Briscoe slated to start 22nd today at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. – Defending Sonoma Raceway IndyCar race winner and National Guard Panther Racing driver Ryan Briscoe qualified 22nd for Sunday’s GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Tomorrow’s 85-lap event will make Briscoe’s sixth start in Panther’s No. 4 National Guard entry and will be his last IndyCar Series action of the year, as contractual obligations to Level 5 Motorsports in ALMS conflict with the remainder of the open-wheel schedule.

Ryan Briscoe, Panther Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Richard Dowdy

Briscoe was eliminated from the first round of Firestone Fast Six qualification after finishing 11th in his group with a top lap time of 1:18.9743 seconds, which is an average speed of 108.719 mph.

Briscoe has made a total of seven career IndyCar starts at Sonoma, where he has one win (2012), one pole position (2005), four podiums and five Top Five finishes. He has led four different races at Sonoma Raceway for a total of 66 laps and has started on the front row on four separate occasions. He has collected five-straight Top Five finishes at the 11-turn, 2.385-mile permanent road course, including four podium finishes.

Ryan Briscoe, No. 4 National Guard Chevrolet: “We definitely lacked the speed, which is a shame, because we’ve been feeling really confident. But since yesterday afternoon into today we’ve lost the pace a little bit, so we need to look at where we need to turn it back around and make ourselves competitive again.

It’s going to make for a long race tomorrow and I think we’re going to see a lot of tire degradation, so we’re going to have to try to make the strategy and the consistency work to our advantage, and try to move the National Guard Chevrolet forward from where it is we’re going to start.”

Panther Racing