RICHMOND, VA. – Chase Briscoe makes his fifth start at Richmond (Va.) Raceway this Sunday in the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang. He has a best start of fourth and a best finish of 11th, both earned last April.
The No. 14 team found something that works on the short tracks and Briscoe hopes to continue it this weekend at Richmond.
“I was happy to see that we had something to work with at Phoenix and I’m excited to get to Richmond and have a shot to come out with a good finish,” said Brisco. “We were really strong there last spring, and even better when we went back for the second race, so I think we can definitely come out with a top-10 finish, if not better.”
When he returned to Richmond last August, Briscoe looked like he would have the opportunity to earn his first top-10 at the track. He was running as high as fourth before his final scheduled green-flag pit stop with just over 100 laps to go. He was running 19th as other teams continued to make their pit stops when his rocker box caught fire, forcing him to pit road. Briscoe was able to continue, but ultimately finished 23rd.
Richmond can be a difficult track to figure out.
“I was never really a short-track racer, so I felt like that was a big part of it, but Richmond doesn’t really drive like a lot of the other short tracks,” added Briscoe. “The corners aren’t as tight as what we see at some other places. It is more like Phoenix, I think, so being good there probably helped when it came to the Richmond races last year. It’s such a unique track and it’s a lot more fun when you have a car capable of running up front.”
Since his 2022 win at Phoenix, Briscoe has finished no worse than 15th in nine of 11 points-paying starts on tracks 1 mile or shorter. The exceptions are his 22nd-place result in last year’s race on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, when he led 59 laps but spun on the final lap while attempting a pass for the win, and the 23rd-place finish at Richmond last August. In 2021, Briscoe’s best finish on the shorter tracks on the NASCAR schedule was a 13th-place result earned in the fall at Bristol.
Briscoe has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond with a best finish of fifth in September 2019.
“We’ve had races where we’ve just been off, somewhere we’ve got a car that is good, but we get too far behind to start and can’t make up ground. Then, we’ve just had some races where we get caught up in someone else’s problem,” said Briscoe. “It’s frustrating, but it’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before. There are always ups and downs in this sport and, in the end, it comes down to who is able to keep pushing forward to find a way to be better. I know we’ve got the team that can do that, so we’ll keep working hard and hopefully, it turns around for us soon.”
