TALLADEGA, Ala – Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) earned their second straight top-five finish last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The 28-year-old driver jumped to 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings after earning his best finish at the half-mile track, leading 109 laps and earning valuable bonus points during the first two stages of the race.
Now the No. 14 team heads to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, the largest oval on the NASCAR circuit, with a special Mahindra Tractors scheme carrying the theme “You Old Goat,” en hommage to team co-owner Tony Stewart. Over the last two years, the three-time Cup Series champion has shared the spotlight with his driver in Mahindra’s national TV spots, and Briscoe typically has been on the receiving end of Stewart’s jokes. While Briscoe has been known to get in his jabs at the boss, he decided to take it a step further with a scheme designed to show “Smoke” who is really in charge.
“We all know Tony has done some great things on track, and he was given a lot of opportunities to pick on me a little in all the Mahindra commercials we’ve done, so I really wanted the chance to get back at him a little,” said Chase Briscoe. “He’s a prankster and his brain is always working, always finding a way to make a joke about something, and I felt like this was the perfect way to give him a taste of his own medicine. And it’ll be nice that he gets to watch me drive around Talladega in his car with his face on the side of it.”
Stewart will get to enjoy his last venture of the 2023 season in the FOX broadcast booth with a magnificent view of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors “You Old Goat” Ford Mustang circling the track, featuring his own likeness smiling back at him while clad in a red bathrobe from the side of the racecar.
“We were filming one of the first Mahindra Tractors commercials and there was a moment where we were going back and forth with each other,” Briscoe added. “The director told me to call him an old goat and I thought it was so strange. I didn’t think there was any way it would be used, it’s just not something I would normally say, but that’s the line they used and it’s stuck. I’ll be at the track, and fans come up talking about the commercials and Tony being an old goat.”
The ultimate payback would be Briscoe hauling Stewart’s fan mail all the way to victory lane on Sunday. It’s the breakthrough run he’s looking for after one top-10 finish in four Cup Series starts at Talladega, and one top-five result in four Xfinity Series starts at the 2.66-mile oval.
“We were filming one of the first Mahindra Tractors commercials and there was a moment where we were going back and forth with each other,” Briscoe said. “The director told me to call him an old goat and I thought it was so strange. I didn’t think there was any way it would be used, it’s just not something I would normally say, but that’s the line they used and it’s stuck. I’ll be at the track, and fans come up talking about the commercials and Tony being an old goat.”
