Chase Briscoe is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have scored top-10s in each of the first five postseason races this year.
But in the “What-have-you-done-for-me-lately?” world of auto racing, that model of consistency provides the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota minimal comfort heading to Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
With the Playoff field set to be cut from 12 drivers to eight on Sunday, Briscoe is seventh in the standings, 21 points above the current elimination line. He’s eight points ahead of defending series champion Joey Logano in eighth and 21 points clear of Ross Chastain in ninth.
“I think this weekend, we’re obviously really just racing the 22 (Logano) and the 1 (Chastain),” said Briscoe, who has posted an average finish of 23.8 with a best of ninth in four Cup Series starts on the 2.28-mile road course. “If we can just go and outrun them in both stages and the race, then we’ll move on no matter what.
“But it’s obviously not that easy either. It’s tough knowing that we’ve been as good as we have, and there’s the potential to be knocked out.”
The race has the potential to present difficult strategic choices for Briscoe and crew chief James Small. Foremost perhaps will be the decision on short-pitting a stage to preserve track position versus taking valuable stage points and starting the next segment near the back of the field.
“All the Playoff guys are going to stay out to get stage points, and we’re going to get put to the back, and you’re going to be restarting 20th to 30th,” said Briscoe, who won the inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 17-turn circuit in 2018. “That’s where all your Playoff hopes and dreams can change really, really quickly.
“That’s where I think you have to be really smart and conscious about the decisions that you’re making. It’s a little bit easier, I guess, having a little bit of a buffer.”
Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate, Shane van Gisbergen is the prohibitive favorite to win Sunday’s race—and justifiably so. The New Zealander has won the last four road course events this season.
Accordingly, Chastain plans to use the three-time Australian Supercars champion as a measure of his own potential as he tries to crack the top eight in the standings.
“(Crew chief) Phil Surgen and the guys get to figure out how to get stage points and set ourselves up for the end of the race,” Chastain said. “A lot of it depends on speed. If we’re fast enough to battle with SVG, then we don’t care as much about stage points because we’re fast, and we just go win the race.”
The bottom three in the standings face much longer odds than Chastain does. Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, teammates at 23XI Racing, are 26 and 29 points below the elimination line, respectively.
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric is 48 points in arrears, almost certainly needing a victory on Sunday to advance to the Round of 8. Cindric’s best finish in three starts at the Roval was fourth last year.
Six of the seven previous races at the Charlotte Road Course have been won by current Playoff drivers—Ryan Blaney (2018), Chase Elliott (2019 and 2020), Kyle Larson (2021 and 2024) and Christopher Bell (2022).
Blaney and Elliott already have qualified for the Round of 8 on the strength of their respective victories at New Hampshire and Kansas. Larson and Bell are comfortably situated in the standings at 54 and 44 points above the cut line.
Logano faced elimination after last year’s race at the Charlotte Road Course, but Alex Bowman’s disqualification for a car that was under minimum weight gave the Team Penske driver a reprieve.
Logano went on to win his third Cup Series championship.
-NASCAR Wire
