 and is accredited by the National Motorsports Press Association. Solomon is a senior in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University. Contact him at NSolly02@Yahoo.com.

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