Motorsports

Briscoe takes third-straight Cup pole in Michigan

For the third time in as many weeks, Chase Briscoe has secured a Cup Series pole. The Hoosier laid down a lap of 195.514 mph (36.826s) to secure the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. In doing so, Briscoe remains the only polesitter of Prime Video’s NASCAR Cup Series race broadcast […]

Published

on


For the third time in as many weeks, Chase Briscoe has secured a Cup Series pole. The Hoosier laid down a lap of 195.514 mph (36.826s) to secure the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

In doing so, Briscoe remains the only polesitter of Prime Video’s NASCAR Cup Series race broadcast slate, and now has four poles in the opening 15 races of his tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Saturday’s result was arguably the most surprising of the stretch for Briscoe after a lap where he felt he’d left the door open for a quicker driver.

“I tried to run low,” Briscoe said of his lap around the two-mile oval. “I felt like with us all running wide open fairly easily, if you could just cut a lot of distance it would be better. I ran low, but I ended up way high on exit.

“I felt like the guys that kind of opened up their entry would maybe beat me to the line. I was surprised, truthfully, that it held on. It was not as easy as I thought it was going to be (sic), as far as holding it wide open.”

Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing were the surprise of the session, slotting in second with a 195.371 mph lap. Denny Hamlin (195.328) followed in third. He’ll fly home this afternoon to be with his partner, Jordan Fish, who is due to give birth to the pair’s third child. Hamlin plans to fly back to Michigan on Sunday morning.

William Byron and Kyle Larson completed the top-five, with Chris Buescher, Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Zane Smith wrapping up the top-10. Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney slotted in 12th and 13th, respectively, after suffering flat tires during the preceding practice session. Shane van Gisbergen had similar tire troubles, but was also able to qualify.

Christopher Bell was second in practice and poised to challenge for the pole, but a bobble in turn 3 left the Oklahoman free falling down the to 25th at session’s end. The Joe Gibbs Racing ace has never finished better than 13th at Michigan and will need a strong recovery drive to change that on Sunday.

Few endured a worse qualifying effort than Daniel Suarez, whose 193.392 mph lap left him 35th and only ahead of Cody Ware. It was the worst of a difficult session for Trackhouse Racing, who slotted 20th (Ross Chastain) and 26th (van Gisbergen) with its other two teams.

With another pole run complete, Briscoe will set his sights on trying to convert the top starting spot into a trip to victory lane.

“It’ll definitely be nice starting up front,” Briscoe said. “I’ve been able to do that now three weeks in a row, and we haven’t really been able to execute with it. Hopefully third time’s the charm and we can finally get one on Sunday.”



Link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version