RICHMOND, VA. – Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) roll into Virginia’s capital city for the seventh race of the season.
Opened in 1946 and last paved in 1988, the worn-out surface of Richmond Raceway will be a different kind of test for drivers who have only competed on short tracks with newer surfaces so far this year. Briscoe was having a strong showing at the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before a mechanical issue ended his race. Five weeks later, on the mile oval at Phoenix Raceway, he dominated the final stage of the race en route to his first career Cup Series win.
Six races into the 2022 season, Briscoe is ninth in points, 42 behind leader Chase Elliott. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win at Phoenix. He’s led laps in four of the first six races and ranks fourth in total laps led to date.
“The last few weeks, the car has driven pretty similarly to the old Cup car – not the 550 stuff, but the 750 package. I feel like just as a team we’ve gotten better,” said Chase Briscoe. “We’ve had more speed in our racecars where last year was obviously a struggle but, to me, the cars don’t drive a whole lot different. I don’t know if other guys just have more habits to break, whereas I didn’t really have a lot of things I needed to change as far as from an experience standpoint. The NextGen is kind of a hybrid between a Cup car and an Xfinity car in terms of feel, but I just think our cars have been really good. We’ve had a lot of speed and we’ve been able to capitalize on that, where last year we never had the speed we needed a lot of the time, and the races we did have speed and ran upfront, we didn’t have it consistently like we have this year, so far.”
Briscoe has two Cup Series starts at Richmond with the best finish of 16th earned in September 2021. Though he struggled to earn top results on short tracks in his rookie year, Briscoe continues to adapt his dirt-racing style to stock-car racing on pavement and has already made gains this season in the NextGen car.
In his five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond, Briscoe earned his first top-10 in April 2019, then returned that September to earn a fifth-place result.
“The racing at Richmond has been good in the past, it’s just so circumstantial,” Briscoe said. “Everybody’s view of what makes it a good race is different. Some people want to see a lot of passing. Some people want to see the cars slipping and sliding around. Some people want to see wrecks. Others just want to see a close finish at the end. That definition of a good race is different for everybody, so I think for me at least, in the past Auto Club has been a blast. I had a blast there this year, too. Richmond, I don’t really know what to expect. I do think this car probably creates a little more grip than the old car does at places like Richmond, but I honestly don’t know what to expect when we get there. I think that we haven’t really seen this car on a true short track. Yes, Phoenix is a short track, but there’s not a lot of tire falloff, whereas at Richmond there’s a ton of falloff, so we have to see how this car reacts to that. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this car impacts tire saving and guys going hard and things like that. I do think that, with this car, everywhere we go there are a lot of comers and goers. You have guys that are extremely good in the short run, guys that are good in the long run, and with this car you’re just constantly changing positions. You throw in the tire falloff side of things at Richmond and it’s going to be interesting, for sure.”
The red and white of Mahindra Tractors, a brand of Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America, will once again adorn the No. 14 Ford Mustang. Part of Mahindra Group’s Automotive and Farm Sector, Mahindra Ag North America is the No. 1-selling farm tractor company in the world, based on volumes across all company brands. Mahindra farm equipment is engineered to be easy to operate by first-time tractor or side-by-side owners, and heavy-duty to tackle the tough jobs of rural living, farming, and ranching. Steel-framed Mahindra tractors and side-by-sides are ideal for customers who demand performance, reliability, and comfort at a great value. Mahindra dealers are independent, family-owned businesses located throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Briscoe talked about his relationship with Johnny Klausmeier.
“I feel like from the beginning we’ve always gotten along really well,” Briscoe added. “From a personal standpoint, we’re both a lot alike. That’s kind of been different for me than crew chiefs I’ve had in the past. A lot of my crew chiefs aren’t as, I guess – I don’t even know what the word would be – just as laid back and relaxed as Johnny is. So, it’s been kind of different for me because normally it’s a deal where it’s hot and cold, where one guy is more amped up all the time and the other guy is really relaxed, where I and Johnny are both pretty relaxed all the time. I think as we’ve continued to learn more about each other, we’ve only gotten better. Last year was tough with no practice and no qualifying. He was trying to figure out what I was even asking for sometimes. He hasn’t worked with any Sprint car guys before, and just our lingo and what we look for is different. I felt like toward the end of last season we really started to click as far as what I liked in the racecar, and this year we’ve done a phenomenal job of doing the same. I think our success on the racetrack has honestly come from having practice and having qualifying and all these things. Last year, we were always trying to catch up and it just made it a real struggle to where, by the end of the race, I always felt like our car drove really good and we were one of the faster cars, but we were just buried from a track position standpoint. We were already a lap down from the beginning of the race, so us being able to have practice and get our car driving really good and then go qualify and be able to start up front has been really good for our team.”
