By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
For the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Rookie-of-the-Year honors came down to Chase Briscoe sweeping the stages in the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In his 50th-career Xfinity Series start, Briscoe battled with the championship contenders. While the competition battled, he swept both stages in the No. 98 Ford Performance Ford Mustang. It was only after clinching ROTY honors Briscoe’s race almost came undone.
The Stewart-Haas Racing (with Biagi-DenBeste Racing) driver bounced off the wall and cut a right front tire on lap 123. He was battling eventual race winner, and 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion Tyler Reddick at the time. Somehow, Briscoe didn’t lose a lap as the caution waved.
“I wish I could have raced the 2,” Briscoe explained. “I thought I was really, really good on the fence. I was pushing really hard on the fence and I got by Cole (Custer) and I finally had clean air and I tried just getting a little bit more and I was already on the limit, so that kind of put us behind the eight ball, but we were able to drive back up and, honestly, that green flag pit stop just didn’t go our way.
“Me and the 7 (Justin Allgaier) and I can’t remember who else, but I lost so much time to the leaders that it made it almost impossible to catch them. Overall, I’m really thankful Ford Performance let me run this season. Fred Biagi, NutriChomps. It was definitely a good year. I wish we would have had more wins, but we definitely had the speed to.”
Briscoe stormed through the field over the final 73 laps to reach the top-five. However, the 24-year-old ran out of time to challenge for the race win and settled for third.
When the checkered flag waved, Briscoe was officially crowned the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year. Two years ago, he won the same honor in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. Briscoe is on pace to become the third driver to win ROTY honors in all three series, joining Erik Jones and William Byron.
“It’s good,” Briscoe admitted. “There’s a lot of great race car drivers that have won that, obviously. It’s pretty neat to get it in the Truck Series and now the XFINITY Series, so hopefully one day I can try to do it in Cup.”
With a 40-point cushion over fellow rookie John Hunter Nemechek entering the Homestead, Briscoe virtually had rookie honors locked up. His two stage wins combined with the misfortune of other competitors clinched the honor at the end of the second stage.
The third-place finish was the 14th top-five of Briscoe’s Xfinity Series career and 25th overall top-five in NASCAR.