Chase Briscoe led 89 laps in his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to clinch the Xfinity Series Boyd Gaming 300 victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday night. The race, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed to Sunday evening after only 50 laps were completed due to inclement weather.
Briscoe won Stage 1 of the race Saturday but had had to wait until Sunday to seal the deal. It was a decisive win with Briscoe leading at the line by 2.874 seconds. It was his third career win in 52 Xfinity starts and his second top-five this season.
Briscoe said that getting a race win early in the season would provide extra motivation for the team going forward.
“Yeah, it’s so early, but definitely it’s nice to get a win early. I think obviously we were hoping that we could get a win at some point in the year, we expected to, but to get it before Phoenix is definitely nice just because we can go there and kind of try some stuff because I feel like that’s one place I need to get way better at.
“That being said, it’s nice to take the point lead. It doesn’t mean as much this early in the season like you said, but it’s a good confidence-booster for all the guys and it goes a long way when you’re that first garage stall with your guys and their work ethic and everything else. We knew that we could go win races, but to get one this early in the year I think it’ll go a long way, especially on this west coast swing. It’s hard to stay motivated and for us to win the first one that definitely goes a long way.”
Austin Cindric led 39 laps and finished second in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford for his first top-five of the year.
“It was definitely a track position sensitive race after the sun went down,” he said. “We knew it was gonna tighten up and tried to adjust for it on the final stop and didn’t get quite enough, and then obviously lost a little track position. I tried to hang it wide-open on Chase’s door, but track position is pretty important and then just fell off too tight following him there. It was pretty bottom dominant. It was really weird the track didn’t take any rubber today even in the Cup race. That was different than what I expected, but overall a great day for our MoneyLion Ford Mustang and we’ll try again next week at Fontana.”
Ryan Sieg placed third in the No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet. JR Motorsports’ Noah Gragson overcame a penalty for speeding on pit road that sent him to the back of the field, to finish fourth in the No. 9 Chevrolet for his second top-five this season. Harrison Burton captured fifth place in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and was the highest-finishing rookie.
Brandon Jones, Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier (Stage 2 winner), Riley Herbst and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10 at Las Vegas.
Chase Briscoe is the series points leader by seven points over Noah Gragson.
Next week the Xfinity Series travels to Auto Club Speedway for the Production Alliance Group 300.
Official Results:
- Chase Briscoe
- Austin Cindric
- Ryan Sieg
- Noah Gragson
- Harrison Burton
- Brandon Jones
- Michael Annett
- Justin Allgaier
- Riley Herbst
- Ross Chastain
- Brandon Brown
- Justin Haley
- Josh Williams
- Jesse Little
- Brett Moffitt
- Myatt Snider
- Ray Black II
- Alex Labbe
- Joey Gase
- Joe Graf Jr.
- Chad Finchum
- JJ Yeley
- Robby Lyons II
- David Starr
- Matt Mills
- Timmy Hill
- Joe Nemechek
- Vinnie Miller
- Mason Massey
- Kyle Weatherman
- Jeremy Clements
- Tommy Joe Martins
- BJ McLeod
- Stephen Leicht
- Daniel Hemric
- Landon Cassill