WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Entering Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen Int’l 21 points below the cutline, Chase Briscoe felt strangely at peace.
Speaking to the media Saturday, Briscoe – who won his way into the playoffs at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway – didn’t feel like he was under any pressure. He also thought, more than anything, that he’d be more likely to make up ground next weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Ultimately, he proved himself wrong.
Briscoe scored 43 points – tied for the most of any driver in the field – and finished sixth, suddenly vaulting to six points above the cutline.
“We did everything we needed to do,” Briscoe said after the race. “We maybe could have got another six points if I was just a little more aggressive, but I felt like the risk versus reward just wasn’t really worth it with how many other guys were having issues.
“Great day for us. I think we scored the most points out of anybody playoff-wise and that’s all we needed to do today. Hate that we were in that hole to begin with, but at least we’re back to kind of square one.”
Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team ultimately prioritized stage points. As a large majority of the field elected to short-pit the end of Stage One, Briscoe stayed out and finished the segment in third.
While a caution interrupted the short-pit cycle at the end of Stage Two, Briscoe did the same – this time scoring four points for a seventh-place finish.
But rather than pitting under yellow, Briscoe stayed out. In a race where the tires were expected to wear out three seconds during a run, the degradation wasn’t quite to that degree. So while crew chief Richard Boswell wanted to come, it ultimately got left into the hands of the driver.
“We were running fifth or sixth, and I just told (Boswell), ‘Is there any way I can just stay out?’” Briscoe said. “I feel like if I restart 25th, I maybe will drive back to 18th. But if I start up here, the worst I’ll fall to is probably 12th. We were able to kind of hold our own up there in the top five and that’s what really changed our whole race.
“I was all excited for four-plus seconds of fall off and it just didn’t really seem to have that. Over that last green flag run, I only slowed down a second in 20 laps. It was definitely surprising.”
Briscoe ultimately pitted on lap 58 with leaders Shane van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain, and once the cycle was completed, he ended up back inside the top 10 and stayed there.
The Mitchell, Ind., native was just one of two playoff drivers that finished inside the top 11. Most playoff contenders had a variety of problems. Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney crashed on the first lap. Brad Keselowski had two issues on pit road before eventually wrecking with William Byron. Tyler Reddick was involved in multiple incidents.
Briscoe was one of the only playoff drivers to piece together a clean 92 laps Sunday in the Finger Lakes.
“I think just the pressure ratchets up,” he said. “The intensity is way higher. You’re trying so much harder in the playoffs and the stakes are higher. It’s just one of those deals where in the playoffs, it just amplifies everything.
“There’s been other tracks and other stuff where guys get crashed, but it doesn’t seem like as big of a penalty because it’s not over a three-race stretch, and in the playoffs, it just buries you. It’s always going to be chaos in the playoffs, especially late race restarts, but I was surprised how early it happened today.”
Now it’s a trip to Bristol, a place that Briscoe is comfortable at regardless of how the tire reacts. Though the results aren’t fully indicative of it, he’s always run well there. He finished 13th at the half-mile oval in the spring.
“We just have to go and do what we can do,” Briscoe said. “We just have to qualify good. That’s going to be, I think, the biggest key for us. If you qualify good, you typically get stage points. And then the other thing is we just don’t know what Bristol race we’re going to have. Is it going to be the spring or is it going to be like what we typically have.
“Regardless, I think either way, our stuff’s pretty good. Just go there and control what we can control.”