HAMPTON, Ga. — A massive fine left Chase Briscoe facing a huge points deficit heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Even so, Briscoe insists he feels no new pressure. He said he already felt an urgency to win this week because those are the expectations at Joe Gibbs Racing, his new NASCAR home.
“I feel like I’m in a must-win situation just starting at JGR,” Briscoe said Saturday. “Like you need to be winning at JGR. … So yeah, I don’t feel like it changes anything from that standpoint.”
Ryan Blaney won the pole on Saturday for Sunday’s race. Two other Team Penske drivers, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano, will start second and fourth, respectively.
“Hopefully the first stage you can control, but it’s not going to stay that way the whole race,” Blaney said of the potential for the teammates to help each other.
Briscoe won the pole for last week’s Daytona 500 and finished fourth before NASCAR announced Wednesday that its inspection found Briscoe used a modified spoiler on the No. 19 Toyota in time trials. Joe Gibbs Racing was docked 100 driver/owner points and 10 playoff points and fined $100,000. Also, crew chief James Small was suspended for four races.
Small is still coordinating Briscoe’s plan for Sunday’s race as the team appeals the devastating penalties. Briscoe was left with negative 67 points and dropped from 10th to 39th in the standings.
“You know, if we don’t win the appeal, you’ve kind of used up your mulligans,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe acknowledged that he “bummed” on Wednesday before realizing he had to approach the Atlanta race with the same goal for his No. 19 Toyota.
Daniel Suarez won in Atlanta last February, edging Blaney and Kyle Busch in the race’s closest finish. Suarez beat Blaney by only 0.003 seconds, the narrowest margin at any 1.5-mile track.
Logano won Atlanta’s second race last year in the opener of the NASCAR playoffs.
Briscoe qualified 25th in his Toyota. Suarez will start 29th.
Josh Berry qualified third as Ford drivers earned 10 of the top 11 spots in the lineup. Busch qualified sixth in his Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Hendrick drivers aim for 3 straight wins
Chase Elliott, who won in Atlanta, his home track, in 2022, opened this season by winning the Clash. Byron will start 16th, Kyle Larson will be 17th and Elliott 19th as Hendrick Motorsports drivers will be looking for a third straight win to launch the season.
The last year a team won the Clash and the first two points races was in 1997 when Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon swept the first three races.
Preece looks to stay grounded
Ryan Preece, who will start 11th, said “I feel fine” following a scary crash at Daytona in which his No. 60 Ford became airborne and flipped. It was the second time his car flipped at Daytona, following another terrifying crash in 2023 that left him with two black eyes the following week.
Preece had no black eyes Saturday but said he hopes he doesn’t have another similar scare.
“I joke with my wife that I’m like a cat with nine lives right now,” Preece said. “You don’t want to use all nine of them.”
New iron man
Martin Truex Jr., who retired from full-time racing after last season and finished 38th in the Daytona 500, will have his Cup Series-leading streak of consecutive starts end at 685, the sixth longest all time. The streak began at the 2006 Daytona 500.
Logano will take over the longest active start streak in the Cup. Atlanta is his 578th consecutive race.
TV ratings slam dunk win
NASCAR celebrated its TV ratings win for last week’s Daytona 500, despite a lengthy rain delay. The Daytona 500 telecast on Fox earned a 3.42 household rating with an average of 6.8 million viewers to finish ahead of the NBA All-Star Game and the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off game between the United States and Canada.
The rating excluded the rain coverage during the delay of more than three hours. NASCAR said the rain delay coverage averaged 4.95 million viewers and if considered as a separate event would have ranked as the week’s No. 2 telecast, behind only the Daytona 500.