Wet weather tires guide Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry to top fives at New Hampshire
06/23/2024 09:31 PM
LOUDON, N.H. — Stewart-Haas Racing needed a shot in the arm. Last month, the two-time championship-winning organization announced it would close its doors at season‘s end.
Over the last four weeks, employees have left the team to find a stable job in the industry . Others have had interviews to set up their 2025 plans, including each of its drivers. All the while, the four-car team, home to more than 300 employees, are fighting on.
The grit and determination of those who have remained at SHR paid off in Sunday‘s USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
With a few minutes of practice to build from, Josh Berry led the way for SHR in the early laps. He drove up as high as second, using forward momentum off the corners to make consistent passes. He scored six stage points in the opening stage.
On the flip side, Chase Briscoe held on to the final spot of the lead lap for dear life in the first stage. He traded paint with Austin Cindric, trying to stay ahead of race leader Christopher Bell. Briscoe believes Bell took it easy on him for spoiling his 2025 plans, when he will take over the No. 19 car, a move that has not been officially announced.
"I guess that was some payback on my end; he was trying to be nice to me," Briscoe said of battling Bell. "I appreciate him and that helped our day. He is the GOAT at this place."
The race shifted completely on Lap 219, when the red flag waved for rain. Over the next two hours and 14 minutes, there was a sprinkle, followed by a downpour. The radar showed that once the rain cell passed, there was a window to complete the race by sundown with wet-weather tires on a damp race track.
When the race resumed, Briscoe restarted the top 20 and charged to the top 10. Berry restarted 20th and did the same. The wet track evened out the field, allowing drivers to seek grip in every lane imaginable.
"I‘ve raced out on worn out tracks my whole life," Berry said. "The way it gets slick like that, you look around for grip and I guess I feel pretty decent at it."
A rash of late-race cautions allowed Briscoe and Berry to soar up the leaderboard. Knowing the top lane was dominant on wet tires, Berry restarted on the high lane behind Bell. But Briscoe gained a couple of positions on the penultimate restart by restarting beneath Bell. The No. 20 car rocketed ahead, but Briscoe held on to second, while Berry took the checkered flag in third. It‘s the second time this season that the two SHR drivers have finished inside the top five in the same race (Darlington).
The runner-up finish is Briscoe‘s best result since scoring his only Cup victory at Phoenix Raceway in the spring of 2022. It stops a four-race skid of finishing outside the top 15, with three of those results being 25th or worse.
"We‘ve been bleeding points left and right here lately," Briscoe said. "We needed a good day. Second is great, but even if we would have just ran in the top 10 that was going to be a good way to get back and stop the bleeding. We capitalized to finish second and hopefully we can continue to build on this.
"We have a long way to go. This is not a real finish, in my opinion, in some ways. We normally don‘t race in the wet. We race in the dry and we weren‘t a second-place car in the dry. Hopefully, this will kickstart us with some confidence and will get us that mojo back from earlier in the year."
Over the last six races, Berry has been a frequent top-10 threat, as he has four top-10 finishes during that stretch. With a seventh-place finish at Iowa Speedway last weekend, the No. 4 team has consecutive top 10s for the second time this season.
"Every day is important, but we‘re clicking them off now," Berry said. "We‘re full steam ahead. This group has done a great job. Rodney [Childers, crew chief] has done a great job; everybody at Stewart-Haas has done a great job of battling.
"We want to win really badly, but these are really good days for both of us. We‘re trying to solidify our future and days like today help that for sure."
Overall, it‘s a morale boost whenever SHR can get multiple cars inside the top 10, let alone the top five this year. The season is now halfway over and it‘s just the fourth time that it has put two cars in the top 10 (Daytona, Richmond, Darlington).
All of this is amidst uncertain futures.
"Anytime you can build a little momentum and get your cars with solid finishes with what we‘re going through right now, hats off to everyone at the shop building good cars," Greg Zipadelli, competition director of SHR, told Jayski.com. "These road crew guys are working their guts off. Nobody is giving up and staying focused, trying to do their best."
Briscoe moved up to 18th on the playoff grid and is only 25 points below the elimination line, currently nailed down by Joey Logano. Berry is 20th in the standings, 73 points back.
