SHR Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 8th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
● Noah Gragson (Started 7th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 27th, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 311 of 312 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 36th, Finished 26th / Running, completed 310 of 312 laps)
SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (19th with 83 points, 68 out of first)
● Noah Gragson (26th with 53 points, 98 out of first)
● Josh Berry (31st with 48 points, 103 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (35th with 28 points, 123 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Briscoe earned his second top-10 of the season and his fourth top-10 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
● This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 10th, earned in the season-opening Daytona 500.
● Briscoe finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points.
● Gragson earned his third top-12 of the season and his first top-12 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
● Gragson’s 12th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Phoenix – 29th, earned last March.
● Gragson finished eighth in Stage 2 to earn three bonus points.
Race Notes:
● Christopher Bell won the Shriners Children’s 500k to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Phoenix. His margin of victory over second-place Chris Buescher was 5.465 seconds.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 40 laps.
● Twenty-one of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Ryan Blaney leaves Phoenix as the new championship leader with a 10-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“It was a good day for us to finish in the top-10 because there were parts where we were 20th on back there. I’m happy with how we finished. We had good speed all weekend. We have stuff that we can clean up to keep more up front the whole race. The package, honestly, I thought the package was better, but the tires were an issue. The tires are so good that I think if you put this package on the right tire it would be better, for sure. We still have work to do. It was hard to pass. We were all kind of the same speed and I feel like it just comes down to the tire.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I thought that was a lot of fun. Our SERVPRO guys did a great job. We had really fast pit stops. It is easy to Monday-Morning Quarterback it, but I have a lot of faith in Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and the rest of these guys. They’ve been really good for me in building my confidence. We are a tight group and I have these guys’ backs. Looking back, we probably should’ve taken two tires because those guys finished up there, but we’ll keep going and keep learning, every race, every weekend. It’s still early. It’s the fourth race. We ran inside the top-10 for most of the day and it’s kind of a bummer, but it’s exciting to be good and to be disappointed with a 12th-place finish. That’s exciting for our team. We want to keep it going.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 SERVPRO Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“On days like today, I think you just take away more laps and experience on restarts and on pit road and all that stuff. But we definitely struggled today, on some runs more than others. But just a lot to look at and learn from so we can be better when we come back.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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