Chase Briscoe Should Struggle at Gateway After Being Distracted by Team's Shutdown Announcement
6 months agoAlthough Chase Briscoe won the pole for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway and led the first 27 laps, it's unlikely that Briscoe will seriously contend in this weekend's Enjoy Illinois 300. In last year's event, he was a complete nonfactor as he started 25th and finished 34th. This weekend he qualified 23rd. Although he outqualified all his teammates, it appears that Stewart-Haas Racing was significantly distracted by the announcement of its closure this week, which will likely cause all four of its cars to struggle. Although Briscoe still sits eleven points behind the similarly-initialed Chris Buescher for the final playoff spot, it's likely that the loss of team morale at SHR will cause Briscoe to miss the playoffs, but he has still significantly improved over his performance last year regardless.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference