Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team are showing they have what it takes to make a long, sustained run in the NASCAR Playoffs. And if things go their way, they very well could shock the world and end up a Championship 4 contender.
With all of the chips on the table, the 29-year-old from Mitchell, IN has delivered clutch performance, after clutch performance to keep himself alive in the Playoff race, and Saturday
night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was no exception.
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RACE RESULTS: Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol
A late-race hiccup on pit road caused Briscoe, who had spent the majority of the race as a top-five contender, to restart around 15th on Lap 333. And on a night where hardly anyone was able to make passing happen, and a race where he saw his digital rearview mirror fail, Briscoe was unflappable and rallied to run inside the top five just a few laps after the race restarted.
“Honestly, it wasn’t really stressful,” Briscoe said. “I knew our Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse was really, really good, and even when we had that bad pit stop, we came out 13th or 14th and I felt like I could drive back up there.”
In the end, Briscoe would come home in the eighth position, which was slightly down from where he ran most of the evening, but the driver said that was just due to managing risk versus reward over the final run of the race. He knew his points situation and saw no reason to force the issue.
“At the end, probably bled three or four spots just trying to not do anything stupid,” Briscoe explained. “It felt like both arms got a Tetanus shot. Overall, it was a great night for us. Hopefully, people will start taking us serious. I truthfully feel like we can battle for the championship, so hopefully tonight proved that.”
If Saturday night didn’t convince folks on its own that Briscoe is a legitimate championship contender, perhaps his body of work over the last four races will.
Four races ago, Briscoe scored a win in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington. The victory came with his back against the wall, as he was facing Playoff elimination. He picked up the win, and as a result, advanced to the Playoffs.
A week later, everyone had him penciled as an obvious first-round exit from the Playoffs as he was involved in an early crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Kyle Larson and left the opening race of the Playoffs as the last driver on the Playoff Grid, 21 points outside of the Playoff cutline.
However, a week later Briscoe churned out another solid result at Watkins Glen International by finishing sixth in a race where a lot of his fellow Playoff contenders found trouble. By the end of the Go Bowling at The Glen, Briscoe had climbed from 21 points outside the cutline to six points inside of it.
And Saturday night at Bristol, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver took care of business and advanced to the Round of 12 as his future Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, the driver he is succeeding in the No. 19 Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Harrison Burton were all eliminated.
Having to claw back from adversity at Atlanta wasn’t how Briscoe and his No. 14 team had it drawn up, but they’re quickly proving they’re capable of coming back from any issue and delivering the result they need to advance further into the Playoffs.
“I hate that we had to kind of dig ourselves out of a hole after Atlanta, but hopefully can go on to Kansas and start this next round strong,” Briscoe said. “I feel like we can beat anybody on any given day when we put it together from start to finish. Obviously, tonight we had some hiccups, but we were still able to have a good finish and that’s what this championship run is gonna be all about, so go on to the next one.”
If you’re counting out Briscoe and the Stewart-Haas Racing team, which will cease to exist at the conclusion of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, you’re making a big mistake. They have absolutely nothing to lose on the path to Phoenix, and in any sport that makes an underdog, unlikely championship team very dangerous.
“I think our backs are up against the wall. No other team in this sport can relate to what we’re going through and just how hungry we all are, so I think we all want to go out as winners and we just know that we’re capable of doing it when we put it together,” Briscoe said. “I think, for us, when we finally did win at Darlington we kind of proved that to ourselves and just the confidence that has come with that over the last three weeks has been a lot, so looking forward to the next however many races we’ve got left.”
