MADISON, Ill.—On Wednesday, Chase Briscoe learned the true meaning of taking one for the team.
After inspectors discovered a counterfeit part on the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford during a ‘random’ post-Coca-Cola 600 teardown at the NASCAR R&D Center, an L3-level penalty was leveled to the team. The driver lost crew chief Johnny Klausmeier for the next six races, docked 120 points and 25 NASCAR Playoff points.
If there was any question as to the driver’s culpability in the malfeasance, think again.
“No,” Briscoe said with a laugh. “I don’t even know how to work on a sprint car and I grew up racing them my whole life. I don’t know anything about the parts and pieces. I just show up every weekend and drive.”
Considering that Briscoe dropped from 17th to 31st in the standings—and had no Playoff points to begin with—the third-generation racer has a steep hill to climb. He was 11th-quick in the first round of qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday. He’ll roll off 25th for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.
If Briscoe had any reservations about getting up on the wheel in the past, he doesn’t now.
“I go to the track every weekend to win, so I don’t think it changes anything,” Briscoe said. “From a strategy standpoint, it probably changes some things. But from the driver’s seat, I’m running 110 percent every single lap. So no, it doesn’t change my outlook because I definitely go to the race track to win every weekend.
“From a strategy standpoint, now it just opens some doors up where say before, we’re running seventh to 10th in a stage and the caution comes out with 15 to go, we would have to stay out to try to get the points. Now, we can just flip the stages and things like that.”
Mike Bugarewicz will serve as interim crew chief for the No. 14 team. Before his current role as SHR’s performance director, ‘Buga’ called the shots for Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, and Aric Almirola—and he won with all three drivers.
While Briscoe has won with his current crew chief Klausmeier, Bugarewicz’s take-no-prisoners approach could be a game-changer for Briscoe, who now sits 274 markers behind points leader Ross Chastain. He’s 97 points outside of the top 16—the cutoff for the Playoffs—with 12 races to decide the postseason grid.
“Running well doesn’t do us any good,” Briscoe said. “We have to win. It’s never easy to win, but it does make it a little bit easier to win when you can go off strategy because you know that points mean absolutely nothing at this point. Hopefully, we can use that to our advantage.
“There are a lot of road courses coming up. Now, with no stage breaks, it makes it a little bit harder. But this is a great opportunity, too here, just with how hard it can be sometimes to pass and tires don’t fall off a ton. We have a really fast car. Qualifying didn’t really show that just with how loose I got. But we just have to go win. That’s what we try to do.”
Some drivers might feel resentment towards the individuals who manufactured and installed the phony NACA duct on the No. 14 Mustang. Not Briscoe. He maintains a “win as a team, lose as a team” mentality.
“Yeah, it’s my name that gets put on the penalty, but we’re all team,” Briscoe said. “I believe in those guys. I make mistakes every single weekend in the car, literally, multiple times. Mistakes happen. I got their back, just like I know they have mine.
“It was frustrating but at the same time, it is what it is. We can’t change it. Obviously, the penalty was justified. I don’t think that I can sit here and be mad about it or anything. I just have to go on and try to make the most out of this season.
“The penalty could have been a lot worse. They could have totally taken our playoff eligibility and everything away. We still have 11 weeks to try and win a race and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer.
