BRISTOL, Tenn.— Chase Briscoe considers himself the Rodney Dangerfield of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Playoffs.
The No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team simply gets no respect.
But in the Bristol Night Race, Briscoe overachieved once again to advance to the Round of 12 for the second time in his career.
“We did everything we needed to do,” Briscoe said following Saturday night’s eighth-place performance. “We gave a race away to start this round—only getting one point. We knew we were going to have to have two really strong runs the following two weeks and that’s what we were able to do.
“Honestly, the performance at Watkins Glen really put us in a position to be able to do what we did tonight.”
With one race remaining in the regular season, Briscoe was 18th in the standings and in a must-win situation. The 29-year-old driver did just at in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway—one of the trickiest tracks on the tour.
After skating into the first race of the postseason at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the wave of momentum came to a crashing halt. Briscoe crashed 55 laps into the Quaker State 400 after Kyle Larson unexpectedly spun ahead of him. Once again, the No. 14 team was mired deep in the standings, picking up a single point for their efforts in the Peach State.
Fortunately, Briscoe’s luck changed at Watkins Glen, where he was best in class among the Playoff drivers. A sixth-place result, bolstered by points in both stages, vaulted Briscoe above the bubble. Still, the third-generation racer wanted more.
“I feel like we gave up a lot of points tonight,” Briscoe said following Bristol. “If the caution doesn’t come out after Stage 2, I gain six more points than I do. At the end, I should have finished fifth or fourth and I rode around just to make sure I finished.
“Overall, it was a great night for us. We have really fast race cars right now. It’s really exciting. We have some things we have to clean up obviously. We saw that tonight.
“But if we do that and we execute from start to finish, I don’t see any reason why we can make a deep run.”
Briscoe’s evolution as a leader has been magnified over the current season. With Stewart-Haas Racing announcing the discontinuation of NASCAR Cup competition at season’s end, he has rallied the team on and off of the track.
A 14-plus-second pit stop on Saturday night cost Briscoe 10 spots on the track. He fell four points below the cut line with 163 laps left to set the Round of 12.
“We’ll be fine—but you’re better than that,” Briscoe told his crew—and then proceeded to regain his former position in 20 laps under arduous track conditions.
“I love those high-pressure situations where I feel like I have the ball and it’s all on my shoulders,” Briscoe said. “That was one of those situations. You come in fourth and come out 14th—that was going to be the difference in making the next round.
“I love those kinds of moments. I live for them.”
Given what the lame duck driver—of the lame duck organization—has accomplished over the last four races, the garage might want to start taking Briscoe seriously. After all, championships are in this team’s DNA. Team owner Tony Stewart came from 11th in the standings to win his third Cup title and the first championship for SHR in 2011. Briscoe is currently tied with Alex Bowman for 11th.
“Nobody believes that we have a chance at all to make it to the final four,” Briscoe said. “I feel like we’re legitimate championship contenders. Darlington, what we did at Watkins Glen, and, obviously, this weekend, too. Our cars are good and when we execute, we can beat anyone. We can run with anyone.
“We drove up past the 11 (Denny Hamlin). We went door-to-door with the 19 (Martin Truex, Jr.). We’re racing with guys that everyone says are the championship contenders, and we don’t get the respect that I feel w likee deserve sometimes. Hopefully, we slowly start earning it.”
And despite Briscoe moving to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, he is still a kid from Mitchell, Indiana, who always dreamed of driving the No. 14 car just like his hero Stewart. Bringing home a third Cup title for SHR before the doors close would be a dream realized for Briscoe.
“How this organization is right now, I feel like the pulse is living through the 14 team,” Briscoe said. “We’re the only thing everyone is racing for. We’re in this unique spot where no other team has every employee is living through one car.
“For us, the whole company is behind the 14 car. The atmosphere, the energy that brings, the confidence, it can go a long way. And I feel real good about where we’re at right now.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
