Chase Briscoe had plenty of speed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday in more ways than one.
Briscoe’s morning started off by getting pulled over, receiving a speeding ticket from local law enforcement. He registered 12 mph over the speed limit. During Sunday’s Pennzoil 400, the difference was hundredths of a single mph.
“I would rather have two of those than the one I got [during the race],” Briscoe told a group of reporters after the race, regarding his speeding ticket outside the race track.
While zooming through the field from an 18th-place starting position, Briscoe was caught for speeding during the first cycle of pit stops at Lap 32. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell combined to lead 165 of 267 laps, and in the process, kept making Briscoe’s job harder to get back on the lead lap.
Briscoe finally caught his lucky break at Lap 211, when Connor Zilisch got into the rear of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and spun on the frontstretch to bring out the event’s only natural caution. The No. 19 Toyota restarted in 20th, but further back in line behind a handful of lapped cars.
Over the final 50-lap green-flag run, Briscoe drove to eighth position.
“You can’t blame the day on bad luck, that’s just me not doing my job,” Briscoe added. “I was lucky today to catch that caution, finally. We were like the 13th car one lap down and was able to drive up there and get the caution.
“Hopefully, it will turn around. Another extremely fast car that I felt was capable of competing for the win. I was stuck back there all day. Just have to clean it up on my end.”
Throughout the race weekend, Toyota set the standard at Las Vegas. Joe Gibbs Racing swept the top three spots in qualifying, with 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace putting another Toyota in fourth. Even despite being the first car out in qualifying when the track surface was at its worst, Briscoe managed a mid-pack starting spot.
Similar to recent weeks, Briscoe thought he had a car capable of competing at the front of the field. A mechanical failure two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas while running inside the top five dropped the No. 19 car to 37th in the final rundown. He was credited with the same finishing position last week at Phoenix Raceway after he clobbered the Turn 3 wall with a flat tire while running inside the top five. Both weekends ended with a whopping one-point scored.
“I think from a speed standpoint, every race from the Southern 500 (playoff opener at Darlington Raceway) last year to this point, we’ve been a top-three car,” Briscoe said. “We don’t have a ton to show for it, but if you keep bringing cars fast enough, eventually you are going to win more races. Just have to get a little bit of momentum going and once we do that, I think we will be in a good spot.”
Stage points eluded Briscoe again at Las Vegas, but his seventh-place effort banked 29 points on the afternoon. He jumped seven spots in the regular-season championship standings to 26th, 41 markers below the current cutline held by Shane van Gisbergen.
“It would be one thing if at the start of the season we had no speed and no results either, but the speed has certainly been there,” Briscoe said. “It’s just a matter of time. Today was nice to put a finish on the board, that’s something we haven’t been able to do.”
The series heads to Darlington Raceway next weekend where Briscoe has won two of the last three races at.