BRISTOL, Tenn. — A malfunctioning rear-view mirror, a brake fan fire and a poor final pit stop proved to be no match for Chase Briscoe.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver advanced to the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with an eighth-place finish in Saturday’s (Sept. 21) Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Things looked dire for the No. 14 at the start of the playoffs. An early crash with Kyle Larson at Atlanta Motor Speedway saddled Briscoe with a last-place finish. But Briscoe capitalized on the struggles of playoff drivers at Watkins Glen International with a sixth-place finished and a 43-point day that gave him a six-point advantage heading into Bristol.
Briscoe started the weekend with promise by qualifying fifth and he was fast from the drop of the green flag. But it didn’t take long for the No. 14 to face the first hurdle of the night as Briscoe’s rear-view camera stopped working on lap 88.
“It’s tough just with this car, you get so used to [the camera] where you can just look at it, you can clear yourself,” Briscoe said. “Of all the tracks, this is one of the hardest ones to not have it, just with how you turn down on exit. Guys have always been tight.
“I was probably more worried about that than anything just when it happened. But after I got used to it for 100 or so laps, it kind of became natural.”
The next hurdle for Briscoe’s car came in the form of brake fans. A small fire started when he turned them on for the first time.
“It definitely seemed like everything that could go wrong kind of went wrong,” Briscoe said. “When the thing started smoking, I thought our day was done. I turned the brake fans on, and I think it started a fire in the front.
“Fortunately, it went out as soon as I turned the fans off, but that could have been disastrous.”
With the fire gone, Briscoe capitalized with seven stage points. He ran inside the top three and battled Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin for second place in the final stage when Corey LaJoie’s crash set up the final round of pit stops on lap 333.
Disaster struck, as difficulties with changing the right-front tire cost Briscoe more than 10 spots. At that point, the live point standings showed him below the cut.
“It’s obviously unfortunate when you have bad pit stops, and that was something that tonight we kind of struggled with,” Briscoe said. “I think we lost spots every single…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …