Joey Logano held off a late charge from Chase Briscoe through the final laps at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night to take the checkered flag.
Briscoe had been the most dominant car on the track for most of the night, leading for 171 of 400 laps, but a strong long run from Logano in the third stage flipped the lead late in the race. Briscoe closed the gap all the way up to the finish, but was unable to pass Logano one final time.
“I don’t know what more I needed,” Briscoe said after the race. “I thought that last run I was a little bit better than him.”
Briscoe noted that while it was disappointing not to get the win, it was still his best run at Richmond Raceway in his career — he had never finished in the top 10 in nine starts at the track.
“It’s weird to be mad running second here,” he said. “This has been a real struggle for me, this place. I think that’s my first-ever top 10 here. Just to be that close and not get it done is still frustrating.”
Briscoe locked up heading into pit lane behind Logano for the last stop of the night, and it’s possible the moment made the difference in the race.
“The break deal was interesting. I had great brakes for a large majority of the race. I could just get in the corner so deep compared to everybody. As I lost that I kind of lost my advantage and just became, not mediocre, but I just wasn’t quite as strong as I needed to be to maintain there. Frustrating from that standpoint, but still a huge improvement from what I’ve been here.”
Watch: Briscoe: Brake issues prove costly in runner-up Richmond finish
While it wasn’t a win on the track, the night was still a win for Briscoe in the standings. Given his previous poor results at Richmond, Briscoe was i jeopardy of being jumped in the points standings with just two races to go before the start of the Chase. Instead, his second-place finish let him hold on to fifth place for the time being.
While the gap between him and Tyler Reddick in fourth place is almost definitely too large for him to close, he has plenty of work to do defending his own position over the final two races before the postseason.
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