RIDGEWAY, Va. – Chase Elliott‘s return from a leg injury was the major storyline entering the NOCO 400 on Sunday afternoon (April 16), but it was another injured Chase who nearly stole the show.
Chase Briscoe finished fifth in the Martinsville Speedway race, his second consecutive top five since breaking the middle finger on his left hand. Briscoe also finished fifth on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway last week just three days after the injury happened in a dirt late model crash.
Still, the finish was a disappointment for the third-year driver, especially in a race where Stewart-Haas Racing appeared to have the fastest cars. SHR cars combined to lead 265 of the 400 laps.
“It would have been more of a statement if we won the race, obviously,” Briscoe stated after the race. “I thought as a company, we had a really good day. All four cars were in contention. I felt like a Stewart-Haas car probably should have won the race. We couldn’t catch the breaks that we needed.
“But overall great day, something that as a company, we needed to go and run up front, all four cars being competitive. I wish one of us would have won the race, but … go onto next week and hopefully, we can continue to speed and this momentum as a company.”
Briscoe alone led over 109 laps in the race, the second time in his career he’s led for triple digits. The only other time he did that was last year at Phoenix Raceway, his first career NASCAR Cup Series win.
The No. 14 appeared to be pulling away from the field and riding off to an easy victory when a caution for a JJ Yeley wreck on lap 343 took the race out of Briscoe’s control.
Briscoe’s crew chief Johnny Klausmeier called his driver down for four tires while a handful of cars either stayed out or took two tires. With passing being incredibly hard at The Paperclip in the Next Gen car, Briscoe was unable to get back to the lead after being buried in the middle of the top 10 on the final restart.
“I would like to think [we had them covered],” Briscoe said on if the final caution hadn’t come out. “I mean, having a two-second lead, honestly, just kind of riding, trying to just maintain a two-second lead. I thought our car was really good at that point.
“Even with the caution, I thought we were going to be OK. And then, I thought we were going to stay out, and at the end, it looked like more guys were…
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