Ryan Briscoe makes push up IndyCar standings

Published 4:27 pm Friday, June 20, 2008

NEWTON, Iowa — To many, Ryan Briscoe is known as the guy who crashed into Danica Patrick on pit row at the Indianapolis 500. IndyCar Series fans know better.

In the weeks following the well-publicized collision that knocked Patrick out at the Brickyard, Briscoe has emerged as a contender for the IRL title. He broke through with his first career win at the Milwaukee Mile on June 1, and two weeks ago Briscoe finished third at Texas Speedway.

Briscoe, known more for crashing the No. 6 Team Penske car than finishing for much of the season, has jumped from 19th in the points standings to fifth — one spot ahead of Patrick — heading into Sunday’s Iowa Corn Indy 250.

“The last two races we’ve had a fast car, and I’ve been able to keep my nose clean and get to the finish,” Briscoe said.

Despite his recent notoriety, Briscoe is far from an overnight sensation. The Australian-born driver’s recent success has been years in the making.

The 26-year-old Briscoe first earned an IndyCar ride with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005. But he finished in the top 10 just three times in 14 starts, and in nine of those races Briscoe was done in by either an accident or mechanical failure.

Briscoe clearly wasn’t ready for the IRL, and Ganassi dumped him after one season.

“I came up here in ‘05 with very little experience, and none on ovals at all,” Briscoe said. “It’s such a different breed of racing than what I grew up doing in Europe and Australia. I had to sort of start over again and learn the ropes, and it was tough in ‘05 just because the performance of our race car wasn’t strong, so we always were battling to stay on the lead lap. I was probably overdriving the car a lot.”

Briscoe persevered, hooking up with Dreyer &Reinbold Racing for four IRL races in 2006 and with Luczo Dragon Racing for a fifth-place finish at last year’s Indy 500. But Briscoe spent most of the past two years bouncing around between Rolex Sports Car Series, the open-wheel A1GP circuit and the American Le Mans Series.

He finished second in ALMS in 2007 and was named the circuit’s rookie of the year. Penske, whom Briscoe drove for in ALMS, then tabbed him to fill the seat left open when Sam Hornish Jr. jumped to NASCAR.

“It’s a dream come true,” Briscoe said. “I knew it was a huge opportunity for me and could help vault my career.”

Briscoe’s second shot with a full IndyCar ride started out a lot like his first one. He got into accidents in the season opener at Homestead and the following week at St. Petersburg, where he was leading when he crashed just 56 laps in.

He followed with top-10 finishes at Twin Ring Motegi and Kansas Speedway, but most folks forgot all about that when he spun his tires and hit Patrick’s car on pit row at the Indy 500.

Briscoe shook off the controversy, and he finally got lucky in Milwaukee. Despite starting 11th, he took the lead and was just four laps from the finish when Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter and Vitor Meira got tangled up in a nasty crash right in front of him.

Briscoe missed Meira by less than a foot and took his first IndyCar checkered flag.

“I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to get the win in Milwaukee,” Briscoe said. “I think that is a confidence boost for me, just for me and everyone here to say ‘Hey look. I can win here.’”

Briscoe’s good fortune continued in Texas. Despite driving into the wrong pit stall on the first caution, he led twice and pushed past Patrick, among others, in the points standings.

“I think a little bit of luck coming our way … has been nice,” Briscoe said. “The first few races, we’d been there. We’d been running at the front and just not getting the results.”