RICHMOND, Va. — Chase Briscoe had seemingly done everything right Saturday night at Richmond Raceway, leading laps by the dozens and keeping the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field at bay at a track that had been one of his tallest hurdles. The few little things that went wrong unraveled in a handful of pivotal green-flag stints.
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His undoing provided an opportunity that Joey Logano pounced on in the late going of Saturday’s Cook Out 400, leaving Briscoe to settle for second place for the third time this season. Briscoe’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota led a race-best 171 laps, but he pointed to a late rush by Logano that lifted the three-time champion to his second short-track victory in the last four races and left him disappointed.
“Just have to be perfect for 400 laps,” Briscoe said post-race, “and Joey’s car was odd. It was kind of like mine in a sense, where he had two runs that he was just phenomenal, and then the rest he was just the same as all of us. It was odd from that standpoint, how guys would just be really good one run and then kind of be back to how they were the rest. But yeah, still a solid night. Just rough to be that fast and not get it done.”
Briscoe seemed poised to collect another win late in the regular season, building on the momentum of his victory at Chicagoland Speedway last month. Saturday night’s showing was even more convincing, as Briscoe started second and took firm control as the sun began to set.
Strategies swirled in the final stage, but Briscoe and Logano were roughly adhering to the same game plan. The upper hand, however, went to Logano at a crucial moment.
“Yeah, I thought my car was really, really good and just that second-to-last or before that final pit stop, I just started losing brakes and got really, really loose, and I gave up a three-second lead,” Briscoe said. “If I could have had any buffer at all, I felt like I would have probably won the race just because I definitely was better than him that final run. But just yeah, gave up way too much time that one run, and that was ultimately the difference maker.”
The result still produced marked improvement for Briscoe at Richmond, a venue he’s called “a huge struggle.” Nine previous starts here — eight with Stewart-Haas Racing and one in his debut season last year at JGR — had failed to yield a top-10 finish.
His No. 19 team has had a star-crossed relationship with the 0.75-mile track, especially during Martin Truex Jr.’s tenure with the team. Truex won here three times in the No. 19 Toyota, but his record — and the team’s — also includes a significant share of near-misses, with strong performances that didn’t convert into Victory Lane visits. Saturday night felt like more of the latter.
“I love this place, but lost far many more races here than you know we’ve won, and we’ve won quite a lot,” No. 19 crew chief James Small told NASCAR.com. “So yeah, it’s disappointing. So second, in the scheme of things is a great result, but right now it’s really disappointing because we had the better car and we didn’t win.”
Those results predated Briscoe’s time with the team, but the sentiment was shared.
“I’ve watched Martin obviously lead a ton of laps here, and there’s been times where it’s kind of fell apart at the very end. A little bit of that, I guess,” Briscoe said. “I mean, we didn’t fall apart. We just, honestly, just had one run where we gave up three seconds, and that was the difference maker. So yeah, I think James even said on the radio, if you would have told me going into this week I could run second and top three in both stages, I would have gladly taken it. So, still a lot to be proud of, just … winning is great. To have one be that close and not get it, it’s frustrating.”
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Logano was Briscoe’s strongest competition late, but the 31-year-old driver noted that Team Penske’s challenge was organization-wide. Ryan Blaney flexed his strength early from the pole position before fading to 13th place at the end, and teammate Austin Cindric produced a season-best result in third.
Briscoe ultimately tipped his cap to Logano, who has made a habit of second-half surges in seasons past.
“I thought I was in a Penske sandwich there for a lot of the race,” Briscoe said. “I think it was that start of Stage 2, it was literally all four of them, and I was the only one in the top five outside of them. So yeah, I knew that the Penske cars were going to be really, really good all night long, and yeah, it showed. I mean, they were good early in the race, good at the end of the race, and yeah, just typical late-summer Joey Logano just coming up out of nowhere on you. So yeah, just go on to the next one and see what we can do.”