Chase Briscoe Wins Xfinity Race at Kansas and Punches his Ticket to the Final Four

Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, KS – RIS – The most dominant driver in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series continues to rack up wins.  Chase Briscoe collected his series-high ninth win of the season Saturday night at Kansas Speedway and earned a spot in next month’s championship race at Phoenix. Briscoe dominated, leading 159 of the 200 laps.

Daniel Hemric placed second after his left front tire went down and he hit the wall early and lost two laps. Ryan Sieg finished third and was followed by Justin Haley and Austin Hill, who placed third in the Truck race earlier in the day there.

“I am super happy to be locked into Phoenix,” Briscoe said. “It is going to be a lot less stressful the next two weeks. That will be nice. I can’t say thank you enough to everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. This Ford Performance Racing School Mustang was lights-out. This is the car we had at Vegas. I want to take it to Phoenix because of how good it was. It is so cool to get all our partners in victory lane.”

The red-hot driver of the No. 98 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing swept the first two stages of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night, then he dominated after a restart with four laps to go to capture the first race in the round of eight and clinch his spot in the season finale at Phoenix.

Playoff contenders Noah Gragson and Austin Cindric were involved in an early wreck. Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier were in one later in the race, which also sent Anthony Alfredo on a wild skid on his roof through Turn 1.

Allgaier avoided major damage, though, and came away leading the rest of the playoff field 11 points above the cut line heading to Texas and Martinsville. Jones is two points back and Cindric nine back, the last driver above the cutoff and two points clear of Haley. Ross Chastain is 12 points below the cut line, with Sieg and Gragson next.

"I was out on old tires forever, it seemed to me," Sieg said of his unique strategy. "We kind of gambled, and that's the only way we're going to make it through to the next round. So we gambled, and it was a hell of a race.''

The race was red-flagged on a restart with 28 laps to go when the field went four-wide into Turn 1 a few rows back of the lead, and a massive wreck involving playoff drivers Allgaier and Jones sent Alfredo sliding on his roof along the outer wall. Alfredo's car briefly burst into flames before coming to rest on its top on the track apron.

Cindric entered the race second in the points and leaves holding the fourth and final transfer spot to the championship race. He has a two-point lead on Justin Haley. Ross Chastain trails Cindric by 12 points. Sieg trails Cindric by 17 points. Gragson trails Cindric by 33 points.

