Race Name: Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 200 (Race 32 of 33) Venue: ISM Raceway Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series Stages: 45 laps / 45 laps / 110 laps (200 Total Laps) Race Winner: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet) Results: Cole Custer: 2nd | Chase Briscoe: 8th Point Standings: – Cole Custer: 4th with 4,000 points; Part of the Championship 4. – Chase Briscoe: 5th with 2,252 points
Chase Briscoe / Ford Performance Ford Mustang Recap:
– Briscoe started third and finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six stage points. – The No. 98 Ford Performance Mustang started Stage 2 in fifth and finished sixth to earn five additional stage points. – The No. 98 Ford came to pit road for four tires, fuel, and a trackbar adjustment at the end of Stage 2. – Briscoe started the final stage in fourth and was running sixth when caution waved on lap 116. – He pitted for fuel only and saved the final set of sticker tires for a late race caution scenario. – The No. 98 would lead the field back to green and lead the next 14 laps before being overtaken on lap 134. – The race went green the rest of the way and Briscoe had to settle for an eighth place finish. – Briscoe ended up 44 points below the cut line and was not able to advance to the Championship 4.
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Ford Mustang:
“Truthfully, I’m just thinking back to the Kansas deal. I hate to keep bringing it up, but I feel like we shouldn’t have even been in this situation. That’s part of it, obviously. It happened for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is right now, but I feel like God has a plan. I don’t know what it is and don’t understand it right now, but hopefully I can learn something from it. I feel like we definitely deserve to be there, but at the same time Justin was really good too. Going into this final round we knew that Kansas was our best opportunity, Texas was our second-best and Phoenix more than likely was gonna be a struggle just because the 7 was so good here. We didn’t capitalize. We put ourselves in the position to, but just didn’t get the job done there at the end. It didn’t go our way. We needed a caution and it didn’t come and that’s kind of how this round went for us, so that’s part of it. I feel like we have a really good car that can go win Homestead next week. Obviously, it doesn’t do anything for us championship-wise, but at least it will maybe prove a point. I’m just thankful that Ford has believed in me these 32 races. Obviously, I have one race left to prove that I need to be here and deserve to be here next year, so that’s what we’re gonna try to go do.”