Briscoe: ‘Hopefully People Will Start Taking Us Seriously’

Chase Briscoe in action at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – As the old saying goes, from the ashes, smoke will rise. Incidentally, co-owner of the soon-to-be ash Stewart-Haas Racing Tony Stewart’s nickname is Smoke.

Yet with the closure of the team imminent, Chase Briscoe continues to fight, and used an eighth-place run in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway to propel himself into the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Off the heels of a clutch Southern 500 victory at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway to close out the regular season and clinch a spot in the playoffs, Briscoe rebounded from a 38th-place run at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway to collect back-to-back top 10s at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Bristol.

The positive points haul elevated the No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse from below the cut line at the start of round one ultimately into the second round of the playoffs.

He never led in the Round of 16 cutoff race, but Briscoe was a steady presence inside the top 10 virtually all night long. After starting fifth, the Mitchell, Ind., native averaged a sixth-place running position and collected seven stage points – one of eight drivers to score points in both stages.

Running at one point as high as second, Briscoe’s ninth top-10 finish this season came at the most opportune of times. He’s now been eighth or better in three of the last four races and felt Saturday was one of his better nights all season.

It also, he noted, should silence the detractors that believed he wouldn’t make it past the opening stint of the postseason.

“Overall, a great night for us. Hopefully, people will start taking us seriously,” Briscoe said. “I truly feel like we can battle for the championship. Hopefully, tonight proved that. 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.

“I feel like we can beat anybody on any given day when we put it together from start to finish, and obviously tonight we had some hiccups, but we were still able to have a good finish and that's what this championship run is going to be all about. Now we go on to the next one.”

Briscoe tipped that the worst part of his night was during his final pit stop after a lap-329 caution, when the team had an issue while changing the right-front tire. It dropped him from third to 14th but didn’t slow him down any.

“I knew our Rush Truck Centers Ford 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,” Briscoe said, referring to a pit stop after the second stage that took him from the top five and relegated him further back in the pack.

“At the end, probably bled three or four spots just trying to not do anything stupid, and felt like both arms got tetanus shots.”

In regard to the team’s impending closure, Briscoe feels more motivated than ever to win.

“I think just our backs are up against the wall. No other team in the sport can relate to what we're going through and just how hungry we all are,” he noted. “I think we all want to go out as winners, and we just know that we're capable of doing it if we put it together.

“I think for us, when we finally did win at Darlington, we kind of proved that to ourselves, and just the confidence that's come with over the last three weeks has been a lot. Looking forward to the next six or seven, however many we've got left.”

Briscoe and the rest of the Cup Series playoff field take on Kansas Speedway next for the Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPN BET. Coverage begins Sunday, Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.