Briscoe survives early accident, finishes 13th in Belle Isle Duel Two for Panther

DETROIT, Mich. – Despite being caught up in a multi-car accident early in the second race of this weekend’s Chevrolet Duel in Detroit, National Guard Panther Racing driver Ryan Briscoe captured a 13th-place finish.

Ryan Briscoe, Panther Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Briscoe had just one practice session earlier in the weekend to acclimate himself to a new team, but narrowly missed out on a Top Ten finish in race one yesterday until a late-race spin forced him into a 21st-place finish.

Briscoe qualified 13th for today’s race in his second start for Panther Racing, and was able to avoid most of the carnage that defined a majority of the beginning of the race.

But the team’s luck ran out quickly on the sixth caution of the day following a restart on Lap 28, as Sebastian Bourdais got into the back of Will Power in Turn One and triggered a multi-car pileup that collected Briscoe.

While a majority of the damaged was limited to the front wing and minimal, the team did not get restarted quickly enough and lost a lap. Once restarted, Briscoe returned to the field, but was unable to get back onto the lead lap and make up any positions lost in the accident.

When the race concluded Simon Pagenaud captured his first career IndyCar Series victory, and was joined on the podium by Rahal-Letterman driver James Jakes (2nd) and Mike Conway (3rd), who won the first Duel of the weekend on Saturday.

With Briscoe unavailable for the upcoming stretch of oval races due to contractual obligations to Level 5 Motorsports, the team is expected to announce its driver for Texas early in the week.

While Briscoe was only under contract for this weekend’s Chevrolet Duel in Detroit, the team is interested in bringing back the seven-time IndyCar Series race winner for more races this season.

Ryan Briscoe, No. 4 National Guard Chevrolet: "Today was a bit unfortunate because we ran a bunch of the first part of the race under yellow and then got caught in the big accident there into turn one.

The damage wasn't horrible, but we lost a lap in the process and spent the rest of race with a broken front wing on the National Guard car.

But I felt like the good thing about this weekend was we were learning and gelling and improving every step of the way. So that's something good that we can take away from the last few days."

Panther Racing