Unofficial Results, Kansas Lottery 300, Kansas Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 6, Chase Briscoe (P), No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Ford, 200, 1, 1, 4, 159, 7, 60, Running
2) 3, Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Poppy Bank Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 35, Running
3) 8, Ryan Sieg (P), No. 39 CMRRoofing.com Chevrolet, 200, 8, 8, 2, 19, , 40, Running
4) 9, Justin Haley (P), No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 200, 10, , , , , 34, Running
5) 29, Austin Hill(i), No. 61 Toyota Tsusho Toyota, 200, , 10, , , , 0, Running
6) 23, Josh Williams, No. 92 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 27, Brett Moffitt(i), No. 02 Destiny Homes/Concrete Supply Chevrolet, 200, , 9, , , , 0, Running
8) 11, Michael Annett, No. 1 Allstate Parts & Service Group Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 29, Running
9) 5, Brandon Jones (P), No. 19 Toyota Service Centers Toyota, 200, 2, 2, , , , 46, Running
10) 7, Justin Allgaier (P), No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet, 200, 7, 7, , , , 35, Running
11) 18, Harrison Burton #, No. 20 Morton Buildings/DEX Imaging Toyota, 200, 3, 4, , , , 41, Running
12) 4, Ross Chastain (P), No. 10 Dyna-Gro Seed Chevrolet, 200, 5, 5, 2, 7, , 37, Running
13) 16, Brandon Brown, No. 68 JAGR Construction Chevrolet, 200, 9, , , , , 26, Running
14) 22, Tommy Joe Martins, No. 44 AAN Adjusters Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 13, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 34, Dexter Bean, No. 90 Sleep Well/Alpha Prime Chevrolet, 198, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 20, BJ McLeod, No. 4 TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet, 198, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 32, Bayley Currey(i), No. 74  Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 0, Running
19) 30, Jesse Little #, No. 15 TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 14, Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 0 Forever Lawn Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 15, Myatt Snider #, No. 93 The Original Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 31, Timmy Hill(i), No. 13 RoofClaim.com Toyota, 197, , , , , , 0, Running
23) 10, Alex Labbe, No. 36 Can-Am Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 21, David Starr, No. 07 American Rebel Safes Chevrolet, 195, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 24, Matt Mills, No. 5 JF Electric Toyota, 193, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 26, Kody Vanderwal #, No. 52 Triple R Performance Engines Chevrolet, 191, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 35, Jesse Iwuji(i), No. 99 eRacing Assorication Chevrolet, 190, , , , , , 0, Running
28) 2, Austin Cindric (P), No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford, 173, , , 1, 1, , 9, Running
29) 25, Anthony Alfredo, No. 21 Andy's Frozen Custard Chevrolet, 172, 4, 3, 1, 1, , 23, Accident
30) 12, Riley Herbst #, No. 18 Monster Energy Toyota, 172, 6, 6, , , , 17, Accident
31) 28, Vinnie Miller, No. 78 Koolbox Toyota, 169, , , , , , 6, Running
32) 19, Joe Graf Jr #, No. 08 Bucked Up Energy Chevrolet, 158, , , , , , 5, Rear Gear
33) 36, Josh Reaume(i), No. 47 GPS Tab Chevrolet, 101, , , , , , 0, Brakes
34) 17, Ryan Vargas, No. 6 TikTok Chevrolet, 81, , , , , , 3, Power
35) 33, Stephen Leicht, No. 66 JaniKing Toyota, 59, , , , , , 2, Fuel Pump
36) 1, Noah Gragson (P), No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber Camo Chevrolet, 16, , , 1, 13, , 1, DVP

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie, (P) Playoffs qualified, (DVP) Damaged vehicle policy

Time of Race: 2 hr, 39 min, 40 sec
Race Length: 200 laps, 300. miles
Average Speed: 112.735 mph
Margin of Victory: 1.199 sec

Stage 1 Top 10: 98, 19, 20, 21, 10, 18, 7, 39, 68, 11
Stage 2 Top 10: 98, 19, 21, 20, 10, 18, 7, 39, 02, 61

Comments: Chase Briscoe won the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, his 11th victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Caution Flags: 10 for 45 laps;
Laps: 11-14 (No. 5 Spin Turn 2 [66]);
16-19 (No. 9, 22, 10, 21, 68, 44, 1, 02 Incident Turn 2 [66]);
27-29 (Competition [22]);
47-51 (Stage 1 Conclusion [47]);
53-56 (No. 0, 08, 13, 07, 52 Incident Turn 3 [8]);
92-96 (Stage 2 Conclusion [08]);
157-163 (No. 47 Spin Turn 4 [68]);
169-172 (No. 10, 21, 20 Incident Turn 2 [92]);
174-177 (No. 7, 21, 18, 68, 19, 44 Incident Turn 1 [Red Flag 00:12:20] [44]);
192-196 (No. 93 Spin Turn 2 [20]).

Lead Changes: 10 among 6 drivers;
N. Gragson (P) 1-13;
A. Cindric (P) 14;
R. Chastain (P) 15-20;
C. Briscoe (P) 21-55;
R. Chastain (P) 56;
C. Briscoe (P) 57-147;
A. Alfredo 148;
R. Sieg (P) 149-157;
C. Briscoe (P) 158-168;
R. Sieg (P) 169-178;
C. Briscoe (P) 179-200.

Mobil 1 Driver of the Race: Chase Briscoe, No. 98
Sunoco Rookie of the Race: Harrison Burton, No. 20

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2020, Issue 10, Posted 12:01 AM, 10.18.2020