Two playoff drivers and Stewart-Haas Racing drivers, Cole Custer placed third and Chase Briscoe fifth in Richmond outing.
For Custer, he made a close run at eventual winner Christopher Bell late in the race. However, lap traffic got in his way and fell back to third after running second for most of the race. In the end, it was Custer’s 14th top five finish of the season, already matching last years season of top fives.
“When we started to hit the lap cars, we started to fall off a little bit,” Custer said to MRN Radio. “I don’t know, we were close there for a second. I was hoping to get the GoBowling car into victory lane for their race. I just needed a little bit more. It was just a little bit too lose to start off the run, started using too much brake and got tonight. A really good way to start off the playoffs, we have a real good cushion going into the roval. You just don’t know what to expect going into that.”
Custer is second in the standings, +60 above the cut line.
His teammate Chase Briscoe had an okay day finishing fifth, rounding out the top five finishers. Briscoe started fifth, finished ninth in Stage 1 and seventh in Stage 2 before earning his 10th top five finish of the 2019 season.
“I don’t think we were necessarily a fifth place car tonight,” Briscoe told MRN Radio. “We were able to get some stage points. We should have got a little bit more, the cautions just didn’t fell our way. You can’t race your way in to the next round, but you certainly can race your out of it. Felt like it was a good start. So if we do this for the next two weeks in this round, we should be alright.”
“Proud of my Ford Performance guys. I felt like this has been our biggest struggle track all year long, but came home with a good finish.”
Briscoe sits seventh in the standings, +17 above the cut line.
