Chase Briscoe capitalizes on others' misfortune at Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — For the first time in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, no championship-eligible driver cracked the top five in the finishing order in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. Best in class was Chase Briscoe, managing a sixth-place finish.

With an early departure from the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Briscoe needed a stellar performance at The Glen to give him a fighting chance going into the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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In a chaotic 92-lap overtime contest, few playoff drivers didn‘t have some semblance of an issue. Briscoe was the lead playoff car for much of the race, though, finishing third to Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman in the opening stage. After starting deep in the field for Stage 2, he hustled the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to seventh, tallying 12 stage points for the afternoon.

Playing a two-stop strategy, Briscoe hit pit road for the final time on Lap 57, along with race leaders Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen. When the race cycled out, the No. 14 remained inside the top 10.

Multiple late cautions didn‘t harm Briscoe. With a sixth-place finish, he tallied 43 points for his day of work, outscoring the other 15 playoff drivers by at least 10 points. (Austin Cindric scored the second-most points among playoff drivers with 33.) He leaped five positions in the standings, moving from 16th to a tie for 11th, with a 27-point swing from where he started the race.

“We did everything we needed to do,” Briscoe told NASCAR.com after the race. “We probably only gave up two or three points that we could have got. Really good day. To get the most points scored is what we needed to do out of all the playoff drivers. It was everything we needed.

“We just have to go on to Bristol and hopefully survive the chaos. If we can go and do what we did today, get stage points, qualify well, it makes your way of getting through to the next round much easier. Stage points are going to be the name of the game — always are — and we need to qualify really well. It‘s going to be a big difference maker for Bristol, so we need to do that.”

Bristol has been hit or miss for Briscoe in four Cup attempts. He often qualifies well, which bodes well for scoring stage points. But he will likely need to better his average finishing position of 16.8 if he wants to advance to the next round.

Stewart-Haas Racing has had recent success at the track with Kevin Harvick. Aric Almirola won the pole in 2022, the same race Briscoe qualified on the front row.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

That leaves Briscoe confident heading to Thunder Valley on Saturday, where the postseason field will officially be trimmed from 16 to 12 playoff drivers (7:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Briscoe expects chaos, similar to Watkins Glen. Only two playoff drivers managed top-10 finishes on Sunday, with half of the 16 drivers finishing 20th or worse.

“I feel like that‘s one of our best tracks as a company,” Briscoe said. “It‘s hard to know what Bristol race we‘re going to have. Are we going to have one like the spring, or are we going to have one like we typically do? I feel good about it either way.”