NCWTS: Rough and Tumble Day at Martinsville Speedway for Chase Briscoe

Chase Briscoe made his Martinsville Speedway debut over the weekend at the half-mile paper clip oval in the state of Virginia. Briscoe, making his third career start in the Camping World Truck Series, had a rough and tumble day in his No. 29 Ford for Brad Keselowski Racing.

When things got underway, Briscoe started the 250-lap event in the eighth starting spot. The young driver had a clean stage one and sat sixth on the leaderboard at its conclusion. The team made their way down pit road for four tires under the caution flag, earning two spots off of pit road. When stage two went green, Briscoe restarted fourth.

The second stage of the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 was rougher on the 22-year old racer. On lap 101, Briscoe and Noah Gragson made contact in turn two, bringing out the fifth caution of the day. However, despite the contact with Gragson, Briscoe went on to finish third in stage two.

The third stage of the race would be even tougher for Briscoe. On lap 160, 20 laps into the third stage of the race, Briscoe made contact with Kyle Donahue in turn two, bringing out the eighth caution of the race. The team had no choice but to pit for four tires and fuel, dropping him all the way down to 21st on the leaderboard. By lap 235, Briscoe sat 12th on the race leaderboard when the final caution of the race came out involving three drivers in turn one. Reporting a loose condition, the No. 29 team elected to pit, dropping him to the 15th position.

“There were a lot of incidents on track today, but it’s a byproduct of the tight racing at Martinsville,” said Briscoe after the race. “I got into some guys and a couple guys got into me. I didn’t mean to do it, and I know those guys didn’t mean to either.”

From there, Briscoe gained three positions in the final 12 laps of the race to capture an 11th-place finish.

“Today was eventful, and definitely an up and down day for our Cooper Standard Ford F-150 team. We had really good speed, but we just couldn’t get the track position we needed,” said Briscoe. “We certainly didn’t get the finish we were capable of today, but to run up front for most of the day is something to be happy about. We’ve had a strong start to the season, speed-wise. We’ve been in contention everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had the fastest truck at some point every week, and we make gains all weekend. I’m really looking forward to Kansas.”

The No. 29 Ford F-150 team sits seventh in the Camping World Truck Series driver standings after just three races. The series will not see the track until Kansas Speedway on May 12th. The Toyota Tundra 250 can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Brett Winningham
Follow Me