Fourth In Miami Gives Briscoe A Building Block With JGR

Chase Briscoe in action at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday. (Rusty Jones/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A fourth-place finish Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway was something Chase Briscoe could finally feel positive about leaving the racetrack, after how the newest phase of his NASCAR Cup Series career with Joe Gibbs Racing began this season.

Not much had gone right for the driver of the No. 19 Toyota in the four races following the Daytona 500, but in matching his season-best effort, a hard earned top-five gave something he and the team can build upon.

After making a great first impression in the season opener by winning the pole and finishing fourth, speed and consistency became hard to come by for Briscoe over his next handful of starts.

Failing to qualify higher than 18th or place higher than 14th since the first race of the season, the 30-year-old simply couldn’t escape misfortune, between getting caught up in wrecks and pit road woes – which also played a factor in Miami.

Starting the Straight Talk Wireless 400 from fourth on the grid, Briscoe entered pit road third for his first stop of the day, losing two spots after the service. Thankfully, he was able to gain the pair of positions back following a restart with five to go in stage one.

The second segment was much harder to overcome for the driver of the Bass Pro Shops Camry XSE, as Briscoe began and ended the 85-lap stint 12th.

In the final stage, the No. 19 team lifted their driver back into the top 10 with a speedy pit stop. Stabilizing in ninth in the 30 laps following the restart, Briscoe inherited another spot when the final caution of the day waved for third-place Ryan Blaney’s expired engine.

Able to maintain eighth off pit road during the money stop, Briscoe initially rose two spots off the final restart of the race, getting as high as third in the last 50 laps before crossing the finish line in fourth.

The end result was made more impressive when factoring in that Briscoe battled a “squishy” brake pedal and a handling vibration during the race as well.

“It was for sure a chaotic day for us with brake issues and tire vibrations,” Briscoe said. “Just had to keep coming from behind, kind of all day long, but this is honestly what we 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 take this and build on it.

“We’ve had speed to run in the top five all year, (but we) just haven’t been able to show it. We have a lot of good race tracks for myself and the team coming up, so (I’m) looking forward to that part.”

Despite an up-and-down day on pit road, Briscoe spent 92 percent of the 267 laps inside the top 15, accumulating the fifth-best running position (8.8) and driver rating (106.6), behind podium finishers Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace, as well as Blaney, who led a race-high 124 laps.

While Wallace – driving for 23XI Racing – led the way for Toyota at Homestead, Briscoe headlined the day for JGR as the team’s highest-finishing driver.

Fifth-place Denny Hamlin made an impact late, leading for a combined 15 laps, while teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell wound up 25th and 29th, respectively.

Briscoe will look to build upon his most promising performance of the season when the Cup Series heads to one of his stronger tracks in Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. In eight starts, the newest driver for JGR has earned five top-10 finishes, with 142 laps led and a best finish of fourth.

The Mitchell, Ind., native has also qualified inside the top five in his last five attempts at the ‘Paper Clip’.

The Cook Out 400 will air Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.