Chase Briscoe has been known as a Saturday guy in recent weeks, winning three straight poles.
Now he’s a Sunday guy.
Briscoe held off teammate Denny Hamlin at Pocono Raceway to win Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400, making him the 11th different winner in the Cup Series this year.
“An amazing day for our race team,” Briscoe said on TV after celebrating the third Cup Series win of his career.
Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
1. Chase Briscoe legitimizes the promotion
Briscoe’s former team, Stewart-Haas Racing, shut down after last season. The four drivers went in various directions, but it was Briscoe who landed in a prime seat — the cockpit formerly occupied by Martin Truex Jr., who hit the exit ramp after last year.
Along with Hamlin, his Gibbs co-drivers include Christopher Bell, who’s won three times this season, and Ty Gibbs, who’s yet to win at the Cup level but happens to be the team owner’s grandson. The pressure on Briscoe might’ve been mostly self-imposed, but it was pressure all the same.
“It’s so rewarding,” the Indiana native said. “Just an amazing day for our race team. Really the first race we’ve executed all year long.”
2. Did Pocono shake up the NASCAR playoff picture?
Nope. Not much, if at all. Briscoe entered the race 11th in points, comfortably within the top 16 on the chance he needed to rely on points to make the playoffs. He now sits ninth, but it’s irrelevant since the win is now his playoff ticket.
Drivers like Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch are still keeping one eye on the points. If not both eyes.
And by the way, look for some possible playoff shakeup to come about over the next few weeks, as explained below.
3. Next up: No Amazon Prime, but TNT and the Motor Speedway formerly known as Atlanta
The next three weeks will bring the opportunity for some of the less-familiar names to make a little noise. It starts next weekend with the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway, which until a few weeks ago was known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Like Daytona and Talladega, Atlanta’s speeds are hamstrung by horsepower restrictions, which equalizes the field and allows for the possibility of an upset victory.
The Saturday night race will be on TNT. That’s right, the five-week run has ended for Amazon’s Prime Video. Those who had no problem finding the past five races will likely miss the Prime coverage, which got great reviews. Those who didn’t find it, or refused to pay for it, are obviously glad things return to their cable lineup.
The Xfinity Series races Friday night. The Truck Series will be racing in a whole other part of the continent — Saturday afternoon at Lime Rock in Connecticut, along with ARCA.
The following two weeks will bring the Chicago Street Race and the road course at Sonoma, a pair of tracks that open opportunities for several of the drivers who prefer a few right-hand turns on their racetrack.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR takeaways: Chase wins at Pocono! No, not THAT Chase. Denny Hamlin gives chase at end
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
