Brad Keselowski Racing Post-Race Report: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150
Chase Briscoe rallied back from an 18th-place starting spot and final-stage damage to earn a top-10 finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Briscoe’s throwback Cooper Standard Ford F-150 carried a ton of speed in the closing laps, earning him a seventh-place finish in his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series road course race and allowing him to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
After taking the green flag in the 18th position, Briscoe was able to advance into the top 15 before crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. made the strategic call to pit under green on lap 17. Briscoe reported that he was tight in the center all around the track, so the No. 29 team provided the Cooper Standard machine with four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment. After a quick stop, Briscoe returned to the track in the 19th spot, which is where he was scored for the conclusion of Stage 1.
Able to stay out between segments, Briscoe advanced into the top 10 as his competitors pitted, putting him in the eighth position when the race went green on lap 24. As Briscoe developed a rhythm, his lap times improved, and when he entered the top five on lap 31, Hillman told his driver that he was as good as anyone else out on the track. As the second segment came to a close, Briscoe was fighting for the Stage 2 win, but came up just shy, finishing second and earning nine valuable stage points. Still tight in the center, Briscoe once again received four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment on pit road, restarting 13th on lap 45.
Just two laps later, another competitor’s motor failed, dropping oil on the racing surface. When Briscoe’s truck hit the slick oil, he skidded off the racing surface, sliding through wet grass and hitting the guardrail. Hillman made the call to bring Briscoe down pit road, and it was the right one: his grille was covered in grass and he had damage to his right-front fender and splitter, which the team was able to repair under caution. Briscoe returned to the track in the 19th position on lap 50, with only 14 laps to go before the checkered flag. The 22-year-old used every lap, running his fastest laps of the race and picking off spot after spot. By the team Briscoe reached the checkered flag, he’d advanced all the way to seventh, securing enough points to clinch a position in the NCWTS Playoffs in advance of the cutoff race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Chase Briscoe: “Today was huge for Brad Keselowski Racing, and I’m really happy for my teammate Austin Cindric. If anyone had any doubt, it shows that BKR is here to compete until the last lap at Homestead. I struggled a little bit at the beginning of the weekend while I was learning the racetrack, but by the end of the race, my Cooper Standard Ford had a ton of speed. I may not have had the best road course race, but a seventh-place finish today will lock us into the playoffs, and that’s what it’s all about. We’re locked into the playoffs and that means we can take some chances next week in Chicagoland and really go after the win. BKR is going to have two trucks in the playoffs, and hopefully we will have two trucks in the final four in Miami.”