WINCHESTER, Ind. (June 26, 2016) – Chase Briscoe got the best of Dalton Sargeant on the final restart inside of 30 laps to go, then drove away to win the Herr’s Potato Chips 200 Sunday afternoon at Winchester Speedway.
It was Briscoe's career-first ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards victory in his 12th series start.
“This feels so good…I’ve been so frustrated,” Briscoe said. “To finally get my first win, and especially in my home state is just incredible,” added the Mitchell, Indiana rookie.
Debris on the frontstretch brought out the final caution and set up the final restart coming to the 177th lap.
Briscoe, in the No. 77 Big Tine-Cunningham Motorsports Ford, went side-by-side with Sargeant for a full three laps before pushing his car ahead of Sargeant’s No. 55 TRD-Windows 10 Toyota. Sargeant fell back 10 lengths at the checkered flag, finishing second.
“Car got really tight,” Sargeant said. “I gave it my all…I just got beat. I just want to thank everyone at Venturini Motorsports. This team did everything it needed to win this race…we just came up one short. Those final restarts didn’t help.”
The heat probably didn’t help either with temperatures reaching well into the 90s.
“This one was definitely harder than most,” Briscoe said. “I was getting worn out…it was so hot. You have to be up on the wheel every lap here. We almost threw it away on those final restarts. This was our race to lose.”
Briscoe nearly did just that, giving the lead up to Sargeant in the back half of the race before getting it back for the final 24 laps.
“I can’t thank my car owners Briggs Cunningham and Kerry Scherer enough,” Briscoe continued. “Last year, I was catching tires for Cunningham Motorsports. Now we’re leading the points. I feel like the next win is going to come a little easier now.”
Briscoe, who earned his fifth Menards Pole presented by Ansell Saturday, led the first 118 laps, pulling away by as much as a full straightaway before Sargeant reeled him in. Sargeant followed Briscoe’s rear bumper for several laps before getting underneath the eventual winner coming off turn two. Sargeant finally cleared Briscoe off turn four to lead the 119th lap. From there, Sargeant pulled away by a near straightaway, leading up through the 176th lap. Sargeant looked like he was on his way to victory lane; however, three late-race restarts kept bringing the field back together, and kept Briscoe’s hopes alive.
Sargeant managed to out-duel Briscoe during two of the three restarts, but lost the battle on the third and final restart in the closing laps.
Kyle Weatherman, who started at the back for unapproved adjustments, battled all day for a hard-fought third-place finish in the No. 98 St. Charles Glass Chevrolet.
“Long, hard race,” Weatherman said. “Starting in the back made it a lot harder. I thought we had the best car on long runs but we were giving up too much in the beginning. Just something we need to work on. Thanks to Mason Mitchell Motorsports for the opportunity.”
Matt Kurzejewski finished fourth in the No. 52 Ansell-Menards Toyota.
“We had an awesome car the first half of the race,” Kurzejewski said. “But I think everyone else got a little better than us. We weren’t as good on the long runs as we needed to be, but we’ll take this finish and build on it for the next one.”
Tom Hessert finished fifth in the No. 25 Cherry Hill Classic Cars Toyota. Josh Williams was sixth in the No. 6 Circle Track Warehouse Chevrolet, the last car on the lead lap. AJ Fike, Will Kimmel, Dakoda Armstrong and Josh Reeves completed the top 10 finishers, respectively.
Iowa Speedway will host the next event for the ARCA Racing Series with the ARCA 150 presented by Casey’s General Stores July 9, live on FS2. ARCAracing.com will feature live timing and scoring, and live chat.
Don Radebaugh dradebaugh@arcaracing.com