MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Chase Briscoe was first in class Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
He was the top finishing NASCAR Cup Series driver not named Shane van Gisbergen and brought his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home in second place. He — like many — is in awe of van Gisbergen’s ability on a road course.
“The only opportunity I had was on the restarts. I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like,” Briscoe said. “That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.
“Proud of the effort. I thought there was one restart I was maybe going to get clear of him, but truthfully even if I cleared him, he was probably going to pass me back by the end of the lap. Yeah, proud of the effort. We were a second-place car all day and obviously ended up second with it.”
Briscoe said he tried to manage the tires on the No. 19 and save his car for when he needed it most.
“Yeah, definitely were just trying to maintain — the first initial start of the race, I didn’t do a good job of maintaining,” Briscoe said. “I fell back to fourth and cost myself too much time trying to save tires.
“But yeah, I thought other than that I did a really good job of just trying to stay disciplined and manage my stuff, and I felt like it paid off. I was typically the second-best car. I just never had anything for Shane.
“I felt like he still had more left in the tank as well. But yeah, it was fun. We were slipping and sliding around all over the place. It’s fun when you can do that in these types of race cars. It was a really fun day behind the wheel.”
Briscoe was pleased with the result at a track he called his “worst.”
“I don’t really feel like I’m doing a whole lot different. Certainly, going into this week, I was saying how this is my worst race track,” Briscoe said. “I felt like the 19 team did a really good job of just trying to show me little things that Martin (Truex Jr.) did that made him excel here, and I just tried to replicate that. But for the most part, honestly, it’s just been doing my typical deal. The car has so much more pace and balance. So it makes it really enjoyable.”
