Racing: Brickyard big for drivers on the bubble – Salisbury Post

By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Journalist

INDIANAPOLIS — Chase Briscoe looks at the NASCAR schedule and sees five more chances to secure a spot in the playoffs.

He enters the Brickyard 400 with a 16th place lead, fully aware of what’s at stake.

If he wins, he’s in. Anything less will only cause more consternation during the series’ two-week Olympic break, so the 29-year-old Briscoe won’t be playing it safe on his home court.

“We’re in that weird position where we could potentially point our way in, but realistically we probably have to win, which, in a place like this, I think it’s nice to know you’re in that must-win situation,” he said. “You can just be super aggressive with strategy. If we were 20 points off the cut line or something, we probably should play it a little more conservatively.”

Briscoe is hardly alone in this dilemma. He’s one of six drivers in playoff contention with no wins this season, putting their postseason hopes in jeopardy. Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs are all in the mix — and all will likely be pushing to win one of the Cup’s crown jewel races.

Their strategies can also complicate matters for the group that wants to stay ahead.

Chase Elliott enters this weekend with a three-point lead over Kyle Larson. Tyler Reddick, the Brickyard pole winner, is just 15 points behind, while Danny Hamlin is 20 points behind and William Byron is 57 points behind Elliott.

They all qualified in the top five on Saturday, with Hamlin starting on the outside of Reddick, with the three Hendrick Motorsports teammates — Elliott, Larson and Byron — following.

While fans may be looking forward to an unusually close regular-season title battle, Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion, simply wants to avoid trouble and collect points in the playoffs.

“I’m just trying to run as well as I can, get as many points as I can and you know winning is all that matters,” Elliott said. “The regular season championship really doesn’t mean anything. It’s all about points.”

But for those behind the front-runners, the challenge is to take advantage of every remaining opportunity — scoring points or grabbing a win — especially now that the Brickyard returns to Indy’s 2.5-mile oval after three years at the 14-turn circuit.

“We have to figure out what we need to do to get better as a whole,” Wallace said after qualifying 17th.

it comes down to

Veteran driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. learned one lesson from last week’s final-stage crash at Pocono: Keep the bottom line in mind during restarts.

The 36-year-old driver was involved in a crash with Kyle Busch and Corey Lajoie that ended what had been a promising day of racing. Stenhouse thought he was in the ideal situation before the crash: racing on four fresh tires and taking the high line for what turned out to be the final restart of the day.

He doesn’t plan on making the same mistake this weekend.

“The track here is obviously a lot narrower than it was at Pocono, so I think you’re definitely going to see people going three wide,” Stenhouse said. “But I feel like between the turns and the way everything plays out, you can’t really go three wide, so someone’s going to have to give in and generally it’s the car that’s on top — unless they’re really confident.”

He could employ a similar strategy when racing resumes on August 2.

“You can’t say it’s the back of the field. I mean, it happens in the front row, it happens everywhere,” Stenhouse said. “It’s just, it’s tough. It’s gotten to the point where by the end of every restart, I’m definitely picking the bottom one.”

Still angry

Busch held nothing back when asked about the LaJoie incident on Friday’s “Pat McAfee Show.” The two-time Cup champion called LaJoie a “liar” and vowed “there will be revenge.”

On Saturday, a still angry Busch toned down his comments.

“I don’t feel like I’m backed into a corner where I have to react,” said Busch, a two-time Brickyard winner. “Race is race and things happen.”

LaJoie starts 19th in the 39-car field. Busch qualified 34th.

All kinds of

Reddick is the favorite to win on Sunday, according to BETMGM Sportsbook.