Chase Briscoe’s weekend at Kansas Speedway was far from ordinary, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to rally from a series of setbacks to claim a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, his best result in nine career starts at the 1.5-mile track.
Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota encountered tire issues during Saturday’s practice session, forcing the team to make repairs and start from the rear of the field. Despite having to navigate through the Cup Series field, Briscoe showcased the speed of his car, even overtaking race winner Kyle Larson at one point to get back on the lead lap.
“Our day was definitely just weird, right?” Briscoe said. “Having to go to the back after yesterday, tearing the whole bottom off and was OK the first run there. We were kind of going forward, and we had the green-flag pit stop and we had a wheel come off or something. Came out probably three-quarters of a straightaway behind the 5 [Kyle Larson], and was able to run him down, pass him, get back on the lead lap. So I knew my car was pretty good if I could ever get back up there.”
However, Briscoe’s challenges continued throughout the race. A poor restart in the second stage saw his car’s performance drop off, and a severe vibration in the closing laps while running third nearly derailed his strong finish.
“That one was definitely the worst,” Briscoe said of the vibration. “It just freaked me out because it was the exact same feeling I had in practice when I blew the tire yesterday. It really started coming with eight to 10 to go. I felt like I could have ran third for sure if it wasn’t for that.”
Despite the obstacles, Briscoe’s fourth-place finish marked a significant improvement from his previous performances at Kansas Speedway. The 30-year-old Indiana native credited the potential of his Joe Gibbs Racing cars for the upturn in results.
“Kevin Harvick says it all the time, you can’t drive a slow car fast,” Briscoe said. “Every time we came to Kansas, I ran 25th to 30th. As soon as I got out [today], I said, ‘Well, I guess it maybe wasn’t me this whole time.’ We just always go backwards every race and you can only drive the car as fast as it’ll go. JGR’s cars’ potential is just unbelievable compared to what I’m used to. I don’t know why that is, but it’s definitely mind-blowing. That’s what I’ve raced against my entire career for sure.”
Briscoe’s crew chief, James Small, acknowledged that while the speed is present, the team still needs to work on consistency and executing complete weekends at the track.
“He’s open to suggestions. Still, I feel like [there’s] a lot of things that he can improve on,” Small told NASCAR.com. “I think we have a pretty good understanding of the car every week now. It’s just about execution on the day. When you have a clean day, we can run like this. We’ve proved all year. We’re still hurting ourselves. Our stage points is a [expletive] joke and we just need to start the races up front and maintain track position, and our life will get a lot easier.”
