Brad Keselowski Racing Post-Race Report: New Hampshire Motor Speedway
No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150
Chase Briscoe and his Brad Keselowski Racing team struggled to find speed in the opening race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs, but still managed a solid day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Fighting with an extremely tight Cooper Standard Ford F-150 and facing a lugnut issue late in the race, Briscoe managed to have a clean race and bring home an 11th-place finish.
Taking the green from the ninth position, Briscoe immediately fought with his handling, reporting to crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. that his No. 29 F-150 was “really, really tight.” Dropping back as far as 15th, Briscoe was scored 13th when the first stage came to an end. Briscoe’s team provided him with four tires, fuel, a spring rubber and both air-pressure and wedge adjustments. Restarting 13th on lap 63, Briscoe dropped to 14th and reported that his Cooper Standard machine was still too tight in the center.
At the conclusion of the second stage, Briscoe’s team took another swing at the truck, but while attempting to provide four fresh tires, the tire changer reported that a lugnut on the right-rear tire was flawed and could not be removed with the air wrench. Forced to make two pit stops, the team still could not remove the tire, and returned to the racetrack with one old tire for the lap 119 restart. Fortunately, a caution on lap 128 gave the opportunity for Briscoe to once again visit pit road, and the team was prepared to manually remove the offending lugnut and change the fourth tire, in addition to providing a track-bar adjustment.
Restarting 13th on lap 132, Briscoe was able to advance up to the 11th spot with 25 laps to go. Briscoe began to run impressively fast lap times, and was much faster than the trucks in front of him, but the field was too spread out for him to advance any further, and he ultimately crossed the finish line in the 11th position. Briscoe is currently seventh in the Playoff standings three points behind the sixth-place cutoff spot.
Chase Briscoe: “This wasn’t the way that we wanted to kick off our Playoffs, but it was still a solid day for our Cooper Standard team. We had a rough day, but to put it in perspective, this was our worst race of the year, handling-wise, and we still finished 11th. Our team has been really solid all year, and we can still get it done and advance to the next round. I’m really looking forward to Las Vegas. Brad Keselowski Racing finished one-two there last year, and we’re bringing our Chicagoland Ford F-150, which was really, really fast.”
Starting Position: 9th
Finishing Position: 11th
Status: Running
Stage Wins: 0
Laps Led: 0
Playoff Seeding: 7th
Points Behind Cutoff Position: 3