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Chase Briscoe Wins: Phoenix Post-Race Recap

Date: March 13, 2022
Event: Ruoff Mortgage 500k (Round 4 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Phoenix Raceway (1-mile oval)
Format: 312 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/125 laps/127 laps)Race Winner: Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 1st / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 16th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 5th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 25th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)

SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (5th with 126 points, 10 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (6th with 122 points, 14 out of first)
● Kevin Harvick (10th with 111 points, 25 out of first)
● Cole Custer (24th with 73 points, 63 out of first)

Victory Notes:
● Briscoe’s victory in the Ruoff Mortgage 500k marked the 93rd overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 67th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory and its seventh at Phoenix.
● SHR won its first race at Phoenix in April 2010 with former SHR driver Ryan Newman. Its other five wins came with Harvick in March 2014, November 2014, March 2015, March 2016 and March 2018.
● This was SHR’s 31st NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. Former SHR driver Kurt Busch’s win in the 2017 Daytona 500 was SHR’s first with Ford.
● This was Ford’s 713th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory.
● This was Ford’s series-leading 18th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Phoenix. The manufacturer won the first two races at Phoenix with NASCAR Hall of Famers Alan Kulwicki on Nov. 6, 1988 and Bill Elliott on Nov. 5, 1989.

Briscoe Notes:
● This was Briscoe’s first career NASCAR Cup Series victory and it came in his second season with SHR.
● This was Briscoe’s 40th career NASCAR Cup Series start and only his third at Phoenix.
● Briscoe is the third driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to score his first career win at Phoenix, joining Kulwicki (1988) and Bobby Hamilton (1996).
● Briscoe is the 88th different driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race with Ford.
● Briscoe finished second in Stage 1 to earn nine bonus points and eighth in Stage 2 to earn three more bonus points.
● Briscoe led three times for 101 laps – his first laps led at Phoenix.

Harvick Notes:
● Harvick earned his second top-10 of the season and his 28th top-10 in 39 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
● Harvick’s 28 top-10s at Phoenix are the best among all NASCAR Cup Series drivers, past and present. Next best is Kyle Busch with 24 top-10s, who is tied for second all-time with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.
● This was Harvick’s 18th straight top-10 at Phoenix – a streak that started on Nov. 10, 2013 when Harvick won his fourth NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix. Harvick is now tied with NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most consecutive top-10s at a single track, as both Petty and Earnhardt earned 18 straight top-10s apiece at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.
● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has never finished outside of the top-10 at Phoenix, and he has scored five of his nine wins.
● Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and third in Stage 2 to earn eight additional bonus points.

Almirola Notes:
● Almirola earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his 14th top-15 in 23 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
● This was Almirola’s fourth straight top-15. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500, sixth Feb. 27 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth again in the series’ prior race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
● Since joining SHR in 2018, Almirola has finished among the top-15 at Phoenix all but once – 22nd in November 2019.

Custer Notes:
● This was Custer’s second straight top-20 at Phoenix. He finished 13th in the series’ prior visit to the track last November.

Race Notes:
● Briscoe’s margin over second-place Ross Chastain was .771 of a second.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 52 laps.
● Twenty of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Joey Logano leaves Phoenix as the championship leader with a four-point advantage over second-place Kyle Busch.

SHR Sound Bites:

“That’s unbelievable. I was crying the whole last lap. I mean, this is definitely a team win. I’ve got to thank everyone that has gotten me to this point. Seven years ago, I was sleeping on couches, ready to give up. They gave me an opportunity and it’s led to this. I am so blessed to be driving at the organization, the team, the car that was my hero growing up. To get this 14 back in victory lane, to do it with Mahindra Tractors, their first year in the sport, everybody that’s believed in me. It’s unbelievable.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

“It was a good day for us. Restarts weren’t 100 percent our strong point. We had a bit of a brake shake issue that kept pulling the car to the right under braking, so I couldn’t get into corners like I wanted to. Still a good day and the car ran good. I just couldn’t really connect all the corners altogether through the day. Putting an SHR car in victory lane and running inside the top-five all day for us is always a good day.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang

“Congrats to Chase. So happy for them. We had speed and just fought some balance issues all day, but kept getting our Smithfield Ford better and better. We continue to fight all day to try and be there in the end. I’m so proud of this team for another hard-fought day. We didn’t keep the top-10 streak alive, but we’re still competitive at every track we visit, and that’s all you can ask for. It was a good day for our entire organization. Looking forward to Atlanta next week to keep it going.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

“It was a solid, mistake-free day. We had good long-run speed, but we just couldn’t get it on the short run. Overall, it’s something we can build on, just wish we had a little bit more.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, March 20 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.