In his 40th career start, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe is officially a winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, capturing the victory in Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
Briscoe, who led 81 of the race’s final 82 circuits, didn’t show his cards fully until the closing stages of the event, where he came into circulation via a quick pit stop from his Stewart-Haas Racing crew.
Through the final stage of the race, the Mitchell, Indiana-native was able to hold back an extremely strong challenge, first, from Chase Elliott, then later from Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick – also searching for their first wins at the Cup level.
The final 25 laps of the race posed the biggest challenge for Briscoe, who had to keep Reddick and Chastain behind him over the course of two restarts, after caution flags for Erik Jones and Chase Elliott late in the race.
Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick would round out the top-three finishers, with Ryan Blaney finishing in fourth after leading a race-high 143 laps. Kurt Busch – in his fourth event for 23XI Racing — rounded out the top-five.
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top-10 finishers. Austin Dillon, running inside the top-10 at the white flag, would finish 21st after being punted into turn three on the final lap of the event.
Entering Phoenix, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex boasted the top-two spots in point standings but would tumble to fourth and 13th, respectively, after each suffered issues in the mid-portion of the event.
Truex would see an early exit from the race at lap 222 due to a flat tire and a vicious impact into the wall, while Larson would follow him to the garage 17 laps later, with a valve spring issue.
Heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway, Joey Logano leads the series’ point standings by four markers over Kyle Busch. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe all leave Phoenix inside the top-five in points.
Looking ahead to the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Austin Dillon holds a four-point advantage over Bubba Wallace for the bubble, with Brad Keselowski, and Petty GMS Motorsports teammates Erik Jones and Ty Dillon on the outside looking in.
