NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Chase Briscoe is starting on the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.
Finishing up front on a regular basis is his next goal.
Briscoe won his sixth pole position of the season during Saturday’s qualifying, running a lap of 136.933 mph. Despite his qualifying success this season, he has just one win this year.
“You getting tired of this?†Brad Keselowski joked with Briscoe in the media center after qualifying.
Briscoe got almost the same question when his press conference began.
“It’s definitely better than starting mid-pack or whatever,†Briscoe said. “It’s getting old not converting them to race wins, though, that’s for sure.â€
Briscoe noted the benefits of starting up front.
“It just typically gives you a great opportunity to get stage points and all those things,†he said. “Obviously there’s a great pit-stall selection.â€
He then added another joke.
“I would love it if we can make a new system where if you get five poles, you can trade them in for one race win,†Briscoe said, smiling.
Briscoe, who was also on the pole for last week’s race at Indianapolis, had won just two poles in his first four seasons in the Cup Series. He had a streak of three consecutive pole wins earlier this season.
“The race cars are really, really good, truthfully,†he said. “I felt like my entire career, even at (Stewart-Haas Racing) in Cup, we’d always kind of over-exceed where we probably should qualify. And qualifying has always been, I feel, probably my strongest thing. And now I’m just in race cars that let me go run really fast lap times. I don’t do anything different from what I’ve been doing the last four years of my Cup career. Just now, my cars are faster.â€
Wallace relaxes
Bubba Wallace emphasized he didn’t party too much after winning last Sunday’s race at Indianapolis.
Never mind that it broke a 100-race winless streak and secured a spot in the playoffs. The realities of life, Wallace said, limited his celebration.
“​​I’ll tell you, I did not go hard after the win — I’m getting older and realize hangovers suck, and also having a kid that doesn’t care you’re hungover,†Wallace said with a smile during Saturday’s media availability at Iowa Speedway. “That made me stop after two beers.â€
Wallace, who will start 15th, comes into Sunday’s 350-lap race with a different attitude, knowing he has his spot in the postseason after recent seasons in which he headed into the final weeks of the regular season scrambling for points to try to get into the playoffs.
“I told my team right before we started our meeting (this week), I said, ‘Man, y’all say fatherhood looks good on me. Just wait until you see how Bubba locked into the playoffs looks good on me, because it’s gonna be fun,’†Wallace said.
Busch’s crash
Kyle Busch will start 37th after not making a qualifying run following a crash in practice. Busch’s car went nose-first into the wall in turns 1-2 after the car bobbled heading into the first turn.
“Got a little bit loose and overcorrected, and smacked the fence,†said Busch, who is 15th in points and doesn’t have a win this season. “Any time you overcorrect and go head-on, it’s not good. So, definitely, not one of my favorite (crashes), but not one I haven’t had before.â€
Larson’s busy weekend
Iowa Speedway’s date on the schedule worked out perfectly from a logistics standpoint for Kyle Larson, who will start third in Sunday’s race.
Larson is halfway through his two-week stay in nearby Knoxville, where he is racing in two of the nation’s top sprint car events — the 360 Nationals this weekend and the Knoxville Nationals for 410 sprint cars next week.
“It’s always a fun time of year for me,†said Larson, who has won three Nationals titles, including last season.
Larson finished second in Thursday’s A-Main of the 360 Nationals, and will start fifth in Saturday night’s A-Main.
Knoxville is just 40 miles from Iowa Speedway, so it works out well for Larson this weekend. The Cup Series is at Watkins Glen International in New York next Sunday.
“Next week, the logistics get a little hectic as we get to the weekend, but that’s all normal,†Larson said.
Bell apologizes
Christopher Bell not only reached out to driver Zane Smith to apologize after last week’s crash at Indianapolis, he made sure to apologize to the crew members on Smith’s Front Row Motorsports team as they were loading up after the race.
Bell said he called Smith on Sunday night and left a voicemail. But he also wanted to apologize to the team.
“It was a mistake, it was an error on my part that ruined their day,†Bell said. “And so I felt like I owed it to the team members to apologize, because it was such a bad mistake. And it wasn’t hard racing. It was just, you know, a misjudgment on my part. (Smith) did absolutely nothing wrong.â€
Bell hooked the right rear of Smith’s car, sending it into the outside wall.
“I thought that I could sweep underneath of him, and clearly you wanted to be on the inside at Indy,†Bell said. “And so I tried to sweep underneath of him, and I tried to make it as last-minute as possible, so that he couldn’t counter my move. And I misjudged my run and ran to the back of him.â€
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