Briscoe gets Fifth Career Xfinity Win at Homestead-Miami

Briscoe gets fifth career Xfinity Win in the Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday afternoon. The victory marks his third of the season.
HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA – JUNE 14: Chase Briscoe, driver of the #98 Ford Performance Racing School Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 14, 2020, in Homestead, Florida. Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Briscoe gets fifth career Xfinity Win in the Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday afternoon. The victory marks his third of the season.

Chase Briscoe delivered a clutch restart in double overtime to hold off a hard-charging Brandon Jones at the finish line and earn the victory in Sunday’s Contender Boats 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was a feel-good ending to a challenging weekend for Briscoe, who had to make up six laps in Saturday’s Xfinity race to score a seventh-place finish. He also had to race without his fulltime crew chief and car chief on Sunday as they served a penalty from infractions on Saturday.

Stewart-Haas Racing executive Greg Zipadelli, who led team owner Tony Stewart to a pair of NASCAR Cup Series championships, sat on the pit box in their absence earning his first career Xfinity Series victory atop the pit box.

“That was a team win for sure,” said Briscoe, who earned his fifth career victory and third of the season. “Yesterday we were so good and then today, I don’t know if it was the heat or what, we just weren’t very good. We were decent on the long run, but the 9 (Noah Gragson) was definitely better. Just a testament to all the guys at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

A Wild End of the Day

It was a wild ending to a day that mostly featured a master class by the JR Motorsports driver Gragson, who led the most laps – 83 on Saturday, 81 on Sunday – and was meters from taking the white flag in regulation. Briscoe won with a nearly two-second lead on the field when third-place Austin Cindric spun out, bringing out a caution.

Briscoe’s No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford beat Gragson’s Chevrolet out of the pits during the ensuing stop and was able to hold off the weekend’s most dominant driver on the first restart when another caution came out for a wreck just a couple rows behind the leader.

Briscoe jumped out to the lead on the next restart too, having to get by Jones this time and hold off the Joe Gibbs Racing driver at the line by a mere 0.072-seconds.

Dash 4 Cash Winner

Ross Chastain finished third, just in front of his Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger who earned the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus money. The incentive program moves to Talladega Superspeedway next week, and drivers Briscoe, Jones, Chastain, and Allmendinger are eligible to win the next $100,000 bonus there.

Gragson, who dominated both races of the NASCAR Xfinity Series weekend doubleheader, finished fifth after falling back on the second restart. He was silent on his team radio on the cool-down lap, clearly disappointed and frustrated.

“I don’t know what to tell you, you worked extremely hard and I’m proud of our effort,” his crew chief David Elenz told him as the field came back into the garage following the race.

The Top-Ten

Haley, Myatt Snider, Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst, and Cindric rounded out the top-ten. Harrison Burton has finished in the top-ten in every race this season. He becomes the first rookie in Xfinity history to start a career with ten consecutive top-tens, breaking the mark of nine set by Carl Edwards in 2005.

Ryan Sieg won the opening stage- the second straight day he won a race stage – and Gragson won the second stage – his series-leading fifth stage win of the season.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Point Standings

Gragson, who has top-five finishes in the last four races, and holds an 18-point edge over Briscoe in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Contender Boats 250

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead, Florida

Sunday, June 14, 2020

                1. (9)  Chase Briscoe, Ford, 177.

                2. (8)  Brandon Jones, Toyota, 177.

                3. (7)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 177.

                4. (38)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 177.

                5. (13)  Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 177.

                6. (3)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 177.

                7. (1)  Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 177.

                8. (15)  Harrison Burton #, Toyota, 177.

                9. (6)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 177.

                10. (14)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 176.

                11. (12)  Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 176.

                12. (20)  Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 176.

                13. (16)  Joe Graf Jr #, Chevrolet, 176.

                14. (21)  Colin Garrett, Toyota, 176.

                15. (18)  Jesse Little #, Chevrolet, 176.

                16. (19)  Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 176.

                17. (17)  Colby Howard, Chevrolet, 176.

                18. (10)  Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 176.

                19. (28)  Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 175.

                20. (31)  Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet, 175.

                21. (30)  Chad Finchum, Toyota, 175.

                22. (32)  Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 174.

                23. (25)  Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 174.

                24. (27)  Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 174.

                25. (23)  Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 174.

                26. (24)  Bayley Currey(i), Chevrolet, 173.

                27. (4)  Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 173.

                28. (5)  Carson Ware, Chevrolet, 173.

                29. (34)  Vinnie Miller, Chevrolet, 173.

                30. (29)  Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, 171.

                31. (11)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, Accident, 170.

                32. (22)  Stefan Parsons, Toyota, 151.

                33. (37)  Kody Vanderwal #, Chevrolet, Power Steering, 138.

                34. (26)  BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, Clutch, 117.

                35. (33)  Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, Fire, 84.

                36. (2)  Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Overheating, 49.

                37. (35)  Ja Junior Avila, Chevrolet, Electrical, 15.

                38. (36)  Stephen Leicht, Toyota, Handling, 9.

Contender Boats 250 Stats

Average Speed of Race Winner:  117.247 mph.

Time of Race:  Two Hrs, 15 Mins, 52 Secs. The Margin of Victory:  0.072 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  Six for 28 laps.

Lead Changes:  20 among eight drivers.

Lap Leaders:   M. Snider 1;R. Chastain 2-8;C. Briscoe 9-10;A. Cindric 11-36;R. Sieg 37-43;R. Chastain 44-47;B. Jones 48-50;A. Cindric 51-67;N. Gragson 68-92;A. Cindric 93-105;N. Gragson 106-122;C. Briscoe 123;B. Jones 124;J. Williams 125;A. Cindric 126-129;N. Gragson 130-167;C. Briscoe 168-169;N. Gragson 170;C. Briscoe 171-174;B. Jones 175;C. Briscoe 176-177.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Noah Gragson four times for 81 laps; Austin Cindric four times for 60 laps; Ross Chastain two times for 11 laps; Chase Briscoe five times for 11 laps; Ryan Sieg one time for seven laps; Brandon Jones three times for five laps; Josh Williams one time for one lap; Myatt Snider one time for one lap.

Stage 1 Top-Ten: 39,1,22,19,7,9,20,8,61,74

Stage 2 Top-Ten: 9,22,19,98,8,20,7,1,21,16