BROOKLYN, MI. – Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn for Briscoe’s second Cup Series start and his fourth overall NASCAR national series start on the 2-mile oval.
In the 2021 edition of the FireKeepers 400, Briscoe’s Cup Series debut at Michigan, he started 21st and was riding comfortably inside the top-10 with just three laps to go before contact with Kurt Busch caused damage to the nose of the No. 14 Ford Mustang. While the injured car became a handful for Briscoe in the closing laps, he held on for an 11th-place finish.
Prior to last year, Briscoe never finished outside of the top-10 in his three previous starts there, each in a different series. In his lone NASCAR Xfinity Series start in 2019, he started 14th and finished seventh. He finished ninth in his only NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start there in 2017, and second in the 2016 ARCA Menards Racing Series event.
With 22 races complete and four remaining before the playoff field is set, Briscoe sits 15th in the driver standings with one win, earned in March at Phoenix Raceway. The win earned Briscoe a chance to make the Cup Series playoffs for the first time, provided there are no more than 16 different race winners following the August 27 regular-season finale at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
In the last four races, Briscoe raced on the 1.5-mile Atlanta superspeedway oval, the flat, 1-mile New Hampshire oval, the Pocono triangle, and the Indianapolis road course. Does the diversity of the 2022 schedule make it tough for teams to find a rhythm?
“It’s definitely tough. You go to a road course and then you have a short track and then you’re racing in a pack and drafting. The consistency just isn’t there. I feel like, my first year, there were a lot of mile-and-a-half tracks in a row, and it was kind of easy to get in a rhythm,” said Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. “We haven’t had a true mile-and-a-half since the Coca-Cola 600 in May. I don’t think you can really put Atlanta in that category now, which really changes things. So, that part makes it a little tougher because the schedule is so back and forth, with a lot of different racetracks. But to be fair, it should be hard to get into a rhythm. The diverse schedule makes it interesting. We’re supposed to be some of the best drivers in the world. I like how tough the schedule is but, yes, it is hard to get in a rhythm.”
Do you feel like you have a good understanding of the NextGen car and what to expect from it each week?
“I think we’re still trying to understand this new car and what it’s going to do at each racetrack,” added Briscoe. “I know some people think we should know by now, but something it did at the last short track or road course may not apply when you get to the next one. The way the car reacts to things changes week to week and it’s tough to anticipate what you’re going to get. There are still tracks we’re just now getting to for the first time with this car, so there’s still a lot we need to learn about it.”
All of the SHR cars travel from race to race in haulers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And those haulers are supported by the RushCare team of parts and service experts, who also provide concierge-level service and maintenance, technical support, schedule mobile service, dispatch roadside assistance, help locate the nearest dealer and more. Rush Truck Centers is the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in the United States with 139 locations, and takes pride in its integrated approach to customer needs – from vehicle sales to aftermarket parts, service, and body shop operations, plus financing, insurance, leasing, and rental, as well as alternate fuel systems and other vehicle technologies.
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Indiana-based Cummins, from car owner Tony Stewart’s hometown of Columbus, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. It is best known for its diesel truck engines. Since its founding in 1919, Cummins now employs approximately 61,600 people and serves customers in about 190 countries and territories through a network of some 8,000 wholly owned and independent dealer and distributor locations.
