CUP: Chase Briscoe scores third last-place finish in six races, again while running in the Top 5
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Luis Torres, @TheLTFiles
Chase Briscoe picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Straight Talk 500 at the Phoenix Raceway when his #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota crashed after 131 of 312 laps.
The finish, which came in Briscoe’s 184th start, was his second last-place finish of the season, his second in a row, and third in the last six races. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 52nd for the #19, the 202nd from Toyota, and the 703rd for a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 92nd for the #19, the 435th for Toyota, and the 1,447th from a crash.
Following his frustrating weekend in COTA, where he charged up to 3rd, only for the transaxle to fail just after he passed the pit entrance, Briscoe returned to his familiar Bass Pro Shops colors for Phoenix. It was here just last November that Briscoe battled among the Championship Four, only for his race to be undone by one of many flat tires suffered by drivers that day.
For Sunday’s race, Briscoe was one of the 37 drivers entered for 40 spots. In opening practice, he ranked a strong 3rd with a lap of 26.983 seconds (133.417mph), trailing only the Spire Motorsports teammates of Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar. He then went out third in qualifying, where he ended up 20th on the grid with a lap of 26.897 seconds (133.844mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Brad Keselowski, whose #6 Consumer Cellular Ford wrecked in practice after a blown right-front tire. This prevented him from taking a lap in qualifying as the team unloaded an unwrapped backup car and prepared it for Sunday. Keselowski incurred a redundant tail-end penalty as a result, to be joined by 24th-placce starter Zane Smith in the #38 Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford. Smith’s crew was observed making an unapproved adjustment to the underbody, so NASCAR ejected car chief Will Norris and had Smith perform a pass-through penalty after the start. By Sunday, Carson Hocevar incurred a tail-end penalty of his own for an alternator change on his #77 Miner Docks, Doors and More Chevrolet, surrendering the 7th starting spot. Chris Buescher and Riley Herbst had tires go down in practice, but neither incurred pre-race penalties of their own.
When the race started, Smith was last in line, trailing the inside line. He served his pass-through and returned to the track within sight of leader Joey Logano, but still on the lead lap. On Lap 7, he was 25.31 seconds back of the lead, but by Lap 22 had closed within four seconds of 36th-place Cody Ware in the #51 Super.com Chevrolet. As 2nd-place Ryan Blaney chased down Logano for the top spot, the pair closed on Smith. On Lap 33, Logano caught Smith in Turn 3, then on Lap 34 tried to make a move past on the dogleg, only for Smith to throw the block. Logano then pulled to the outside of Smith in Turns 3 and 4 and completed the pass as he came to the stripe, putting Smith a lap down. The leaders then lapped 36th-place Ware on Lap 37, but Smith also caught Ware in traffic to drop Ware to last place on Lap 39. Ware was still within sight of Smith as the next few leaders started to slip past into Turn 3.
Ware remained in the last spot at the end of Stage 1 on Lap 61. By then, several more cars had been lapped, putting Riley Herbst back on the lead lap in the #35 Monster Energy Toyota. By the Lap 71 restart, the spot fell to the lapped Connor Zilisch in the #88 Wendy’s Chevrolet. By Lap 73, Zilisch climbed past Ware, putting the #51 in last place once more. Ware was still running last on Lap 93, when a struggling Kyle Busch blew a right-front tire and bounced off the Turn 3 wall. Busch limped around the track under green until the next time by, when Shane Van Gisbergen also blew a tire and spun from 13th in the #97 Safety Culture Chevrolet, drawing the yellow. This caution kept Busch, now in last place, just two laps down to the field, and he took the Lap 102 restart at the tail end of the field.
Next to find trouble on Lap 103 were both Daniel Suarez, who qualified a sterling 4th in the #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, and Chase Elliott in the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, who appeared to have been spun by Keselowski’s backup car. Both returned to the track, keeping Busch in last, still two laps down, the only driver more than one lap back of the leader.
Meanwhile, Briscoe had climbed from 20th on the grid to 3rd, and appeared to be logging laps until the end of Stage 2. But entering Turn 3, his car showed smoke from the left-front, then skated up the track and pounded the outside wall with the right side, causing the nose of the car to briefly lift off the ground. Briscoe was uninjured as he steered the car behind the wall. He was soon checked and released from the infield care center, and NASCAR declared his #19 the first car out of the race. For the second-straight week, Briscoe was running solidly in the Top 5, only to finish in last place.
Blown tires caused by aggressive setups, followed by multi-car accidents in the dogleg, resulted in ten drivers failing to finish, quickly filling the Bottom Five. Taking the 36th spot was Noah Gragson, whose brake rotor failed on his #4 Straight Talk Wireless Ford, putting him into the outside wall. Debris from his car punctured the radiator of Cole Custer’s #41 HaasTooling.com Chevrolet, which was soon pushed behind the wall, taking the 35th spot. Next to be eliminated were both Austin Cindric in the #2 Menards / Quaker State Ford and relief driver Anthony Alfredo in the #48 Ally Chevrolet, previously driven by Alex Bowman before news he was suffering from vertigo on Wednesday. Both Cindric and Alfredo collided violently in the dogleg’s outside wall, the result of Joey Logano bumping Ross Chastain on a Lap 217 restart. Both escaped without serious injury, but were done for the day.
Jones and Van Gisbergen escape the chaos with good finishes
When the checkered flag fell, Erik Jones finished a strong 10th in his #43 Dollar Tree Toyota, scoring his first top-ten finish since his 3rd-place showing in last September’s Southern 500 at Darlington. This also happened to be Jones’ best Cup finish at Phoenix since November 10, 2019, when he ran 7th for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Also impressive on Sunday was Shane Van Gisbergen, who after his spin from 13th on Lap 94 spun a second time from 17th on Lap 247, then was collected in a multi-car accident on the ensuing restart. In the run to the checkers, he recovered once more to take home 11th, building on his 6th-place showing in Atlanta and runner-up last Sunday in COTA.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #19 in a Cup Series race at Phoenix since November 2, 2003, when Jeremy Mayfield’s #19 Dodge Dealers / UAW Dodge lost the engine after 32 laps. As with Briscoe, it was Mayfield’s fifth career Cup Series last-place finish.
*Briscoe is the first driver to score consecutive Cup Series last-place finishes since September 7, 2025, when Josh Berry scored the second of his three last-place runs in a row at Gateway, part of a disastrous exit from the “Round of 16.”
THE BOTTOM FIVE
37) #19-Chase Briscoe / 131 laps / crash
36) #4-Noah Gragson / 155 laps / crash
35) #41-Cole Custer / 159 laps / radiator
34) #2-Austin Cindric / 216 laps / crash
33) #48-Anthony Alfredo / 217 laps / crash
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Joe Gibbs Racing (2)
2nd) Live Fast Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Toyota (2)
2nd) Chevrolet, Ford (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
