INDIANAPOLIS – The seeds of the Brickyard 400 were planted on Monday, June 22, 1992. It was the first two-day tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the viability of racing NASCAR Cup Series stock cars on Indy’s 2.5-mile rectangular oval was explored.
Just a day removed from his victory in the Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Davey Allison joined eight of his Cup Series counterparts – Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Ernie Irvan, Mark Martin and Kyle Petty – to run full-bodied stock cars on a track that was specific to low-slung, open-wheel Indy cars and the iconic Indianapolis 500.
On the second day of the test, the nine drivers raced in a pack to simulate drafting, all while an estimated 40,000 fans looked on. In his Ford Thunderbird, Elliott was fastest on both days, yet his best lap was still 63 mph slower than Roberto Guerrero’s pole-winning 232.482 mph for t
Big American iron thundering around the famed Brickyard whetted appetites, and on April 14, 1993, NASCAR president Bill France Jr. and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George announced that the inaugural Brickyard 400 would be held on Saturday, Aug. 6, 1994. It would be the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 to be held at the Speedway since 1916. hat year’s Indianapolis 500. The speed discrepancy didn’t matter. Rising star and Indiana icon Jeff Gordon won the race to score the second of his 93 career victories, beating Brett Bodine by .53 of a second.
For the next 26 years, the Cup Series raced on the oval before a three-year sojourn on Indianapolis’ 2.439-mile, 14-turn infield road course. It was not the same, and with the current-generation car putting on great shows at intermediate-style tracks across the nation, the decision to return to Indy’s 2.5-mile oval was made.
The 2024 Brickyard 400 will mark the 28th Cup Series race on the big track, the first since 2020.
Stewart-Haas Racing was the last NASCAR Cup Series team to win on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval. The team, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, won the last two Brickyard 400s, each courtesy of Kevin Harvick. And not since 2017 has a manufacturer other than Ford won the Brickyard 400, as Brad Keselowski drove a Ford to victory lane in the 2018 Brickyard 400 before Harvick’s back-to-back Brickyard wins in 2019 and 2020.
The “Stewart” in Stewart-Haas owns two Brickyard 400 victories. The Hoosier hotshoe grabbed a coveted Indy win in 2005 before securing a second triumph in 2007. Both victories came with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Chase Briscoe doesn’t have a NASCAR Cup Series start on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval, but he does have two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts on the big track. The Mitchell, Indiana native debuted in Indy in 2018 and finished ninth. He then one-upped that result in 2019 by finishing eighth.
So, what’s it like for an Indiana guy to race on the most renowned track in Indiana and on the most renowned oval in all of motorsports?
“It’s super cool. Every racecar driver, or anybody in motorsports, wants to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and run laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Still, when you grow up in Indiana, it just means much more to you.” said Chase Briscoe. “I’m just super excited to get back. I always say I don’t really care what we’re racing at Indy, whether it’s the road course, oval, dirt track, parking lot, or whatever; I just want to race at Indy. It’s definitely more significant going to the oval, so it’ll be really special for me, personally, just to get to run a Brickyard 400. That was something I didn’t know that I was ever going to get the opportunity to do. With how it all kind of played out with this being the last year of Stewart-Haas, it’s really cool just to say I’ll get to run the Brickyard 400 in the 14.”
Briscoe is a winner at Indianapolis. When NASCAR transitioned to the road course in 2020, Briscoe proved the quickest to adapt, winning the 62-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race by 1.717 seconds over runner-up and fellow Indiana native Justin Haley. It was the seventh of Briscoe’s 11 career Xfinity Series wins, and he did it with the same primary partner who will adorn his No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 – HighPoint.com.
This year’s Brickyard 400 involves some interesting storylines for Briscoe– it’s his first Cup start on the oval, but he is doing it in his last Indy start in the No. 14 while driving for his childhood hero, Tony Stewart. Is it a bittersweet moment – excitement mixed with a little sorrow?
“A little bit of both,” added Briscoe. “I’m glad that I’ll at least get to say I got to drive one Brickyard 400 in the 14 for Tony. But it is bittersweet knowing that that’ll be the only time I’ll get to do it, and it’ll be the last time that Tony’s an owner at IMS. Yeah, there are mixed emotions. I’m excited and glad that I’m getting to do it with how everything played out, the fact that we’re going back to the oval this year, and everything. It means a lot personally to get to do it in the 14. I’m glad that I’ll have that opportunity and at least get the chance to do it, but it is bittersweet. I was talking to Tony a couple of weeks ago and even brought up to him how a reporter had mentioned it to me, but it didn’t even really hit me until I heard it. I think it was the same for Tony. So it will be bittersweet for both of us, but I’m just glad we’ll have the opportunity.”
HighPoint.com is a leading technology infrastructure solutions provider headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint has been a partner of Briscoe and Stewart-Haas since 2020, when the company supported Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a season-best nine victories and earned Briscoe a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments.
Said Briscoe about the partnership: “Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do. The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are pretty complex, and we demand a lot from our technology daily, whether at the shop or the track. HighPoint provides efficiency and security. They’re more than just a sponsor – HighPoint is a partner that helps us perform.”
As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers select and supply network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions, and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business that serves markets in its nearby Tri-State Region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) and the southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, and globally, with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, please visit HighPoint.com.
The story of how HighPoint.com came together with Briscoe and Stewart-Haas could’ve been scripted in Hollywood. In November 2019, while walking to dinner after attending the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Kevin Briscoe was stopped by a stranger who noticed his No. 98 Stewart-Haas hat. The man was Mike Mendiburu, founder and CEO of HighPoint.com, and he said he was a big fan of Chase Briscoe, then a young NASCAR Xfinity Series driver from Mitchell, Indiana, who was driving the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas. Kevin informed Mendiburu that Chase was his son, and the two conversed like they were old friends. The two walked away, with Kevin accepting Mendiburu’s business card in case the Briscoes needed anything. Months passed, and Chase Briscoe was told he might not have a ride in the No. 98 for the 2020 season if funding couldn’t be found. So, Stewart-Haas was given Mendiburu’s information, and an agreement was reached for HighPoint.com to sponsor Briscoe.
That chance encounter in Las Vegas led to a nine-win season in 2020. In October of that year, midway through the playoffs, Briscoe arrived at Tony Stewart’s house in Indiana for what he thought was a discussion with his team owner about whether HighPoint.com would be returning as his sponsor for the next season. The group sat down for dinner, and Briscoe, joined by his parents, was informed a decision had already been made – he would be leaving the No. 98 Xfinity Series program to become the next driver of the team’s No. 14 Cup Series entry, the car Stewart himself wheeled during his driving tenure at Stewart-Haas.
“I wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for Mike and everyone at HighPoint.com,” Briscoe said. “Going into 2020, I was going to be done. They literally came in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds left on the clock and kept things going. Without them, I think my career would’ve been over.”
Briscoe will return to his dirt-track roots on Friday night by competing in the Maverick Winged Sprint Car Series race at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway. He will drive his 410 winged sprint car in the feature event at the quarter-mile dirt oval approximately 60 miles south of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hot laps begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT, with the race program starting at 7:30 p.m.
Briscoe’s first time behind the wheel of a racecar came in 2001. Driving a quarter midget, he won his first heat race and the evening feature event. Briscoe moved on to mini sprints and, when he was 13, stepped into a 410 sprint car. In his first race, he finished 10th in a 40-car field. And in a rookie season that saw 37 starts, Briscoe racked up eight top-five and 17 top-10 finishes, including a win in the last race of the season where he broke NASCAR Hall of Famer and four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon’s record as being the youngest person to win a 410 sprint car race.
