UNDATED – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/CO-OP Financial Services Ford Mustang, returns from the brief West Coast swing with five NASCAR Cup Series starts under his belt. The 26-year-old driver is becoming more and more comfortable in his new role as pilot of the No. 14 and looks to Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway as an opportunity for the team to have a successful race from start to finish.
Event Overview
- Event: Folds of Honor 500 (Round 6 of 36)
- Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 21
- Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
- Layout: 1.54-mile oval
- Laps/Miles: 325 laps / 500.5 miles
- Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 105 laps / Stage 2: 105 laps / Final Stage: 115 laps
- TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
The HighPoint Way, HighPoint.com will collaborate with its existing partner CO-OP Financial Services to bring an updated look to the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Sunday’s race.
Briscoe has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta with a best finish of ninth in 2020. The Mitchell, Indiana-native also made a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at the track in 2017, starting fourth and finishing 25th.
Five races into his first full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, Briscoe leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 26 points over Anthony Alfredo and has completed 1,112 of 1,116 available laps. With Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series (2017) and Xfinity Series (2019), Briscoe is looking to join Erik Jones and William Byron as only the third driver in history to claim the title in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.
Briscoe has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta with the best finish of ninth in 2020. The Mitchell, Indiana-native also made a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at the track in 2017, starting fourth and finishing 25th.
Five races into his first full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, Briscoe leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 26 points over Anthony Alfredo and has completed 1,112 of 1,116 available laps. With Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series (2017) and Xfinity Series (2019), Briscoe is looking to join Erik Jones and William Byron as only the third driver in history to claim the title in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.
After the first stage of last week’s race at Phoenix, you seemed to be a little more comfortable behind the wheel and found yourself just outside of the top-10 for a good amount of the race. Do you feel like you’re understanding the Cup Series car better after these first five races?
“I’ve learned a lot in these early races and, with no practice, I always use the beginning of a race to feel out what I’ve got. But yeah, I’m understanding more of what I need to do to take care of the car, and when it makes sense to be more aggressive to get track position or to set myself up for the long run. We’re building a notebook and figuring out what we need to do before we get there to have the car set up the way I like it when we unload off the hauler. Last week, I felt like, was a pretty good race for us. On track, the car was really good, we had lots of speed, but there were some things that happened on pit road that were out of our control and caused some setbacks. But we know what we had, and it was a good race for us. There are going to be times when you wish those things would happen earlier in the race so you have time to recover.”
You got used to winning early and often in the Xfinity Series a year ago. How do you keep your head up as you navigate your rookie Cup Series season?
“It’s a difficult balance when you go from battling for wins week in and week out to the Cup Series, where there are days when it’s a struggle all race long. The encouraging thing is, when it’s a race like we had last week, where we have lap times that are consistently in the top-five, I know we’re capable of being up front. Being able to race around some of these drivers that I’ve never raced against before and that I grew up watching win Cup races, like Kurt Busch, that gives me confidence and is so encouraging even when we’re having one of those days. The Cup deal is tough, it’s extremely hard, but it’s doable. It’ll just take time, learning to figure it out. It doesn’t happen overnight. You see guys come in and struggle for years before they figure it out. Just look at Chase Elliott. It takes building the notebook and learning what it takes to run up front and win.”
It seems there have been a few races where you’ve run well, but the result itself doesn’t show that. Would you say that’s also the best way to describe your experience at Atlanta?
“Atlanta is definitely one of those places where I’ve run well, but something weird always happens and I don’t get the finish I should. Last year, I was leading and sped on pit road. The year before, I think I was running top-five and we had a tire go down with 15 laps to go. Just seems like there is always something that gets in the way, but hopefully, that changes. I think this race is a good chance for us to put a whole race together. I love running Atlanta, it’s the type of track that really plays into my dirt background with how slick it gets. It feels like we’re building consistency and we just need that one race to come together, and I think Atlanta very well could be it.”
True Speed Communication on behalf of Stewart-Haas Racing, Heather.Griffin@TrueSpeedCommunication.com
