Kansas Speedway has been Chase Briscoe’s kryptonite since entering the Cup Series five seasons ago. He never cracked the top 10 in the final rundown through his first eight starts at the 1.5-mile venue with Stewart-Haas Racing.
Enter Joe Gibbs Racing, which has excelled with Toyota at Kansas throughout the years. In recent Kansas races, the No. 19 team led the way with Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel with 10 top-10 finishes in 12 starts together. This was a test for the Indiana native to live up to the No. 19 team’s moniker at Kansas.
The weekend didn’t get off to a great start in Saturday’s practice. Briscoe ranked 31st on single-lap speed and 32nd on 10-lap averages. The No. 19 Toyota was among a handful of cars that had a left-rear tire go flat, cutting its session short. Crew chief James Small elected to make unapproved changes overnight, knowing Briscoe would drop to the rear come the start of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400.
By the end of the opening stage, even with an issue on pit road during a cycle of green-flag pit stops, Briscoe improved to 17th, ranking fourth of the seven cars that started at the tail of the field. Zane Smith made up the most ground of those entries, even scoring a stage point in 10th.
No ground was gained for Briscoe through Stage 2, however, once again finishing 17th in that stage.
“We just started in the back, so it made it tough to know what we needed,” Briscoe said. “Even that first stage, we had a terrible pit stop during the green flag pit cycle and we came out about three-quarters of a straightway behind [Kyle Larson] and we were able to run him down and pass him and get back on the lead lap, then in the second stage, we kind just lost our magic.”
Chaos ensued during the final stage with a trio of consecutive wrecks where the green-flag distance spanned less than a full lap. Briscoe avoided madness as other contending drivers tumbled.
Briscoe was at his best during the final stint to the checkered flag, marching to fourth position. It matches his best result of the season, three times over (Daytona 500, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway).
“Finally, [in] the third stage, we kind of found [our magic] back and our car started going forward again and was able to go from 17th or 18th back up to fourth,” Briscoe added. “I would have loved to have track position all day – that is the name of the game half of the time. We needed just a good solid run like this, so that helps.”
In eight prior starts at Kansas, Briscoe had a single finish better than 19th (13th in the 2022 Playoffs) and an average finish below 20th. He ended up being the second highest finishing Toyota driver, trailing only his JGR teammate Christopher Bell.