DARLINGTON, S.C.—With a tribute to three generations of racers riding with Chase Briscoe at Darlington Raceway, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford is hoping to represent his family heritage admirably.
Briscoe’s car is a tribute to his father Kevin’s sprint car, which his grandfather Richard owned and the elder Briscoe raced for more than two decades to more than 200 feature wins.
While Richard Briscoe’s drivers delivered over 500 victories during their days in open wheel, the latest generation would like to add to his win total starting in this weekend’s Goodyear 400.
“It’s cool just to be able to kind of throw it back and give back to the only reason I’m racing at all,” Chase Briscoe said. “If it wasn’t for my grandpa in 1976 kind of getting bit by the racing bug, then my dad doesn’t get involved in it, and if my dad’s not involved in it, then probably I’m not involved in it.
“So, it’s pretty cool to be able to do that and have all three generations still alive to be able to see it. Not many families can say they have three generations of race car drivers, and the way my son is, I’m probably in trouble, because we’ll probably have four generations.”
Briscoe’s best NASCAR Cup finish at the Track Too Tough to Tame came in 2021 when he finished 11th as a rookie.
One of his most memorable races came here when he earned the 2020 Xfinity Series win at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track. The victory came during a tough time for Briscoe and his wife Marissa, who had miscarried during the days leading up to the race.
A solid finish on Sunday would help Briscoe regain the mojo he had to start the season. After 12 races last year, Briscoe had also scored four top 10s—but three of those were top fives. This season, his best result has been sixth at Texas Motor Speedway.
While Briscoe believes the Ford camp is gaining on the competition, he knows the team and the driver must be more consistent.
“I would say it’s been really good up until about the last two weeks,” Briscoe said. “We just haven’t performed the last two weeks. We went from, I think we’re like 30 points above the cut line. We were 12th in points, and now we’re like literally six or seven points above the cut line and right there.
“We just haven’t really had great speed the last two weeks, and I haven’t done a great job of executing the last two weeks. So we need to get back on what we were, really the first part of the season, where we were running kind of eighth to 13th pretty consistently.”
With the departure of Kevin Harvick from SHR, Briscoe became the veteran of the stable in terms of longevity. Over the last three races, however, newcomer Noah Gragson has led the charge with three top 10s and an average finish of sixth.
Given the uncertainty surrounding Stewart-Haas Racing right now, does Briscoe believe he needs to step up his game in order to have options if needed for 2025?
“Even with all the rumors and everything going around right now, if you’re performing and we’re running up front and doing all those things, then the rumors can be what they’re going to be,” Briscoe said. “But you’re going to find yourself in a good situation.
“So that’s what I told our guys a couple weeks ago when all this kind of started really picking up is we can just focus on what we can focus on. If we’re battling for wins and running up front, no matter what ends up shaking out like we’re going to be, OK.
“We just have to get back to how we were the first 10 or so weeks of the season and kind of try to forget about these last two weeks, try to learn from them, but don’t let two bad weeks kind of change our whole season. So that’s what we’re trying to do this weekend.”
After three full seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Briscoe has one win, 10 top fives and 25 top 10s in 120 starts. Does he feel a need to be in audition mode for the next chapter of his career?
“I think you’re always in audition mode,” Briscoe said. “I think you can be on a 10-year deal and you’re always auditioning, especially in this sport. So yeah, you’re always auditioning every race you can go win just adds to your resume and everything else. So, yeah, I feel like you’re always in audition mode.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
