WINCHESTER, Ind. (June 25, 2016) – Chase Briscoe, in the No. 77 Big Tine-Cunningham Motorsports Ford, earned his fifth Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell of the 2016 season Saturday afternoon at Winchester Speedway for Sunday’s Herr’s Potato Chips 200. Just .033 seconds off the one-lap track record set by Ken Schrader two years ago, Briscoe circled the high-banked, half-mile oval in 15.859 seconds, an average speed of 113.500 mph.
The pole gives Briscoe a short track sweep in 2016, having earned poles on all the short tracks to date at Nashville, Salem, Toledo, Madison, and now Winchester.
“I’m feeling really good about this,” Briscoe said. “We won the pole at Madison last week but I really struggled with that track in the race. Different story here. This place really suits my driving style. If we come out tomorrow and do our jobs, hit our marks and execute, we can win this race.
“I really feel like we have the car to beat. I struggled at the beginning of the year trying to learn how to run these 200 lap races. Now, I feel like I know enough to finally put it all together. Hopefully, we can come out tomorrow, set the pace, control the race and win. The car’s really good on longer runs…that’s where we really shine. The General Tires are really working and performing well, but like all short tracks, you have to save something for the end.”
It was nearly a Cunningham Motorsports one-two clean sweep before Venturini Motorsports’ Dalton Sargeant, as the final qualifier, knocked Briscoe’s teammate Will Kimmel off the front row.
“We’re right where we want to be,” said Sargeant, who qualified second with a time of 15.948 seconds.
“I don’t know if we left anything on the table for qualifying…we gave it all we had, but we worked on long runs overall anyway. We have really good long run speed. It’s going to be hot and slippery tomorrow, and we have the perfect car for those conditions.”
Kimmel, in the No. 22 E3 Spark Plugs-Cunningham Ford, qualified third with a time of 16.047 seconds
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“I was pleasantly surprised with our qualifying run,” Kimmel said.
“The Cunningham guys worked really hard today and made some really good adjustments. They got the car where it needs to be. We’ve got a shot tomorrow.”
Josh Williams, the tour’s most recent winner, qualified fourth in the Southwest Florida Cable Construction Chevrolet. Kyle Weatherman qualified fifth Mason Mitchell’s No. 98 St. Charles Glass Chevrolet.
Raceday Sunday begins with an on-track autograph session from 12 noon to 1 followed by pre-race ceremonies and driver introductions. The Herr’s Potato Chips 200 gets the green flag shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern Sunday afternoon.
Media Coverage The 27th running of the Herr's Potato Chips 200 at Winchester Speedway is live on the American Sports Network (ASN) at 2:00 p.m Eastern Sunday. The race will also be streamed live at AmericanSportsNet.com. As always, arcaracing.com will feature live timing and scoring and live chat of Sunday's race.
Don Radebaugh dradebaugh@arcaracing.com