The first five races of the season have not been the smoothest for Chase Briscoe or Bubba Wallace as both drivers have dealt with issues. However, they delivered much-needed strong performances Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Wallace crossed the line third behind Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman while scoring his first top-five of the season. Briscoe crossed the line fourth while matching his mark from the season-opening Daytona 500. This snapped a streak of four finishes of 14th or worse.
Both drivers scored 41 points at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"Finally got us a good finish," Wallace said on pit road after the race. "But we need to go back and look at if I burned my stuff up to start there (final stint). I thought I got into a rhythm early, but that was a longer run there so thought our capability fell away.
"I got into the fence there and that allowed (Alex Bowman) to get beside me and then just capability from then on wasn't there. Hate that I messed up, but I came over the radio and said 'I haven't been in many situations like that to give away a race so a lot to learn today. I can't even hang my head over that finish."
Strong runs from many drivers, including a big top-10 result from @chasebriscoe. pic.twitter.com/WXQ4fn7DSI
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 23, 2025
Wallace has shown speed this season. He has scored stage points in five of the six races but has only posted two top-10 finishes. He has been collected by incidents in the final stages of four races, which led to finishes of 20th or worse.
"Proud of the effort in race six," Wallace continued. "We've had fast cars, just nothing to show for it (yet). But, here we are. Got our Columbia Sportswear Toyota Camry XSE a top-three finish, so a good day."
Briscoe, for comparison, kicked off the season with a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500. He then finished 21st at Atlanta, 14th at Circuit of the Americas, 35th at Phoenix Raceway, and 17th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Briscoe missed out on stage points in the first five races of the season, his first with Joe Gibbs Racing. He snapped that streak Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway by scoring eight.
This alone was an indicator that the No. 19 team was moving in the right direction. The third-place finish was another positive sign for the Indiana native, who had to overcome some miscues.
"It was for sure a chaotic day for us with the brake issues and tire vibrations," Briscoe said after the race. "Had three or four bad pit stops, so just had to keep coming from behind, kind of all day long but this is honestly what needed.
"Our Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE just needed a solid finish and a good day when we were up front - I say without anything happening to us but we had a lot happen to us, but we were able to overcome it. Hopefully, we can take this and build on it.
"We've had speed to run in the top five all year, just haven't been able to show it. Have a lot of good race tracks for myself and the team coming up so looking forward to it."
These top-five finishes were not enough to put Wallace and Briscoe into the playoffs, but they helped the two drivers score some crucial points.
Briscoe went from 20th in the standings to 13th. He is now above the playoff cutline. Wallace went from 11th to seventh in the standings. If he maintains this momentum, he will put himself in position for bonus points at the end of the regular season.