Daniel Suárez, Chase Briscoe scrape by at Bristol, advance to Round of 12

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Suárez limped home to a 31st-place finish, four laps behind race winner Kyle Larson. Chase Briscoe impressed inside the top 10 and finished eighth.

Oddly enough, the end result Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway was the same for both: advancing to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by a scant 11 points over the elimination line.

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Suárez’s Bristol weekend was nothing short of miserable, his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet was 36th in practice, 35th on the starting grid and stuck in the rears all night. But a 36-point cushion entering Saturday’s Round of 16 elimination race provided Suárez and Co. enough buffer to survive a bad run after scoring a combined 73 points in the round’s opening races at Atlanta and Watkins Glen.

“I didn’t want to see it, but I knew since yesterday when we unloaded for first practice, I knew we didn’t have the speed,” Suárez said. “We practiced bad, we qualified bad, and we raced the same way. We were able to make the car a little bit better, but we were just not fast enough, you know? Luckily, things worked out right there and we were able to build a good cushion in Atlanta and Watkins Glen. But yeah, not ideal, but it worked out good. We were able to build a cushion the first couple races and that’s all what got us here.”

The No. 99 team’s ultimate goal over the final quarter of the 500-lapper was simple: keep Ty Gibbs in the rearview mirror. Gibbs was within striking distance of kicking Suárez outside the top 12 in points in the final 125 laps running just outside the top 10, but Suárez made it his job to block any advances of Gibbs, making the No. 99 Chevy as wide as possible against the No. 54 Toyota while other lead-lap cars charged past Gibbs. It worked, and Gibbs slowly bled points to widen Suárez’s margin above the elimination line.

“The first part of that was good communication so that Daniel knew what he needed to do there,” crew chief Matt Swiderski told NASCAR.com. “And then Daniel and Frankie (Kimmell II, spotter) did a great job of managing that, letting people by that wouldn’t affect us points-wise, just to make it harder for the 54 to move forward. So just letting certain cars — not easily get by us, but basically, if you had a choice to block one lane or another, you’re gonna block the one with the 54.”

On the other end of the finishing order was Briscoe, whose eighth-place finish marked his third top 10 in the past four races. That one exception, however, was a 38th-place finish at Atlanta after getting collected in an early crash with Larson, netting the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford just one point in the postseason opener.

Briscoe left that race 21 points beneath the elimination line, one week after a last-gasp victory in the regular-season finale at Darlington propelled the No. 14 team into the playoffs.

“The only time I had any concern the entire time is when I was sitting on the backstretch unbuckling after crashing,” Briscoe said. “And then when the race played out at Atlanta, we were sitting there at the airport and it literally just showed minus-21. I took a screenshot of it, sent it to our team guys, and I said, “doable.” That’s all I said. I mean, we were 21 or 19 (points) out the last time we came to Bristol for the (elimination) race and we made up that. So yeah, I wasn’t really concerned at all being 21 down. I felt really confident about it.”

Turns out that confidence was well-placed. Briscoe collected 43 points on the Watkins Glen road course with seven stage points and a sixth-place finish to boot. He only built upon that Saturday at Bristol with another seven stage points and a top-10 result in hand.

“I don’t think anybody believes this, but I really think we can battle for the championship,” Briscoe said. “And I think these last two weeks show that. I mean, we gave them a race, right? We went to Atlanta and got one point. And tonight, we had a lot of adversity, and we were better than eighth place. And there at the end, just trying not to crash myself or do anything stupid. So yeah, I mean, we brought top-five race cars the last three weeks, four weeks I guess if you count Darlington, and we’re hitting our stride at the right time. And with this format, if you can just be good for 10 weeks, then you can be a champion. And I feel like we’re as strong as any team right now.”

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The No. 14 car’s night may have gone better than Suárez’s, but it was not without its own adversity. Briscoe’s digital rearview mirror faltered early; smoke at one point filled his cockpit; and a slow pit stop cost him positions that dropped him outside the top 10. But an unwavering effort led Briscoe into the Round of 12 for the second time in the past three seasons — all as Stewart-Haas Racing prepares to shutter Cup operations at the end of the 2024 campaign.

“He’s determined,” crew chief Richard Boswell told NASCAR.com. “He’s committed to finish this year out as strong as he can. And we know when he’s at his very best, he’s a championship contender, right? He proved that a couple years ago. And it’s been a tough year with everything that’s going on at SHR and had tough end of the year last year, so this is just a breath of fresh air to see this Chase Briscoe with this much confidence and a team that supports him 100%.”

The challenge to advance starts all over again at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 29 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Suárez and Briscoe both enter beneath the elimination line all over again, with Suárez seeded 10th and six points out and Briscoe seeded 12th, tied with Alex Bowman seven points beneath the line.