Chase Briscoe started from the pole and led the first 34 laps of Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway but finished an uncharacteristic 24th due to a broken shock mount on his No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang. The first hint that something was awry came on lap 35 when Briscoe entered turn three of the 1.5-mile oval and his car wiggled, forcing Briscoe to make a masterful save that kept his Ford Performance Racing School Mustang off the wall. Just as impressive was Briscoe’s ability to quickly dart onto pit road. A flat right-rear tire was the culprit, but shortly after leaving the pits, Briscoe radioed to crew chief Richard Boswell that he felt like something had broken in the rear of the car. Boswell brought his driver back to pit road on lap 39 whereupon the crew found a broken right-rear shock mount. Repairs were eventually made and Briscoe returned to the race, albeit 16 laps down to the leaders. His 24th-place finish was only the second time this season that Briscoe has finished outside the top-20. Nonetheless, Briscoe held onto the championship point lead with a 30-point margin over next-best Austin Cindric. Briscoe also remains the only driver locked into the Championship 4 Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway as a result of his victory Oct. 17 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing: “This Stewart-Haas Racing team built such a fast Ford Performance Racing School Mustang and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to show that. Thankfully, we’re already locked in for Phoenix so we could use the rest of the race as a chance to learn and move on to Martinsville next week.”
Notes:● Briscoe’s 34 laps led in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 brought his season total to a career-high 992 laps led, the most of any driver.
● Harrison Burton won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 to score his third career Xfinity Series victory, his third of the season and his first at Texas. His margin of victory over second-place Noah Gragson was .445 of a second.
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 51 laps.
● Only 16 of the 36 drivers in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 finished on the lead lap.
Next Up: The next event on the Xfinity Series schedule is the Draft Top 250 on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TSC PR
