The NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma ended how it started — withShane van Gisbergen leading and Chase Briscoe running second.
The two drivers spent a lot of time around each other during the race, but despite several late-race restarts, Briscoe couldn’t find a way around the three-time Supercars champion. Briscoe later went to Victory Lane to congratulate SVG after his runner-up finish.
Raising the bar on road courses
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
“The only opportunity I had was on the restarts,” said Briscoe, who had nothing but praise for the New Zealander. “I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like. That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.”
“Proud of the effort. I thought there was one restart I was maybe going to get clear of him, but truthfully even if I cleared him, he was probably going to pass me back by the end of the lap. Yeah, proud of the effort. We were a second-place car all day and obviously ended up second with it.”
Watch: Chase Briscoe recaps his late-race battle with SVG
Briscoe thought his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had great pace, but it still wasn’t enough to take the fight to van Gisbergen. He also felt like SVG was toying with him at times, only running as fast as he had to in order to keep the lead.
“I honestly don’t know what more I need,” said Briscoe. “I feel like my car is extremely good, and I feel like every time I would run down Shane he would just pick up the pace himself and start driving back away. It was frustrating at times, but I was honestly happy with the effort.”
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